Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadChurch Fathers: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 08: 28.01.06 St. Basil On the Spirit Pt 6
TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 08 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 28.01.06 St. Basil On the Spirit Pt 6
Other Subjects in this Topic:
Chapter XXI
Proof from Scripture that the Spirit is called Lord.
52. But why get an unfair victory for our argument by fighting over these undignified questions, when it is within our power to prove that the excellence of the glory is beyond dispute by adducing more lofty considerations? If, indeed, we retreat what we have been taught by Scripture, every one of the Pneumatomachi will peradventure raise a loud and vehement outcry, stop their ears, pick up stones or anything else that comes to hand for a weapon, and charge against us. But our own security must not be regarded by us before the truth. We have learnt from the Apostle, "the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ"hyperlink for our tribulations. Who is the Lord that directs into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ for tribulations? Let those men answer us who are for making a slave of the Holy Spirit. For if the argument had been about God the Father, it would certainly have said, `the Lord direct you into His own love,' or if about the Son, it would have added `into His own patience.' Let them then seek what other Person there is who is worthy to be honoured with the title of Lord. And parallel with this is that other passage, "and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do towards you; to the end He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."hyperlink Now what Lord does he entreat to stablish the hearts of the faithful at Thessalonica, unblamable in holiness before God even our Father, at the coming of our Lord? Let those answer who place the Holy Ghost among the ministering spirits that are sent forth on service. They cannot. Wherefore let them hear yet another testimony which distinctly calls the Spirit Lord. "The Lord," it is said, "is that Spirit;" and again "even as from the Lord the Spirit."hyperlink But to leave no ground for objection, I will quote the actual words of the Apostle;-"For even unto this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which yell is done away in Christ. ... Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit."hyperlink Why does he speak thus? Because he who abides in the bare sense of the letter, and in it busies himself with the observances of the Law, has, as it were, got his own heart enveloped in the Jewish acceptance of the letter, like a veil; and this be-falls him because of his ignorance that the bodily observance of the Law is done away by the presence of Christ, in that for the future the types are transferred to the reality. Lamps are made needless by the advent of the sun; and, on the appearance of the truth, the occupation of the Law is gone, and prophecy is hushed into silence. He, on the contrary, who has been empowered to look down into the depth of the meaning of the Law, and, after passing through the obscurity of the letter, as through a veil, to arrive within things unspeakable, is like Moses taking off the veil when he spoke with God. He, too, turns from the letter to the Spirit. So with the veil on the face of Moses corresponds the obscurity of the teaching of the Law, and spiritual contemplation with the turning to the Lord. He, then, who in the reading of the Law takes away the letter and turns to the Lord,-and the Lord is now called the Spirit,-becomes moreover like Moses, who had his face glorified by the manifestation of God. For just as objects which lie near brilliant colours are themselves tinted by the brightness which is shed around, so is be who fixes his gaze firmly on the Spirit by the Spirit's glory somehow transfigured into greater splendour, having his heart lighted up, as it were, by some light streaming from the truth of the Spirit.hyperlink And, this is "being changed fromhyperlink the glory of the Spirit "into" His own "glory," not in niggard degree, nor dimly and indistinctly, but as we might expect any one to be who is enlightened byhyperlink the Spirit. Do you not, O man, fear the Apostle when he says"Ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you"?hyperlink Could he ever have! brooked to honour with the title of "temple" the quarters of a slave? How can he who calls Scripture "God-inspired,"hyperlink because it was written through the inspiration of the Spirit, use the language of one who insults and belittles Him?
