Expositio fidei

Of Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria, Exposition of the Faith. We believe in one unbegotten God, Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible, who has his being from himself. And in one only-begotten Logos, Wisdom, Son, born from the Father without beginning and eternally, a Logos not prophoric, not endiathetic, not an emanation from the perfect, not a division of the impassible nature, nor a projection, but a self-complete Son, living and active, the true image of the Father, equal in honor and equal in glory. "For this," he says, "is the will of the Father," "that just as they honor the Father, so they also honor the Son." True God from true God, as John says in the Catholic Epistles: "And we are in the true one, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." Almighty from Almighty; for of all things over which the Father rules and holds sway, he also rules and holds sway. Whole from whole. Being like the Father, as the Lord says: "He who has seen me has seen the Father." He was born ineffably and inconceivably; "for who shall recount his generation?" meaning no one. Who at the consummation of the ages, descending from the bosom of the Father, from the immaculate Virgin Mary took up our humanity, Christ Jesus, whom he delivered to suffer for us by his own choice, as the Lord says: "No one takes my soul from me.

I have authority to set it down and authority to take it back again.” In which man, having been crucified and having died for us, he rose from the dead, was taken up into the heavens, having been created a beginning of ways for us, being on earth he showed us light from darkness, salvation from error, life from the dead, an entrance into paradise, from which Adam had been cast out, into which he again entered through the thief, as the Lord said: “Today you will be with me in paradise,” into which also Paul entered; and an ascent into the heavens, “where the forerunner entered for us,” the Lord’s man, in whom he is about to judge the living and the dead. We believe likewise in the Holy Spirit, which examines all things “and the depths of God,” anathematizing doctrines that think otherwise. For we neither hold a Father-son doctrine as the Sabellians do, saying one-in-being and not of-the-same-being, and in this abolishing the existence of the Son. Nor do we attribute the passible body which he wore for the salvation of the whole world to the Father. Nor do we hold three hypostases divided in themselves, as it is possible to conceive in a bodily manner in the case of humans, so that we may not think polytheism as the pagans do, but as a river generated from a source is not divided, although they happen to be two forms and two names. For neither is the Father the Son nor is the Son the Father. For the Father is father of a son and the Son is son of a father. For just as the source is not the river nor the river the source, but both are one and the same water channeled from the source into the river, so the divinity from the Father to the Son flows without flux and without division. For the Lord says:

I came forth from the Father and I am here.” But the Son is always in the bosom of the Father, being with the Father. Never was the bosom of the Father emptied of the Son’s divinity. For it says: “I was with him, fitting together.” We do not think that the Son of God, the creator God of the universe, is a creature or a product or from non-existent things, but that he is from the one who is, the only from the only, as the like glory and power were co-generated from the Father eternally. For “he who has seen the Son has also seen the Father.” All things were evidently created through the Son, but he himself is not a creature, as Paul says concerning the Lord: “that in him all things were created” and “he is before all things.” He does not say that he was created before all things, but that he is before all things. For “to be created” is said of all things; but “is before all things” belongs to the Son alone. A offspring according to nature is perfect from perfect. “Born before all hills,” that is, before every rational and intellectual substance. As also in another place Paul calls him “firstborn of all creation.” But “firstborn” indicates that he is not a creature but an offspring of the Father. For it is foreign to his divinity to be called a creature. For all things were created by the Father through the Son, but the Son alone was eternally generated from the Father. Therefore “the Word of God is firstborn of all creation,” unchangeable from the unchangeable. So the body which he wore for our sake is a creature. Concerning this Jeremiah says, according to the edition of the Seventy interpreters:

The Lord planted for us a new salvation as a plantation, in which salvation men will go about.” And according to Aquila, concerning the same passage it stands: “The Lord planted a new thing in the female.” The salvation planted for us as a plantation, new and not old, for us and not before us, is Jesus, who according to the Savior became man. He is interpreted sometimes as “salvation,” sometimes as “savior.” And salvation is from the savior, in the same way that illumination is from light. Therefore, the salvation from the savior, planted as new, as Jeremiah says, “He planted for us a new salvation,” and as Aquila says, “The Lord planted a new thing in the female,” that is, in Mary. For nothing new was planted in the female except the Lord’s body born from Mary the virgin without intercourse. As also in Proverbs, from the person of Jesus it says: “The Lord planted me as the beginning of his ways for his works.” But it does not say “he planted me before works,” lest anyone take the passage as referring to the divinity of the Word. Therefore, both passages concerning the creation are written corporeally about Jesus. For the Lord’s man was planted as the beginning of ways, which he revealed to us for salvation. For through him we have access to the Father. For he himself is the way, as he says: “I am the way” that leads you to the Father. And a way is something corporeal to behold, which is the Lord’s man. Therefore, the Word of God created all things, not being a creation but a offspring. For none of the creations created anything equal or similar to itself. For begetting is like the father, while creating is like the craftsman.

The body which the Lord wore for our sake is indeed a creation and a thing made, "which was born for us," as Paul says, "from God—wisdom and sanctification and righteousness and redemption." Yet before us and before all creation, the Word was and is the wisdom of the Father. And the Holy Spirit, being an emanation from the Father, is always in the hands of the Father who sends and of the Son who bears, through whom He filled all things. The Father, holding the being from Himself, begot the Son, as we have said, and did not create Him, as a river from a spring and as a shoot from a root and as a radiance from light—things which nature knows to be indivisible—through whom to the Father there is glory, power, and majesty before all ages and into all the ages of ages. Amen.