Epiphanius’ Refutation of the Arians Pt. 2

42,1 But again, as I go ahead and come to each topic in turn, I shall not omit any point I have previously proposed for solution but take up the thread again.¹⁵³ Once more the Arians offer another excuse, St. Peter’s words in Acts, “Be it known unto you, all ye house of Israel, that God hath made this Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and Christ.”¹⁵⁴

(2) And again they say, “Here we find ‘made’ in scripture”; and they do not see that the phrase, “this Jesus”—for the phrase is self-explanatory—means the Lord’s human nature. < The meaning* > is clear from “this Jesus whom ye crucified.” This is < plainly* > the flesh which they crucified, for < it is clear that > they crucified flesh.

(3) And thus the Lord says in the Gospel, “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of my Father,”¹⁵⁵ < declaring himself man* > but not separating his Godhead from his manhood.

(4) For neither was Christ’s Godhead separate from his manhood when he was about to suffer, nor when he suffered was the human nature abandoned by the Word. But no more had the impassible Word previously suffered; he suffered < only > in the suffering flesh. For the same name truly applies to both natures and is given to the divine nature and to the human. The human nature of the Word himself is Christ, and yet Christ is the Lord in the human nature itself.

(5) But the suffering is in the flesh, as Peter said, “Christ suffered for us in flesh” to show the divine nature’s impassibility—and again, “dying in the flesh, brought to life in the Spirit.”¹⁵⁶

Thus Peter said “this Jesus whom ye crucified” to show that the sacred human nature was not abandoned by the impassible and uncreated Word, but was united with the uncreated Word on high.

(6) And this is why he said, “God hath made Lord and Christ”¹⁵⁷ the thing that was conceived by Mary, the thing that had been united with Godhead. For Mary is not divine by nature, and for this reason he adds “made.” And so, when Mary asked him, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” the angel Gabriel said, “The Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that which shall be born shall be called holy, the Son of God.”¹⁵⁸

42,7 But when he said, “that which shall be born,” he showed unquestionably that the divine Word is indubitably a Son, not created, not made.

(8) And as to the human nature which was born of Mary, he showed, by adding “that which is born < shall > also < be called holy, the Son of God >,” that God had made < even the thing that was born > Christ and Lord. And as everything about the other passages has been fully dealt with and presents no difficulty, here too everything about his human nature had been dealt with, and for those who are attending to their salvation there is no bypath.

(9) For the Word is a living Word from a living Father—the Father’s Son, not his creature. But everything in the human nature has been dealt with, so that no one may suppose that he is an apparition, or that his flesh is co-essential with his Godhead on high, but everyone [will realize] that the human nature is united in one impassibility, especially after his resurrection from the dead. For scripture says, “He dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him.”¹⁵⁹

(10) There is one Lord, one Christ, one King, seated at the Father’s right hand; that which is physical and spiritual is one union, one spiritual Godhead, both natures radiant and glorious.

(11) But since I feel that the passage has been sufficiently expounded I shall pass it by; and let me take up the discussion by < going on* > to < warn > my hearers against the other parts of their < foolishness > which they have invented for the overthrow of their hearers.¹⁶⁰

43,1 For again, they say, “If he is of the Father’s essence why does he not know the hour and the day, but by his own admission acknowledges to the disciples that he does not know the things the Father knows and says, ‘Of that day and of that hour knoweth no man, not even the angels in heaven or the Son, but the Father only.’¹⁶¹

(2) If the Father knows,” they say, “and he doesn’t know, how can the Father’s and the Son’s Godhead be the same, when the Son doesn’t know what the Father does?”

43,3 But not knowing their human frailty, they seize, to their own harm, on everything that the Only-begotten, in his divine wisdom, teaches mystically for the assurance of the truest knowledge—as horrid serpents, when caught by a crafty hunter, take the bait to their own destruction. They do not know that falsehood will never stand, while the truth always keeps its own sons straight and confounds falsehood.

(4) Those who harbor this evil suspicion of Christ from the first must tell us which is by nature greater and more important to know—God the Lord of all and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the day which is brought to its dawning by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the hour when it dawns. But if they are asked that question, the truth itself will surely oblige them to say that the Father is greater, as indeed he is.

43,5 Now if the Son says, “Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and no man knoweth the Son save the Father,”¹⁶² when he knows the greater thing, the Father, how can he not know the lesser thing? But these words are divine and spoken by the Holy Spirit, and are unknowable by those who have not received the gift and grace of the Holy Spirit.

(6) For such are the Arians with their wavering spirit and feeble intellect, and they slip into hurtful deviations even in their minor ones.

44,1 For the Lord’s own words will step out to meet them, “Be ye ready, < let > your loins < be > girded about and let there be lamps in your hands, and be ye as good servants, awaiting their Master. For like a thief in the night, so will the day come.”¹⁶³ And the holy apostle says, “Ye are not children of the night but of the day, lest the day should come upon you as a thief.”¹⁶⁴

(2) If, then, the children of the day are not hidden by the darkness, but are ready because “Their Master cometh in a day they know not and at an hour they await not,”¹⁶⁵ then, because of his brilliant being and his Godhead, will not < He who > gives them being be different from his servants, the sons of the day? Or, like those who do not know the day and are unprepared, will he be caught in ignorance and subject to deficiency?

(3) Who but the < in >sane could suppose these things of the Lord, that he will be like his subjects and disciples—or like those who, from their unpreparedness and ignorance, are inferior to these? That is just silly.

44,4 Now if these things are not possible, but the explanation, when compared with it, turns out to contradict the saying, we need to see what explanation we can find that will leave both saying and explanation uncontradicted and prevent our deviating from the truth. For the Lord cannot lie, and can give no expositions for our salvation in vain.