Chapter XXII
Establishment of the natural communion of theSpirit from His being, equally with the Father and the Son, unapproachable in thought.hyperlink
53. Moreover the surpassing excellence of the nature of the Spirit is to be learned not only from His having the same title as the Father and the Son, and sharing in their operations, but also from His being, like the Father and the Son, unapproachable in thought. For what our Lord says of the Father as being above and beyond human conception, and what He says of the Son, this same language He uses also of the Holy Ghost. "O righteous Father," He says, "the world hath not known Thee,"hyperlink meaning here by the world not the complex whole compounded of heaven and earth, but this life of ours subject to death,hyperlink and exposed to innumerable vicissitudes. And when discoursing of Himself He says, "Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me;"hyperlink again in this passage, applying the word world to those who being bound down by this material and carnal life, and beholdinghyperlink the truth by material sight alone,hyperlink were ordained, through their unbelief in the resurrection, to see our Lord no more with the eyes of the heart. And He said the same concerning the Spirit. "The Spirit of truth," He says, "whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you."hyperlink For the carnal man, who has never trained his mind to contemplation,hyperlink but rather keeps it buried deep in lust of the flesh,hyperlink as in mud, is powerless to look up to the spiritual light of the truth. And so the world, that is life enslaved by the affections of the flesh, can no more receive the grace of the Spirit than a weak eye the light of a sunbeam. But the Lord, who by His teaching bore witness to purity of life, gives to His disciples the power of now beth beholding and contemplating the Spirit. For "now," He says, "Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,"hyperlink wherefore "the world cannot receive Him, because it seeth Him not, ... but ye know Him; for he dwelleth with you."hyperlink And so says Isaiah;-"He that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and Spirit to them that trample on it"hyperlink ; for they that trample clown earthly things and rise above them are borne witness to as worthy of the gift of the Holy Ghost. What then ought to be thought of Him whom the world cannot receive, and Whom saints alone can contemplate through pureness of heart? What kind of honours can be deemed adequate to Him?
Chapter XXIII
The glorifying of the enumeration of His attributes.
54.hyperlink Now of the rest of the Powers each is believed to be in a circumscribed place. The angel who stood by Corneliushyperlink was not at one and the same moment with Philip;hyperlink nor yet did the angel who spoke with Zacharias from the altar at the same time occupy his own pose in heaven. But the Spirit is believed to have been operating at the saint time in Habakkuk and in Daniel at Babylon,hyperlink and to have been at the prison with Jeremiah,hyperlink and with Ezekiel at the Chebar.hyperlink For the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world,hyperlink and "whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?"hyperlink And, in the words of the Prophet, "For I am with you, saith the Lord ... and my spirit remaineth among you."hyperlink But what nature is it becoming to assign to Him who is omnipresent, and exists together with God? The nature which is all-embracing, or one which is confined to particular places, like that which our argument shews the nature of angels to be? No one would so say. Shall we not then highly exalt Him who is in His nature divine, in His greatness infinite, in His operations powerful, in the blessings He confers, good? Shall we not give Him glory? And I understand glory to mean nothing else than the enumeration of the wonders which are His own. It follows then that either we are forbidden by our antagonists even to mention the good things which flow to us from Him. or on the other hand that the mere recapitulation of His attributes is the fullest possible attribution of glory. For not even in the case of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Only begotten Son, are we capable of giving Them glory otherwise than by recounting, to the extent of our powers, all the wonders that belong to Them.
Chapter XXIV
Proof of the absurdity of the refusal to glorify the Spirit, from the comparison of things glorified in creation.
55.Furthermore man crowned with glory and honour,"hyperlink and "glory, honour and peace" are laid up by promise "to every man that worketh good."hyperlink There is moreover a special and peculiar glory for Israelites "to whom," it is said "pertaineth the adoption and the glory ... and the service,"hyperlink and the Psalmist speaks of a certain glory of his own,"that my glory may sing praise to Theehyperlink ;" and again "Awake up my glory"hyperlink and according to the Apostle there is a certain glory of sun and moon and stars,hyperlink and "the ministration of condemnation is glorious."hyperlink While then so many things are glorified, do you wish the Spirit alone of all things to be unglorified? Yet the Apostle says "the ministration of the Spirit is glorious."hyperlink How then can He Himself be unworthy of glory? How according to the Psalmist can the glory of the just man be greathyperlink and according to you the glory of the Spirit none? How is there not a plain peril from such arguments of our bringing on ourselves the sin from which there is no escape? If the man who is being saved by works of righteousness glorifies even them that fear the Lordhyperlink much less would be deprive the Spirit of the glory which is His due.
