Chapter VII.
Against those who assert that it is not proper for
“with whom” to be said of the Son, and that the proper
phrase is “through whom.”
16.
But
their
contention is that to use the phrase “with him” is
altogether strange and unusual, while “through him” is at
once most familiar in Holy Scripture, and very common in the language
of the brotherhood.
817
What is our
answer to this? We say, Blessed are the ears that have not heard
you and the hearts that have been kept from the wounds of your
words. To you, on the other hand, who are lovers of
Christ,
818
I say that the
Church recognizes both uses, and deprecates neither as subversive
of the other. For whenever we are contemplating the majesty
of the nature of the Only Begotten, and the excellence of His
dignity, we bear witness that the glory is
with
the Father;
while on the other hand, whenever we bethink us of His
bestowal
819
on us of good
gifts, and of our access
820
to, and
admission into, the household of God,
821
we confess that this grace is effected for us
through
Him
and
by
822
Him.
It follows that the one phrase “with
whom” is the proper one to be used in the ascription of glory,
while the other, “
through
whom,” is specially
appropriate in giving of thanks. It is also quite untrue to
allege that the phrase “
with
whom” is unfamiliar in
the usage of the devout. All those whose soundness of character
leads them to hold the dignity of antiquity to be more honourable than
mere new-fangled novelty, and who have preserved the tradition of their
fathers
823
unadulterated,
alike in town and in country, have employed this phrase. It
is, on the contrary, they who are surfeited with the familiar and
the customary, and arrogantly assail the old as stale, who welcome
innovation, just as in dress your lovers of display always prefer
some utter novelty to what is generally worn. So you may
even still see that the language of country folk preserves the
ancient fashion, while of these, our cunning experts
824
in logomachy, the language bears the
brand of the new philosophy.
What our fathers said, the same say we, that the
glory of the Father and of the Son is common; wherefore we offer the
doxology to the Father
with
the Son. But we do not rest
only on the fact that such is the tradition of the Fathers; for they
too followed the sense of Scripture, and started from the evidence
which, a few sentences back, I deduced from Scripture and laid before
you. For “the brightness” is always thought of
with “the
glory,”
825
“the
image” with the archetype,
826
and the Son
always and everywhere together with the Father; nor does even the
close connexion of the names, much less the nature of the things,
admit of separation.
817
The word
ἀδελφότης
is in
the New Testament peculiar to S. Peter (
1 Peter ii.
17, and v. 9
); it occurs
in the Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians, Chap.
ii.
818
Φιλόχριστοι
. The word is not common, but occurs in inscriptions.
cf
. Anth. Pal. I. x. 13.
ὀρθὴν πίστιν
ἔχουσα
φιλοχρίστοιο
μενοινῆς
.
819
χορηγία
.
cf
. the use of the cognate verb in
1 Pet. iv.
11
.
ἐξ
ἰσχύος ἧς
χορηγεί ὁ
θεός
.
820
προσαγωγή
.
cf
.
Eph.
ii. 18
.
821
οἰκείωσιν
πρὸς τὸν
Θεόν
.
cf
.
οἰκεῖοι
τοῦ Θεοῦ
in
Eph. ii. 19
.
822
ἐν
.
823
cf
.
Gal. i. 14
.
824
The verb,
ἐντρίβομαι
,
appears to be used by St. Basil, if he wrote
ἐντετριμμένων
in the sense of to be
ἐντριβής
or
versed in a thing (
cf
. Soph. Ant. 177)—a sense not
illustrated by classical usage. But the reading of the
Moscow
ms.
(μ)
ἐντεθραμμένων
, “trained in,” “nurtured in,” is
per se
much more probable. The idea of the country folk preserving the
good old traditions shews the change of circumstances in St.
Basil’s day from those of the 2d c., when the
“pagani” or villagers were mostly still heathen, and the
last to adopt the novelty of Christianity.
cf
.
Pliny’s Letter to Trajan (Ep. 96), “
neque
civitates tantum sed vicos etiam atque agros superstitionis istius
contagio pervagata est
.”
825
Heb. i. 1
.
cf
. Aug.
Ep
. ii. ad Serap.: “The Father is Light, and the
Son brightness and true light.”
826
2 Cor. iv. 4
.