44,5 Thus the Father knows [the day], the Son knows, and the Holy Spirit knows. For nothing in the Father is different from the Son, nor is anything in the Son different from the Spirit. In every Sect, when I needed to, I have shown with authentic proofs that the Trinity is one Godhead and has no internal differences but is all perfection—three Perfects, one glory and one sovereignty.

45,1 But you will ask me, “Why did he say this, then?” And I have already given an explanation of this elsewhere.¹⁶⁶ But nothing need keep me from adding to the same things and telling the same truths; “To me it is not burdensome, but it will be a safeguard”¹⁶⁷ for the readers and refutatory for the opposition. The reason for this is as follows.

(2) Christ has made incidental mention, in the same sentence, of three ranks: the Father, himself, and the angels in heaven. And he has attributed knowing to the Father, implying not only acquaintance and knowledge but everything that is always indubitably controlled, brought about and made by the Father and the Son.

(3) Indeed the Father knows the day—knows it, has fashioned and made it, and < at the same time > judged, as he said in the Gospel according to John, “The Father judgeth no man, but hath given all judgment to the Son¹⁶⁸—in giving judgment he has judged; in judging, then, he knew [the day]; knowing, he is aware of when it will come.

(4) For “He that believeth not on the Son is judged already”¹⁶⁹—not in the sense that the judgment is past, but that what will happen then is already made plain, just as any particular thing follows from this [or that cause]. For scripture is aware of more than one sort of “knowledge”; and in my frequent returns to the main point I have never ceased to clarify and explain each subject with the similes and examples which have already been discussed.

46,1 So let’s take < up > the discussion again < too >, from the beginning, and speak about these things. What do you mean, people? Did or didn’t Adam know Eve his wife even before their disobedience and transgression? And you can’t contradict the truth.

(2) Even though you prefer not to deal fairly with the sense of this, you will be exposed, for scripture says, “They were naked and were not ashamed.”¹⁷⁰ For if they were naked and not blind¹⁷¹ they saw and knew each other. For neither can you deny this and not admit that they could see; “Eve saw that the tree was good for food and goodly to look upon.”¹⁷² Thus they saw and knew.

And by knowing and seeing they recognized each other.

(3) But it was much later when scripture said, “And Adam knew Eve his wife” It speaks of the first knowledge and sight in the sense of knowledge gained by seeing and intellection, but in the case of the second acquaintance and knowledge it is describing knowledge by experience.

(4) Thus the sacred scripture says the same of David in his old age, “And David was old and could not keep warm. And his servants said, Let a virgin be sought for the king. And there was found Abishag the Shunamite.”¹⁷³ And it says, “And she warmed him, and he slept by her side, and David knew her not.”¹⁷⁴

(5) How could he not know her when she was close to his body and slept beside him? But here scripture is describing, not knowledge by intellection but knowledge by experience.

46,6 Indeed it is the same with Jacob. When he was herding with Leah and Rachel for seven years he knew them. But when the scripture speaks of their lawful conjugal intercourse it says, “He knew Leah his wife.”¹⁷⁵ The first knowing was by intellection and sight, but the second acquaintance and knowing was by experience and activity.

46,7 And likewise in the sacred scripture “The Lord knoweth them that are his”¹⁷⁶ doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know those who aren’t his, but refers to the activity of the Lord’s assistance. And [so with] “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you.”¹⁷⁷ Did he have no intellectual knowledge of them? But because they were not worthy of him he withholds his personal knowledge from them. And elsewhere he says,

(8) “You have I known of all nations.”¹⁷⁸ [If we take this literally], all the nations, and the entire human population, have been left out of his knowledge. On the contrary, aren’t the hairs of each one’s head known < by > him—of those who serve, and those who disobey him? And “God knoweth the ways on the right hand.”¹⁷⁹ Doesn’t he know the ways on the left? And how much of this sort can be said of the different kinds of knowledge!

47,1 And so with God’s only-begotten Son. Since < he says >, “The Father hath given judgment to the Son,”¹⁸⁰ he attributed the knowledge of personal acquaintance and experience to the Father. For “No one knoweth the day save the Father”¹⁸¹ is meant in two ways. He knows when it comes indeed, the day and hour come by his authority—and he knows it < by acting >. For there has already been activity on his part, the delegation of the judgment to the Only-begotten.

47,2 And thus the same knowledge is in the only-begotten Son of God, since he is God and no different from the Father. For he himself knows the day, he brings it himself, carries it on, brings it to an end, and judges, and without him it cannot come.

(3) But he does not know it through activity yet, that is, he has not yet judged. The impious are still impious, the unrighteous covet, fornicators, adulterers and idolaters commit iniquity, the devil is at work, sects arise, and imposture does its work until God’s only-begotten Son brings the day itself, and gives each his just due. And < then* > he will know it < through activity* >, that is, [know] it through deed and power.

(4) And in the Father knowledge is complete in two ways, but in the Son it is there by intellection and is not unknown, but has not yet been completed by activity, that is, he has not yet judged.

47,5 But knowledge has been withheld from the holy angels in two ways—< in that they do not yet know [the day] > intellectually, and < also > that they do not yet know it through activity, that is, through the fulfillment of their function. For they have not yet been directed to go out, gather the impious in bundles like tares and prepare them for burning.

(6) And you see, beloved and servants of God, that all these people who welcome shocking notions because of some preconception of their own, have gone to war in vain, and directed against themselves their various attempts to blaspheme the Son of God as lesser and inferior.