Grant, they say, that He is to be glorified, but not with the Father and the Son. But what reason is there in giving up the place appointed by the Lord for the Spirit, and inventing some other? What reason is there for robbing of His share of glory Him Who is everywhere associated with the Godhead; in the confession of the Faith, in the baptism of redemption, in the working of miracles, in the indwelling of the saints, in the graces bestowed on obedience? For there is not even one single gift which reaches creation without the Holy Ghost;hyperlink when not even a single word can be spoken in defence of Christ except by them that are aided by the Spirit, as we have learnt in the Gospels from our Lord and Saviour.hyperlink And I know not whether any one who has been par-taker of the Holy Spirit will consent that we should overlook all this, forget His fellowship in all things, and tear the Spirit asunder from the Father and the Son. Where then are we to take Him and rank Him? With the creature? Yet all the creature is in bondage, but the Spirit maketh free. "And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."hyperlink Many arguments might be adduced to them that it is unseemly to coordinate the Holy Spirit with created nature, but for the present I will pass them by. Were I indeed to bring forward, in a manner befitting the dignity of the discussion, all the proofs always available on our side, and so overthrow the objections of our opponents, a lengthy dissertation would be required, and my readers might be worn out by my prolixity. I therefore propose to reserve this matter for a special treatise,hyperlink and to apply thyself to the points now more immediately before us.
56. Let us then examine the points one by one. He is good by nature, in the same way as the Father is good, and the Son is good; the creature on the other hand shares in goodness by choosing the good. He knows "The deep things of God;"hyperlink the creature receives the manifestation of ineffable things through the Spirit. He quickens together with God, who produces and preserves all things alive,hyperlink and together with the Son, who gives life. "He that raised up Christ from the dead," it is said, "shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit that dwelleth in you;"hyperlink and again "my sheep hear my voice, ... and I give unto them eternal life;"hyperlink but Spirit" also, it is said, "giveth life,"hyperlink and again "the Spirit," it is said, "is life, because of righteousness."hyperlink And the Lord bears witness that "it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing."hyperlink How then shall we alienate the Spirit from His quickening power, and make Him belong to lifeless nature? Who is so contentious, who is so utterly without the heavenly gift,hyperlink and unfed by God's good words, who is so devoid of part and lot in eternal hopes, as to sever the Spirit from the Godhead and rank Him with the creature?
57. Now it is urged that the Spirit is in us as a gift from God, and that the gift is not reverenced with the same honour as that which is attributed to the giver. The Spirit is a gift of God, but a gift of life, for the law of "the Spirit of life," it is said,"hath made" us "free;"hyperlink and a gift of power, for "ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."hyperlink Is He on this account to be lightly esteemed? Did not God also bestow His Son as a free gift to mankind? "He that spared not His own Son," it is said, "but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"hyperlink And in another place,"that we might truly know the things that are freely given us of God,"hyperlink in reference to the mystery of the Incarnation. It follows then that the maintainers of such arguments, in making the greatness of God's loving kindness an occasion of blasphemy, have really surpassed the ingratitude of the Jews. They find fault with the Spirit because He gives us freedom to call God our Father. "For God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into" our "hearts crying Abba, Father,"hyperlink that the voice of the Spirit may become the very voice of them that have received him.
Chapter XXV
That Scripture uses the words "in" or "by," e0n, cf. note on p. 3, in place of "with." Wherein also it is proved that the word "and" has the same force as "with."
58. IT is, however, asked by our opponents, how it is that Scripture nowhere describes the Spirit as glorified together with the Father and the Son, but carefully avoids the use of the expression "with the Spirit," while it everywhere prefers to ascribe glory "in Him" as being the fitter phrase. I should, for my own part, deny that the word in [or by] implies lower dignity than the word "with;" I should main-pain on the contrary that, rightly understood, it leads us up to the highest possible meaning. This is the case where, as we have observed, it often stands instead of with; as for instance, "I will go into thy house in burnt offerings,"hyperlink instead of with burnt offerings and"he brought them forth also by silver and gold,"hyperlink that is to say with silver and gold and "thou goest not forth in our armies"hyperlink instead of with our armies, and innumerable similar passages. In short I should very much like to learn from this newfangled philosophy what kind of glory the Apostle ascribed by the word in, according to the interpretation which our opponents proffer as derived from Scripture, for I have nowhere found the formula "To Thee, O Father, be honour and glory, through Thy only begotten Son, by [or in] the Holy Ghost,"-a form which to our opponents comes, so to say, as naturally as the air they breathe. You may indeed find each of these clauses separately,hyperlink but they will nowhere be able to show them to us arranged in this conjunction. If, then, they want exact conformity to what is written, let them give us exact references. If, on the other hand, they make concession to custom, they must not make us an exception to such a privilege.
