Fragment of a letter from Athanasius of Anazarbos to Alexander of Alexandria
Reference numbers | Urk. 11 Doc. 11 CPG 2060 |
Incipit | τί μέμφῃ τοῖς περὶ Ἄρειον |
Date | c. 322 |
Ancient source | Athanasius, On the Synods 17.4 |
Modern edition used | H-G. Opitz, Athanasius Werke, band 2 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1940) |
Alexander of Anazarbos, writing to Alexander the Bishop, had the extreme audacity to say:
Why do you find fault with Arius’ men when they say, “The Son of God has been made, a creation out of nothing, (ex ouk ontōn ktisma pepoiētai) and is one with all other things (hen tōn pantōn)?” For in the parable in which all created things are represented by a hundred sheep, the Son is one of them. If then the hundred are not created or begotten things (ktismata kai genēta), or if there are more beings beyond that hundred, then the Son would not be a creation or one of these other things. But if those hundred are all begotten things, and there are none beyond the hundred except God alone, what absurdity do Arius’s men utter by saying that Christ is one among others when they include and reckon him among the hundred?
Translation from NPNF2 vol. 4, p. 458, adapted by AJW
Discussed in Hanson, p. 42
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