18 - Book IV Chapters 18-22

Section 18 of THE ORTHODOX FAITH by John of Damascus. Translated by S. D. F. Salmond. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Book Four Chapter Eighteen Regarding the Things Said Concerning Christ THE THINGS SAID CONCERNING CHRIST FALL INTO FOUR GENERIC MODES. For some fit Him even before the Incarnation, others in the Union, others after the Union, and others after the Resurrection. Also, of those that refer to the period before the Incarnation, there are six modes. For some of them declare the union of nature and the identity in essence with the Father, as this, I and my Father are one. Also this, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And this, who being in the form of God, and so forth. Others declare the perfection of subsistence, as these, Son of God, and the express image of his person, and messenger of great counsel, wonderful counselor, and the like. Again, others declare the indwelling of the subsistences in one another, as I am in the Father and the Father in me, and the inseparable foundation, as, for instance, the Word, wisdom, power, effulgence. For the Word is inseparably established in the mind, and it is the essential mind that I mean. And so also is wisdom, and power in him that is powerful, and effulgence in the light, all springing forth from these. And others make known the fact of his origin from the Father as cause, for instance, my Father is greater than I. For from him he derives both his being and all that he has. His being was by generative and not by creative means, as I came forth from the Father and am come, and I live by the Father. But all that he hath is not his by free gift, nor by teaching, but in a causal sense, as the Father can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do. For if the Father is not, neither is the Son. For the Son is of the Father, and in the Father, and with the Father, and not after the Father. In like manner also what he doeth is of him and with him. For there is one and the same, not similar but the same, will and energy and power in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Moreover, other things are said as though the Father's good will was fulfilled through his energy and not as through an instrument or a servant, but as through his essential and hypostatic word and wisdom and power, because but one action is observed in Father and Son, as for example, all things were made by him, and he sent his word and healed them, and that they may believe that thou hast sent me. Some again have a prophetic sense, and of these some are in the future tense. For instance, he shall come openly, and this from Zachariah, behold thy king cometh unto thee, and this from Micah, behold the Lord cometh out of his place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. But others, though future, are put in the past tense, as for instance, this is our God, therefore he was seen upon the earth and dwelt among men, and the Lord created me in the beginning of his ways for his works, and wherefore God thy God anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows, and such like. The things said then that refer to the period before the union will be applicable to him even after the union, but those that refer to the period after the union will not be applicable at all before the union, unless indeed in a prophetic sense, as we said. Those that refer to the time of the union have three modes. For when our discourse deals with the higher aspect, we speak of the deification of the flesh and his assumption of the word and exceeding exaltation and so forth, making manifest the riches that are added to the flesh from the union and natural conjunction with the Most High God the Word. And when our discourse deals with the lower aspect, we speak of the incarnation of God the Word, his becoming man, his emptying of himself, his poverty, his humility, for these and such like are imposed upon the Word and God through his admixture with humanity. When, again, we keep both sides in view at the same time, we speak of union, community, anointing, natural conjunction, confirmation, and the like. The former two modes then have their reason in the third mode. For through the union it is made clear what either has obtained from the intimate junction with and permeation through the other. For through the union in subsistence the flesh is said to be deified and to become God and to be equally God with the Word. And God the Word is said to be made flesh and to become man. For through the union in subsistence the flesh is said to be deified and to become God and to be equally God with the Word. And God the Word is said to be made flesh and to become man and is called creature and last, not in the sense that the two natures are converted into one compound nature, for it is not possible for the opposite natural qualities to exist at the same time in one nature, but in the sense that the two natures are united in subsistence and permeate one another without confusion or transmutation. The permeation, moreover, did not come of the flesh, but of the divinity, for it is impossible that the flesh should permeate through the divinity. But the divine nature, once permeating through the flesh, gave also to the flesh the same ineffable power of permeation, and this indeed is what we call union. Note, too, that in the case of the first and second modes of those that belong to the period of the union, reciprocation is observed, for when we speak about the flesh we use the terms deification and assumption of the Word and exceeding exaltation and anointing, for these are derived from divinity but are observed in connection with the flesh. And when we speak about the Word, we use the terms emptying, incarnation, becoming man, humility, and the like, and these, as we said, are imposed on the Word and God through the flesh, for He endured these things in person of His own free will. Of the things that refer to the period after the union, there are three modes. The first declares His divine nature, as I am in the Father and the Father in me, and I and the Father are one, and all those things which are affirmed of Him before His assumption of humanity, these will be affirmed of Him even after His assumption of