59. As we find both expressions in use among the faithful, we use both; in the belief that full glory is equally given to the Spirit by both. The mouths, how, ever, of revilers of the truth may best be stopped by the preposition which, while it has the same meaning as that of the Scriptures, is not so wieldy a weapon for our opponents,(indeed it is now an object of their attack) and is used instead of the conjunction and. For to say "Paul and Silvanus and Timothy"hyperlink is precisely the same thing as to say Paul with Timothy and Silvanus; for the connexion of the names is, preserved by either mode of expression. The Lord says "The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost."hyperlink If I say the Father and the Son with the Holy Ghost shall I make, any difference in the sense? Of the connexion of names by means of the conjunction and the instances are many. We read "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost,"hyperlink and again "I beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit."hyperlink Now if we wish to use with instead of and, what difference shall we have made? I do not see; unless any one according to hard and fast grammatical rules might prefer the conjunction as copulative and making the union stronger, and reject the preposition as of inferior force. But if we had to defend ourselves on these points I do not suppose we should require a defence of many words. As it is, their argument is not about syllables nor yet about this or that sound of a word, but about things differing. most widely in power and in truth. It is for this reason that, while the use of the syllables is really a matter of no importance whatever, our opponents are making the endeavour to authorise some syllables, and bunt out others from the Church. For my own part, although the usefulness of the word is obvious as soon as it is heard, I will nevertheless set forth the arguments which led our fathers to adopt the reasonable coarse of employing the preposition "with."hyperlink It does indeed equally well with the preposition "and," confute the mischief of Sabellius;hyperlink and it sets forth quite as well as "and" the distinction of the hypostases, as in the words "I and my Father will come,"hyperlink and "I and my Father are one."hyperlink In addition to this the proof it contains of the eternal fellowship and uninterrupted conjunction is excellent. For to say that the Son is with the Father is to exhibit at once the distinction of the hypostases, and the inseparability of the fellowship. The same thing is observable even in mere human matters, for the conjunction "and" intimates that there is a common element in an action, while the preposition "with" declares in some sense as well the communion in action. As, for instance;-Paul and Timothy sailed to MaCedonia, but both Tychicus and Onesimus were sent to the Colossians. Hence we learn that they did the same thing. But suppose we are told that they sailed with, and were sent with? Then we are informed in addition that they carried out the action in company with one another. Thus while the word "with" upsets the error of Sabellius as no other word can, it routs also sinners who err in the very opposite direction; those, I mean, who separate the Son from the Father and the Spirit from the Son, by intervals of time.hyperlink
60. As compared with"in," there is this difference, that while "with" sets forth the mutual conjunction of the parties associated, -as, for example, of those who sail with, or dwell with, or do anything else in common, "in" shews their relation to that matter in which they happen to be acting. For we no sooner hear the words "sail in" or "dwell in" than we form the idea of the boat or the house. Such is the distinction between these words in ordinary usage; and laborious investigation might discover further. illustrations. I have no time to examine into the nature of the syllables. Since then it has been shewn that "with" most clearly gives the sense of conjunction, let it be declared, if you will, to be under safe-conduct, and cease to wage your savage and truceless war against it. Nevertheless, though the word is naturally thus auspicious, yet if any one likes, in the ascription of praise, to couple the names by the syllable "and," and to give glory, as we have taught in the Gospel, in the formula of baptism, Father and Son and Holy Ghost,hyperlink be it so: no one will make any objection. On these conditions, if you will, let us come to terms. But our foes would rather surrender their tongues than accept this word. It is this that rouses against us their implacable and truceless war. We must offer the ascription of glory to God, it is contended, in the Holy Ghost, and not and to the Holy Ghost, and they passionately cling to this word in, as though it lowered the Spirit. It will therefore be not unprofitable to speak at greater length about it; and I shall be astonished if they do not: when they have heard what we have to urge, reject the in as itself a traitor to their cause, and a deserter to the side of tile glory of tile Spirit.
