Letter 623

To Cyriacus the Presbyter. From the Father the Son was begotten, the living Word, both being God and being with God; not as one who came into being beforehand, existing before the ages, nor as one acquired afterward; a Son, not a creature; a maker, not a thing made; a creator, and not a thing created. All that the Father has, He has at the same time. For in truth all those things belong to an image which are present in the original form. The Son was not created by a command, but shone forth from the substance of the Father without separation, joined to the Father timelessly, equal in goodness, equal in power. But as for whatever He afterward says proceeding from His bodily constitution [that is, from the Incarnation], administering the salvation of the ages, which He displayed to us when He appeared through the flesh, calling Himself one who is sent, and able to do nothing of Himself, and one who has received a commandment, and whatever is of this kind, let this not furnish you occasions for belittling the divinity of the Only-Begotten. For the condescension to your weakness ought not to become a diminution of the dignity of the One who is mighty; rather, understand His nature in a manner befitting God, but receive the humbler of His sayings as belonging to the divine dispensation. Why are the heavenly orators [the angels] portrayed in Scripture as bearing wings? Is it not so that the loftiness, and the elevation, and the lightness of those natures might be signified to human beings? Hence Gabriel too comes down winged, not because he was so in regard to that incorporeal power, but in order to show the prophet Daniel that he had come down from the highest regions, and, leaving behind his occupations on high, had arrived among human beings.

Ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐγεννήθη ὁ Υἱός, ὁ ζῶν Λόγος, καὶ Θεὸς ὤν, καὶ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ὤν, οὐχὶ προγενόμενος ὑπάρχων πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων, οὐχὶ προσκτηθεὶς ὕστερον· Υἱός, οὐχὶ κτίσμα, ποιητής, οὐχὶ ποίημα, κτίστης οὐχὶ δὲ κτίσμα. Πάντα, ὅσα ἔχει ὁ Πατήρ, ἁμἅ ἐστι. Τῷ ὄντι γὰρ εἰκόνος ἐστὶ τὰ πάντα, ὅσα πρόσεστι τῇ πρωτοτύπῳ μορφῇ. Οὐ προστάγματι ἐκτίσθη ὁ Υἱός, ἀλλ’ ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας ἐξέλαμψεν τοῦ Πατρὸς ἀδιαστάτως, ἀχρόνως τῷ Πατρὶ συνημμένος, ἴσος ἐν ἀγαθότητι, ἴσος ἐν δυνάμει. Ὅσα δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα ἀπὸ τῆς σωματικῆς κατασκευῆς διαλέγεται, τὴν τῶν αἰώνων σωτηρίαν οἰκονομῶν, ἣν διὰ σαρκὸς ἐπιφανεὶς ἡμῖν ἐπεδείξατο, ἀποστελλόμενον λέγων ἑαυτόν, καὶ μηδὲν δυνάμενον ἀφ’ ἑαυτοῦ ποιεῖν, καὶ ἐντολὴν λαβόντα, καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα, μή σοι παρεχέτω ἀφορμὰς πρὸς τὸ κατασμικρύνειν τοῦ Μονογενοῦς τὴν θεότητα. Οὐ γὰρ ἡ πρός τὸ σὸν ἀσθενὲς συγκατάβασις ἐλάττωσις ὀφείλει γίνεσθαι τῆς ἀξίας τοῦ δυνατοῦ· ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν φύσιν νόει θεοπρεπῶς, τὰ δὲ ταπεινότερα τῶν ῥημάτων δέχου οἰκονομικῶς. Διά τί οἱ οὐράνιοι ῥήτορες πτεροφόροι τῇ Γραφῇ ζωγραφοῦνται; Ἢ ἵνα σημανθῇ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὸ ὑψηλὸν, καὶ μετάρσιον, καὶ κοῦφον τῶν φύσεων ἐκείνων; Ὅθεν καὶ ὁ Γαβριὴλ ὑπόπτερος κάτεισιν, οὐκ ἐπειδὴ περὶ τὴν ἀσώματον ἐκείνην δύναμιν ἦν, ἀλλ' ἵνα δείξῃ τῷ προφήτῃ Δανιὴλ, ὅτι ἐκ τῶν ὑψηλοτάτων κατελήλυθε χώρων, καὶ τὴν ἄνω ἀφεὶς διατριβὰς, ἀφῖκται πρὸς ἀνθρώπους.