humanity, with this exception, that He did not assume the flesh and its natural properties. The second declares His human nature, as now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, and even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, and the like. Further, of the statements made and written about Christ, the Savior, after the manner of men, whether they deal with sayings or actions, there are six modes, for some of them were done or said naturally in accordance with the incarnation, for instance, His birth from a virgin, His growth and progress with age, His hunger, thirst, weariness, fear, sleep, piercing with nails, death, and all such like natural and innocent passions. For in all these there is a mixture of the divine and human, although they are held to belong in reality to the body, the divine suffering none of these, but procuring through them our salvation. Others are of the nature of ascription, as Christ's question, whence have ye laid Lazarus? His running to the fig tree, His shrinking, that is, His drawing back, His praying, and His making as though He would have gone further. For neither as God nor as man was He in need of these or similar things, but only because His form was that of a man as necessity and expediency demanded. For example, the praying was to show that He was not opposed to God, for He gives honor to the Father as the cause of Himself, and the question was not put in ignorance, but to show that He is in truth man as well as God, and the drawing back is to teach us not to be impetuous nor to give ourselves up. Others, again, are said in the manner of association and relation, as, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? and He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, and being made a curse for us. Also, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him. For neither as God nor as man was He ever forsaken by the Father, nor did He become sin or a curse, nor did He require to be made subject to the Father. For as God, He is equal to the Father, and not opposed to Him nor subjected to Him. And as God, He was never at any time disobedient to His begetter to make it necessary for Him to make Him subject. Appropriating then our person, and ranking Himself with us, He used these words. For we are bound in the fetters of sin and the curse, as faithless and disobedient, and therefore forsaken. Others are said by reason of distinction in thought. For if you divide in thought things that are inseparable in actual truth, to cut the flesh from the word, the terms servant and ignorant are used of Him. For indeed He was of a subject and ignorant nature, and except that it was united with God the Word, His flesh was servile and ignorant. But because of the union, in subsistence with God the Word, it was neither servile nor ignorant. In this way, too, He called the Father His God. Others, again, are for the purpose of revealing Him to us and strengthening our faith, as, And now, O Father, glorify thou me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. For He Himself was glorified and is glorified, but His glory was not manifested nor confirmed to us. Also, that which the Apostle said, declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. For by the miracles and the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit, it was manifested and confirmed to the world that He is the Son of God. And this, too, the child grew in wisdom and grace. Others, again, have reference to His appropriation of the personal life of the Jews in numbering Himself among the Jews, as He said to the Samaritan woman, Ye worship ye know not what, we worship what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. The third mode is one which declares the one subsistence, and brings out the dual nature. For instance, And I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. And this, I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. And this, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And this, and no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven, and such like. Again, of the affirmations that refer to the period after the resurrection, some are suitable to God as baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. For here, Son is clearly used as God. Also this, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. And other similar ones, for he is with us as God. Others are suitable to man, as they held him by the feet, and there they will see me, and so forth. Further, of those referring to the period after the resurrection that are suitable to man, there are different modes. For some did actually take place, yet not according to nature, but according to dispensation, in order to confirm the fact that the very body which suffered rose again. Such are the wheels, the eating, and the drinking after the resurrection. Others took place actually and naturally, as changing from place to place without trouble, and passing in through closed gates. Others have the character of simulation, as he made as though he would have gone further. Others are appropriate to the double nature, as I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God, and the King of Glory shall come in, and he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Finally, others are to be understood as though he were ranking himself with us, in the manner of separation in pure thought, as my God and your God. Those then that are sublime must be assigned to the divine nature, which is superior to passion and body, and those that are humble must be ascribed to the human nature, and those that are common must be attributed to the compound, that is, to the one Christ who is God and man. And it should be understood that both belong to one and the same Jesus Christ our Lord. For if we know what is proper to each, and perceive that both are performed by one and the same, we shall have the true faith, and shall not go astray. And from all these the difference between the united natures is recognized, and the fact that, as the most godly Cyril says, they are not identical in the natural quality of their divinity and humanity. But yet there is but one Son and Christ and Lord, and as he is one, he has also but one person, the unity in subsistence