Chapter XXVI
That the word "in," in as many senses as it bears, is understood of the Spirit.
61. Now, short and simple as this utter-ante is, it appears to me, as I consider it that its meanings are many and various. For of the senses in which "in" is used, we find that all help our conceptions of the Spirit. Form is said to be in Matter; Power to be in what is capable of it; Habit to be in him who is affected by it; and so on.hyperlink Therefore, inasmuch as the Holy Spirit perfects rational beings, completing their excellence, He is analogous to Form. For he, who no longer "lives after the flesh,"hyperlink but, being"led by the Spirit of God,"hyperlink is called a Son of God, being"conformed to tile image of the Son of God,"hyperlink is described as spiritual. And as is the power of seeing in the healthy eye, so is the operation of the Spirit in the purified soul. Wherefore also Paul prays for the Ephesians that they may have their"eyes enlightened" by "the Spirit of wisdom."hyperlink And as the art in him who has acquired it, so is the grace of the Spirit in the recipient ever present, though not continuously in operation. For as the art is potentially in the artist, but only in operation when he is working in accordance with it, so also the Spirit is ever present with those that are worthy, but works, as need requires, in prophecies, or in healings, or in some other actual carrying into effect of His potential action.hyperlink Furthermore as in our bodies is health, or heat, or, generally, their variable conditions, so, very frequently is the Spirit in the soul; since He does not abide with those who, on account of the instability of their will, easily reject the grace which they have received. An instance of this is seen in Saul,hyperlink and the seventy elders of the children of Israel, except Eldad and Medad, with whom alone the Spirit appears to have remained,hyperlink and, generally, any one similar to these in character. And like reason in the soul, which is at one time the thought in the heart, and at another speech uttered by the tongue,hyperlink so is the Holy Spirit, as when He"beareth witness with our spirit,"hyperlink and when lie "cries in our hearts, Abba, Father,"hyperlink or when He speaks on our behalf, as it is said, "It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of our Father which speaketh in you."hyperlink Again, the Spirit is conceived of, in relation to the distribution of gifts, as a whole in parts. For we all are "members one of another, having girls differing according to the grace that is given us."hyperlink Wherefore "the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you,"hyperlink but all together complete the Body of Christ in the Unity of the Spirit, and render to one another the needful aid that comes of the gifts. "But God hath set the members in the body, every one of them, as it hath pleased Him."hyperlink But "the members have the same care for one another,"hyperlink according to the inborn spiritual communion of their sympathy. Wherefore, "whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it."hyperlink And as parts in the whole so are we individually in the Spirit, because we all "were baptized in one body into one spirit."hyperlink
Footnotes
451 Ps. cxix. 91.
452 St. Basil's view of slavery is that (a) as regards our relation to God, all created beings are naturally in a condition of subservience to the Creator; (b) as regards our relationship to one another, slaver is not of nature, but of convention and circumstance. How far he is here at variance with the well known account of slavery given by Aristotle in the first book of the Politics will depend upon the interpretation we put upon the word "nature." "Is there," asks Aristotle, "any one intended by nature to be a slave, and for whom such a condition is expedient and right, or rather is not all slavery a violation of nature? There is no difficulty in answering this question, on grounds both of reason and fact. For that some should rule, and others be ruled, is a thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth some are marked out for subjection, others for rule. . . . Where, then, there is such a difference as that between soul and body, or between men and animals (as in the case of those whose business it is to use their body, and who can do nothing better), the lower sort are by nature slaves, and it is better for them, as for all inferiors, that they should be under the rule of a master. . . . It is clear, then, that some men are by nature free and others slaves, and that for these latter slavery is both expedient and right." Politics, Bk. 1, Sec. 5. Here by Nature seems to be meant something like Basil's "lack of intelligence," and of the to\ kata\ qu/sin a!rxon, which makes it "profitable" for one man to be the chattel of another (kth=ma is livestock, especially mancipium. cf. Shakspere's K. and Pet., "She is my goods, my chattels." "Chattel" is a doublet of "cattle"). St. Basil and Aristotle are at one as to the advantage to the weak slave of his having a powerful protector; and this, no doubt, is the point of view from which slavery can be best apologized for.
