St. Athanasius, the great Trinitarian defender and saint of the Church, in refuting the Arian heretics mentions another great saint who became a holy martyr of Christ, St. Ignatius. Athanasius confirms that Ignatius did indeed write at least one letter, that of the Ephesians, where this eyewitness of the holy Apostles magnifies Christ as the uncreated God who became flesh from the holy Virgin.
Here’s what this 4th century AD intellectual giant wrote in his De Synodis. All emphasis will be mine:
Part 3. On the Symbols ‘Of the Essence’ And ‘Coessential.’
We must look at the sense not the wording. The offense excited is at the sense; meaning of the Symbols; the question of their not being in Scripture. Those who hesitate only at ‘coessential,’ not to be considered Arians. Reasons why ‘coessential’ is better than ‘like-in-essence,’ yet the latter may be interpreted in a good sense. Explanation of the rejection of ‘coessential’ by the Council which condemned the Samosatene; use of the word by Dionysius of Alexandria; parallel variation in the use of Unoriginate; quotation from Ignatius and another; reasons for using ‘coessential;’ objections to it; examination of the word itself; further documents of the Council of Ariminum…
47. Ignatius, for instance, who was appointed Bishop in Antioch after the Apostles, and became a martyrof Christ, writes concerning the Lord thus: ‘There is one physician, fleshly and spiritual, originate and unoriginate ,’ God in man, true life in death, both from Mary and from God;’ whereas some teachers who followed Ignatius, write in their turn, ‘One is the Unoriginate, the Father, and one the genuine Son from Him, trueoffspring, Word and Wisdom of the Father.’ If therefore we have hostile feelings towards these writers, then have we right to quarrel with the Councils; but if, knowing their faith in Christ, we are persuaded that the blessed Ignatius was right in writing that Christ was originate on account of the flesh (for He became flesh), yet unoriginate, because He is not in the number of things made and originated, but Son from Father; and if we are aware too that those who have said that the Unoriginate is One, meaning the Father, did not mean to lay down that the Word was originated and made, but that the Father has no personal cause, but rather is Himself Father of Wisdom, and in Wisdom has made all things that are originated; why do we not combine all our Fathers in religious belief, those who deposed the Samosatene as well as those who proscribed the Arian heresy, instead of making distinctions between them and refusing to entertain a right opinion of them? I repeat, that those, in view of the sophistical explanation of the Samosatene, wrote, ‘He is not coessential;’ and these, with an apposite meaning, said that He was. For myself, I have written these brief remarks, from my feeling towards persons who were religious to Christ-ward; but were it possible to come by the Epistle which we are told that the former wrote, I consider we should find further grounds for the aforesaid proceeding of those blessed men. For it is right and meet thus to feel, and to maintain a good conscience toward the Fathers, if we be not spurious children, but have received the traditions from them, and the lessons of religion at their hands.
48. Such then, as we confess and believe, being the sense of the Fathers, proceed we even in their company to examine once more the matter, calmly and with a kindly sympathy, with reference to what has been said before, viz. whether the Bishops collected at Nicæa do not really prove to have thought aright. For if the Word be a work and foreign to the Father’s essence, so that He is separated from the Father by the difference of nature, He cannot be one in essence with Him, but rather He is homogeneous by nature with the works, though He surpass them in grace. On the other hand, if we confess that He is not a work but the genuine offspring of the Father’s essence, it would follow that He is inseparable from the Father, being connatural, because He is begotten from Him. And being such, good reason He should be called Coessential. Next, if the Son be not such from participation, but is in His essence the Father’s Word and Wisdom, and this essence is the offspring of the Father’s essence , and its likeness as the radiance is of the light, and the Son says, ‘I and the Father are One,’ and, ‘he that has seen Me, has seen the Father?’ John 10:30; 14:9, how must we understand these words? Or how shall we so explain them as to preserve the oneness of the Father and the Son? Now as to its consisting in agreement of doctrines, and in the Son’s not disagreeing with the Father, as the Arians say, such an interpretation is a sorry one; for both the Saints, and still more Angels and Archangels, have such an agreement with God, and there is no disagreement among them. For he who disagreed, the devil, was beheld to fall from the heavens, as the Lord said. Therefore if by reason of agreement the Father and the Son are one, there would be things originated which had this agreement with God, and each of these might say, ‘I and the Father are One.’ But if this be absurd, and so it truly is, it follows of necessity that we must conceive of Son’s and Father’s oneness in the way of essence. For things originate, though they have an agreement with their Maker, yet possess it only by influence, and by participation, and through the mind; the transgression of which forfeits heaven. But the Son, being an offspring from the essence, is one by essence, Himself and the Father that begot Him.
49. This is why He has equality with the Father by titles expressive of unity, and what is said of the Father, is said in Scripture of the Son also, all but His being called Father. For the Son Himself said, ‘All things that the Father has are Mine’ John 16:15; and He says to the Father, ‘All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine’ John 17:10 — as for instance, the name God; for ‘the Word was God;’— Almighty, ‘Thus says He that is, and that was, and that is to come, the Almighty’ John 1:1; Apocalypse 1:8:— the being Light, ‘I am,’ He says, ‘the Light’ John 8:12:— the Operative Cause, ‘All things were made by Him,’ and, ‘whatsoever I see the Father do, I do also’ John 1:3; 5:19:— the being Everlasting, ‘His eternal power and godhead,’ and, ‘In the beginning was the Word,’ and, ‘He was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world;’— the being Lord, for, ‘The Lord rained fire and brimstone from the Lord,’ and the Father says, ‘I am the Lord,’ and, ‘Thus says the Lord, the Almighty God;’ and of the Son Paul speaks thus, ‘One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things’ Romans 1:20; John 1:1-9; Genesis 19:24; Isaiah 45:5; Amos 5:16; 1 Corinthians 8:6. And on the Father Angels wait, and again the Son too is worshipped by them, ‘And let all the Angels of God worship Him;’ and He is said to be Lord of Angels, for ‘the Angels ministered unto Him,’ and ‘the Son of Manshall send His Angels.’ The being honoured as the Father, for ‘that they may honour the Son,’ He says, ‘as they honour the Father;’— being equal to God, ‘He counted it not a prize to be equal with God?’Hebrews 1:6; Matthew 4:11; 24:31; John 5:23; Philippians 2:6:— the being Truth from the True, and Life from the Living, as being truly from the Fountain, even the Father;— the quickening and raising the dead as the Father, for so it is written in the Gospel. And of the Father it is written, ‘The Lord your God is One Lord,’ and, ‘The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and has called the earth;’ and of the Son, ‘The Lord God has shined upon us,’ and, ‘The God of gods shall be seen in Sion.’ And again of God, Isaiah says, ‘Who is a God like You, taking away iniquities and passing over unrighteousness?’ Deuteronomy 6:4; Psalm 50:1; 118:27; 84:7 (Septuagint); Micah 7:18). But the Son said to whom He would, ‘Your sins are forgiven you;’ for instance, when, on the Jews murmuring, He manifested the remission by His act, saying to the paralytic, ‘Rise, take up your bed, and go unto your house.’ And of God Paul says, ‘To the King eternal;’ and again of the Son, David in the Psalm, ‘Lift up your gates, O you rulers, and be lifted up you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.’ And Daniel heard it said, ‘His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and His Kingdom shall not be destroyed’ Matthew 9:5; Mark 2:11; 1 Timothy 1:17; Psalm 24:7; Daniel 4:3; 7:14. And in a word, all that you find said of the Father, so much will you find said of the Son, all but His being Father, as has been said.
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