ἄναρχος. This word
is used in two senses by the Fathers. (i) In the sense of
ἀΐδιος or eternal, it is
applied (a) to the Trinity in unity. e.g.,
Quæst. Misc. v. 442 (Migne Ath. iv. 783),
attributed to Athanasius, κοινον ἡ
οὐσια·
κοινὸν το
ἄναρχον. (b)
To the Son. e.g., Greg. Naz. Orat. xxix.
490, ἐὰν
τὴν ἀπὸ
χρόνον νοῇς
ἀρχὴν καὶ
ἄναρχος ὁ
υἱ& 232·ς, οὐκ
ἄρχεται γὰρ
ἀπὸ χρόνου ὁ
χρόνων
δεσπότης. (ii)
In the sense of ἀναίτιος,
“causeless,” “originis principio
carens,” it is applied to the Father alone, and not to
the Son. So Gregory of Nazianzus, in the oration quoted
above, ὁ υἱ& 232·ς, ἐ&
129·ν ὡς
αἴτιον τὸν
πατέρα
λαμβάνῃς,
οὐκ
ἄναρχος, “the
Son, if you understand the Father as cause, is not without
beginning.” ἄρχη γὰρ
υἱοῦ πατὴρ
ὡς αἴτιος.
“For the Father, as cause, is Beginning of the
Son.” But, though the Son in this sense was not
ἄναρχος, He was said to
be begotten ἀνάρχως.
So Greg. Naz. (Hom. xxxvii. 590) τὸ ἴδιον
ὄνομα τοῦ
ἀνάρχως
γεννηθέντος,
υὶ& 231·ς. Cf.
the Letter of Alexander of Alexandria to Alexander of
Constantinople. Theod. Ecc. Hist. i. 3.
τὴν
ἄναρχον
αὐτῷ παρὰ
τοῦ πατρὸς
γέννησιν
ἀνατί
θεντας.
cf. Hooker, Ecc. Pol. v. 54. “By the
gift of eternal generation Christ hath received of the Father one
and in number the self-same substance which the Father hath of
himself unreceived from any other. For every beginning
is a father unto that which cometh of it; and every
offspring is a son unto that out of which it groweth.
Seeing, therefore, the Father alone is originally that Deity
which Christ originally is not (for Christ is God by being of
God, light by issuing out of light), it followeth hereupon that
whatsoever Christ hath common unto him with his heavenly Father,
the same of necessity must be given him, but naturally and
eternally given.” So Hillary De Trin. xii.
21. “Ubi auctor eternus est, ibi et
nativatis æternitas est: quia sicut nativitas ab
auctore est, ita et ab æterno auctore æterna nativitas
est.” And Augustine De Trin. v. 15,
“Naturam præstat filio sine initio
generatio.”