Christianity did indeed do much to better the condition of the slave by asserting his spiritual freedom, but at first it did little more than emphasize the latter philosophy of heathendom, ei' sw=ma dou=lon, a'll0 o 9 nou=j e'leu/qeroj (Soph., frag. incert. xxii.), and gave the highest meaning to such thoughts as those expressed in the late Epigram of Damascius (c. 530) on a dead slave:
Zwsi/mh h 9 pri\n e'ou=sa mo/nw tw= sw/mati dou/lh,
Kai\ tw= sw/mati nu=n eu[ren eleuqeri/hn.
It is thought less of a slave's servitude to fellow man than of the slavery of bond and free alike to evil. cf. Aug., De Civit. Dei. iv. cap. iii. "Bonus etiamsi serviat liber est: malus autem si regnat servus est: nec est unius hominis, sed qod gravins est tot dominorum quot vitiorum." Chrysostom even explains St. Paul's non-condemnation of slavery on the ground that its existence, with that of Christian liberty, was a greater moral triumph than its abolition. (In Genes. Serm. v. 1.) Even so late as the sixth century the legislation of Justinian, though protective, supposed no natural liberty. "Expedit enim respublicae ne quis re sua utatur male." Instit. i. viii. quoted by Milman, Lat. Christ. ii. 14. We must not therefore be surprised at not finding in a Father of the fourth century an anticipation of a later development of Christian sentiment. At the same time it was in the age of St. Basil that "the language of the Fathers assumes a bolder tone" (cf, Dict. Christ. Ant. ii. 1905) and "in the correspondence of Gregory Nazianzen we find him referring to a case where a slave had been made bishop over a small community in the desert. The Christian lady to whom he belonged endeavoured to assert her right of ownership, for which she was severely rebuked by St. Basil (cf. Letter CXV.) After St. Basil's death she again claimed the slave, whereupon Gregory addressed her a letter of grave remonstrance at her unchristian desire to recall his brother bishop from his sphere of duty. Ep. 79," id.
453 II Thess. iii. 5. A note of the Benedictine Editors on this passage says: "It must be admitted that these words are not found in the sacred text and are wanting in three manuscripts of this work. Moreover, in the Regius Quintus they are only inserted by a second hand, but since they are shortly afterwards repeated by Basil, as though taken from the sacred context, I am unwilling to delete them, and it is more probable that they were withdrawn from the manuscripts from which they are wanting because they were not found in the apostle, then added, without any reason at all, to the manuscripts in which they occur."
454 1 Thess. iii. 12, 13.
455 2 Cor. iii. 17, 18, R.V. In Adv. Eunom. iii. 3 St. Basil had quoted v. 17 of the Son, making pneu=maa descriptive of our Lord. "This was written," adds Mr. C. F. H. Johnston, "during St. Basil's presbyterate, at least ten years earlier."
456 2 Cor. iii. 14, 16, 17.
457 cf. 2 Cor. iii. 18.
458 St. Basil gives a'po/eign the sense of "by" So Theodoret, Oecum., Theophylact, Bengel. cf. Alford in loc. The German is able to repeat the prep., as in Greek and Latin, "von einer Klarheit zu der andern, als vom Herrn."
459 a'po/.
460 1 Cor. iii. 16.
461 2 Tim. iii. 16.
462 pro\j qewri/an duse/fikton. The Benedictine Latin is "incomprehensibilis," but this is rather a'kata/lhptoj. The "incomprehensible" of the Ath. Creed is "immensus."
