Reference Dok. 10; Urk. 3; CPG 3500
Incipit Οὐ δήπου δὲ ἡ εἰκὼν
Date c. 323
Ancient sources Eusebius, Contra Marcellum 1.4.40-41, 57.
Modern editions GCS 14:26, 29
AW 3.1:4-6

During the Seventh Ecumenical Council of AD 787 (see intro to Dok. 9), the theology of Eusebius of Caesarea was questioned. During the fifth session (actio), two sections of Eusebius’s otherwise lost letter to Euphration were read out. In the sixth session, two shorter quotes were read. Opitz (without explanation) put the longer citation from the sixth session between the two quotes of session 5, and seemingly ignores the shorter one. AW 3.3.86-87 follows this. The latter also follows Opitz in adding a section from Eusebius’s Contra Marcellum 1.4.40-41 in which Marcellus is quoting Eusebius, although the context does not mention Euphration. There is no way to date this letter any more precisely than to say it comes from the middle of the controversy, Brennecke’s “second phase” when the controversy had expanded outside Egypt.

The Greek texts below are taken from Lamberz’s edition of the Second Council of Nicaea (ACO, Series 2, 3:560, 562 and 736), and Hansen and Klostermann’s edition of  Gegen Marcell (Eusebius Werke 4, GCS 14, 2nd edn. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1972), 26 and 29. The FCC translation below is by Aaron West and Glen Thompson. See also the recent translations of R. Price Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787), TTH 68, 403-404 and 513, and that of K. Spoerl, Against Marcellus and On Ecclesiastical History (FC 135; Washington: Cath. Univ. of America Press, 2017), 108-109, 114.

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4. Διελεῖν γὰρ τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ τολμήσας καὶ ἕτερον θεὸν τὸν λόγον ὀνομάσαι, οὐσίᾳ τε καὶ δυνάμει διεστῶτα τοῦ πατρός, εἰς ὅσην βλασφημίαν ἐκπέττωκεν ἔνεστιν σαφῶς ἀπ’ αὐτῶν τῶν ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ γραφέντων ῥητῶν ῥᾳδίως μανθάνειν. γέγραφεν δ᾽ αὐταῖς λέξεσιν οὕτως·4. [40] … For he dared to divide the Word from “the God” and to name the Word another God, differing in essence and power from the Father, [41] he has departed into as great a blasphemy, as is easily discerned from those very terms he uses.  The following is an exact quote from his writings:
Οὐ δήπου δὲ ἡ εἰκὼν καὶ τὸ οὗ ἐστιν ἡ εἰκὼν ἕν καὶ ταὐτὸν ἐπινοεῖται, ἀλλὰ δύο μὲν οὐσίαι καὶ δύο πράγματα καὶ δύο δυνάμεις, ὡς καὶ τοσαῦται προσηγορίαι. But surely the image and the one whose image he is are not to be considered the same, but they are two beings and two things and two powers, similarly with other titles
5. Ἄνθρῶπον γὰρ μόνον τὸν σωτῆρα δεῖξαι βουλόμενος, ὡς μέγιστον ἡμῖν ἀπόρρητον τοῦ ἀποστόλου ἀνακαλύπτων μυστήριον, οὕτως ἔφη·5. [57] He writes as follows, wishing to show the savior as only a man, as if he is unveiling to us the apostle’s great unspoken mystery:
Διὸ σαφέστατα καὶ ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος τὴν ἀπόρρητον ἡμῖν καὶ μνστικὴν παραδιδοὺς θεολογίαν βοᾷ καὶ κέκραγεν “εἷς ὁ θεός,” εἶτα μετὰ τὸν ἕνα θεόν φησιν “εἷς μεσίτης θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, ἄνθρωπος Χριστός ᾿Ιησοῦς.”For more clearly also the divine Apostle transmits to us the unspoken and mystical theology when he calls and cries out, “There is one God;” then after saying there is one God [he continues,]“One mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” [1 Tim 2:5].

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