463 John xvii. 25.
464 e'pi/khroj. The force of the word as applied to this life is illustrated by the 61st Epigram of Callimachus:
Ti/j ce/noj, w\ nauhge/; Deo/ntixoj e'nqa/de nekro\n
eu[re/ e'p0 ai'gialoi=j, xw=se de\ tw=de ta/fw
dakru/saj e'pi/khron eo\n bi/on . ou'de\ ga\r auto\j
h!suxoj, ai'qui/hj d0 i\sa qalassoporei=.
465 John xiv. 19.
466 epiblepontaj, the reading of the Viennese ms. vulgo i'pitre/pontaj.
467 mo/noij o'fqalmoi=j.
468 John xiv. 17.
469 a'gu\mnaston e!xwn to\n nou=n. cf. Heb. v. 14.
470 tw= fronh/mati th=j sarko/j. cf. Rom. viii. 6 to\ ga\r fro/nhma th=j sarko\j qa/natoj.
471 John xv. 3.
472 John xiv. 17.
473 Is. xlii. 5, LXX. patou=sin au'thn. So St. Basil's argument requires us to translate the lxx. The "walk therein" of A.V. would not bear out his meaning. For this use of fpatei/. cf. Soph., Ant. 745. ou' ga\r se/beij tima/j ge ta\j qew=n patw=n. So in the vulgate we read "et spiritum clacantibus eam." - calcare bearing the sense of "trample on," as in Juvenal, Sat. x 86, "calcemus Caesaris hostem." The Hebrew bears no such meaning.
474 Here the Benedictine Editors begin Chapter xxiii., remarking that they do so "cum plures mss. codices. tum ipsam sermonis seriem et continuationem secuti. Liquet enim hic Basilium ad aliud argumentum transire." Another division of the text makes Chapter XXIII. begin with the words "But I do not mean by glory."
475 Acts x. 3.
476 Acts viii. 26.
477 Bel and the Dragon 34.
478 Jer. xx. 2, LXX. ei'j to\n katar'r 9a/ktrn o 9j h'n e'n pu/lh. Katar'r 9a/kthj tw=n pulwn occurs in Dion. Halic. viii 67, in the same sense as the Latin cataracta (Livy xxvii. 27) a portcullis. The Vulgate has in nervum, which may either be gyve or gaol. The Hebrew=stocks, as in A.V. and R.V. katar'r 9a/kthj in the text of Basil and the lxx. may be assumed to mean prison, form the notion of the barred grating over the door. cf. Ducange s.v. cataracta.
479 Ez. i. 1.
480 Wis. i. 7.
481 Ps. xxxix. 7.
482 Hag. ii. 4, 5.
483 Ps. viii. 5.
484 Rom. ii. 10.
485 Rom ix. 4.
486 Ps. xxix. 12.
487 Ps. lvii. 8.
488 cf. 1 Cor. xv. 41.
489 2 Cor. iii. 9.
490 2 Cor. iii. 8.
491 cf. Ps. xxi. 5.
492 cf. Ps. xv.
493 cf. Matt. xxviii. 19; 1 Cor. xii. 11; Rom. viii 11; 1 Pet. i. 2.
494 Matt. x. 19, 20.
495 2 Cor. iii. 17.
496 Mr. C. F. H. Johnston conjectures the allusion to be to Hom. xxiv. "Contra Sabellianos et Arium et Anomoeos."
497 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11.
498 In 1 Tim. vi. 13, St. Paul writes tou= qeou= tou= zwopoiou=ntoj pa/nta. In the text St. Basil writes ta\ pa/nta zwogonou=ntoj. The latter word is properly distinguished from the former as meaning not to make alive after death, but to engender alive. In Luke xvii. 33, it is rendered in A.V. "preserve." In Acts vii. 19, it is "to the end they might not live." On the meaning of zwogonei=n in the lxx. and the Socinian arguments based on its use in Luke xvii. 33, cf. Pearson, On the Creed, Art. V. note to p. 257 Ed. 1676.
499 Rom. viii. 11.
500 John x. 27-28.
501 2 Cor. iii. 6.
502 Rom. viii. 10.
503 John vi. 63.
504 cf. Heb. vi. 4.
505 Rom. vii. 2.
506 Acts i. 8.
507 Rom. viii. 32.
508 1 Cor. ii. 12.
509 Gal. iv. 6.
510 Ps. lxvi. 13. LXX.
511 Ps. cv. 37.
512 Ps. xliv. 9.
513
514 In Eph. ii. 18 they are combined, but no Scriptural doxology uses e'n of the Spirit.
515 1 Thess. i. 1.
516 Matt. xxviii. 19.
517 2 Cor. xiii. 13.
518 Rom. xv. 30.
519 "St. Basil's statement of the reason of the use of meta/ su/n, in the Doxology, is not confirmed by any earlier or contemporary writer, as far as the editor is aware, nor is it contradicted." Rev. C. F. H. Johnston.
520 "Sabellius has been usually assigned to the middle of third century, Mr. Clinton giving a.d. 256-270 as his active period. The discovery of the Philosophumena of Hippolytus has proved this to be a mistake, and thrown his period back to the close of the second and beginning of the third century. . . . He was in full activity in Rome during the Episcopate of Zephyrinus, a.d. 198-217." Professor Stokes in D.C. Biog. iv. 569. For Basil's views of Sabellianism vide Epp. CCX., CCXIV., CCXXXV. In his Haer. Fab. Conf. ii. 9 Theodoret writes: "Sabellius said that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were one Hypostasis; one Person under three names; and he describes the same now as Father, now as Son, now as Holy Ghost. He says that in the old Testament He gave laws as Father, was incarnate in the new as Son, and visited the Apostles as Holy Ghost." So in the Ekqesij th=j kata\ me/roj pi/stewj, a work falsely attributed to Gregory Thaumaturgus, and possibly due to Apollinaris, (cf. Theod., Dial. iii.) "We shun Sabellius, who says that Father and Son are the same, calling Him who speaks Father, and the Word, remaining in the Father and at the time of creation manifested, and, on the completion of things returning to the Father, Son. He says the same of the Holy Ghost."
521 Apparently an inexact reference to John xiv. 23.
522 John x. 30.
523 i.e., The Arians, who said of the Son, "There was when he was not;" and the Pneumatomachi, who made the Spirit a created being.
524 Matt. xxviii. 19.
525 cf. Note on Chap I. p. 4. In the Aristotelian philosophy, ei\doj, or Forma, is the to\ ti/ h\n ei\n ei\nai, the essence or formal cause. cf. Ar., Met. vi. 7, 4. Du/namij, or Potentia, is potential action or existence, as opposed to e'ne/rgeio, actus, actual action or existence, or e'ntele/xeia. cf. Ar., Met., viii. 3, 9, and viii. 8, 11. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph. I. 178-180.
526 Rom. viii. 12.
527 Rom. viii. 14.
528 Rom viii. 29.
529 Eph. i. 17, 18.
530 en a!lloij tisi duna/mewn e'nergh/masi. The Benedictine translation is in aliis miraculorum operationious." It is of course quite true that du/namij is one of the four words used in the New Testament for miracle, and often has that sense, but here the context suggest the antithesis between potential and actual operation, and moreover non-miraculous. e'ne/rghma is an uncommon word, meaning the work wrought by e'ne/pgeia or operation.
531 1 Sam. xvi. 14.
532 Numb. xi. 25, 26, LXX. and R.V. "did so no more" for "did not cease" of A.V.
533 The distinction between the lo/goj e'/dia/qetoj, thought, and the logoj porforiko/j, speech, appears first in Philo. II. 154. On the use of the term in Catholic Theology cf. Dr. Robertson's note on Ath., De Syn. § xxvi. p. 463 of the Ed. in this series. Also, Dorner, Div. I. i. p. 338, note.
534 Rom. viii. 16.
535 Gal. vi. 4.
536 Matt. x. 20.
537 Rom. xii. 5, 6.
538 1 Cor. xii. 21.
539 1 Cor. xii. 18, slightly varied in order.