being no wise broken up into parts by the recognition of the difference of the natures. Chapter 19. That God is not the cause of evils. It is to be observed that it is the custom in the holy scripture to speak of God's permission as his energy, as when the apostle says in the epistle to the Romans, hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. And for this reason that he himself makes this or that, for he is himself alone the maker of all things. Yet it is not he himself that fashions noble or ignoble things, but the personal choice of each one. And this is manifest from what the same apostle says in the second epistle to Timothy. In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. And it is evident that the purification must be voluntary, for if a man, he saith, purge himself. And the consequent antistrophe responds, if a man purge not himself, he will be a vessel to dishonor, unmeet for the master's use, and fit only to be broken in pieces. Wherefore this passage that we have quoted, and this, God hath concluded them all in unbelief, and this, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear. All these must be understood not as though God himself were energizing, but as though God were permitting, both because of free will, and because goodness knows no compulsion. His permission therefore is usually spoken of in the holy scripture as his energy and work. Nay, even when he says that God creates evil things, and that there is no evil in a city that the Lord hath not done, he does not mean by these words that the Lord is the cause of evil, but the word evil is used in two ways with two meanings. For sometimes it means what is evil by nature, and this is the opposite of virtue and the will of God. And sometimes it means that which is evil and oppressive to our sensation, that is to say afflictions and calamities. Now these are seemingly evil because they are painful, but in reality are good, for to those who understand they become ambassadors of conversion and salvation. The scripture says that of these God is the author. It is moreover to be observed that of these too we are the cause, for involuntary evils are the offspring of voluntary ones. This also should be recognized that it is usual in the scriptures for some things that ought to be considered as effects to be stated in a causal sense, as against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and prevail when thou judgest. For the sinner did not sin in order that God might prevail, nor again did God require our sin in order that he might by it be revealed as victor. For above comparison he wins the victor's prize against all, even against those who are sinless, being maker, incomprehensible, uncreated, and possessing natural and not advantageous glory. But it is because when we sin God is not unjust in his anger against us, and when he pardons the penitent he is shown victor over our wickedness. But it is not for this that we sin, but because the thing so turns out. It is just as if one were sitting at work and a friend stood nearby and one said, My friend came in order that I might do no work that day. The friend, however, was not present in order that the man should do no work, but such was the result. For being occupied with receiving his friend he did not work. These things too are spoken of as effects because affairs so turned out. Moreover, God does not wish that he alone should be just, but that all should, as far as possible, be made like unto him. CHAPTER XX. THAT THERE ARE NOT TWO KINGDOMS. That there are not two kingdoms, one good and one bad, we shall see from this. For good and evil are opposed to one another and mutually destructive, and cannot exist in one another or with one another. Each of them, therefore, in its own division, will belong to the whole, and first they will be circumscribed not by the whole alone, but also each of them by part of the whole. Next, I ask who it is that assigns to each its place, for they will not affirm that they have come to a friendly agreement with or been reconciled to one another. For evil is not evil when it is at peace with and reconciled to goodness, nor is goodness good when it is on amicable terms with evil. But if he who has marked off to each of its own sphere of action is something different from them, he must the rather be God. One of two things indeed is necessary, either that they come in contact with and destroy one another, or that there exists some intermediate place where neither goodness nor evil exists, separating both from one another like a partition, and so there will be no longer two but three kingdoms. Again, one of these alternatives is necessary, either that they are at peace, which is quite incompatible with evil, for that which is at peace is not evil, or they are at strife, which is incompatible with goodness, for that which is at strife is not perfectly good, or the evil is at strife and the good does not retaliate, but is destroyed by the evil, or they are ever in trouble and distress, which is not a mark of goodness. There is therefore but one kingdom delivered from all evil. But if this is so, they say, whence comes evil? For it is quite impossible that evil should originate from goodness. We answer, then, that evil is nothing else than absence of goodness, and elapsing from what is natural into what is unnatural, for nothing evil is natural. For all things whatsoever God made are very good so far as they were made. If, therefore, they remain just as they were created, they are very good. But when they voluntarily depart from what is natural and turn to what is unnatural, they slip into evil. By nature, therefore, all things are servants of the Creator and obey Him. Whenever, then, any of His creatures voluntarily rebels or becomes disobedient to His Maker, He introduces evil into Himself. For evil is not any essence nor a property of essence, but an accident, that is, a voluntary deviation from what is natural into what is unnatural, which is sin. Whence, then, comes sin? It is an invention of the free will of the devil. Is the devil, then, evil? Insofar as he was brought into existence, he is not evil but good. For he was created by his Maker, a bright and very brilliant angel endowed with free will as being rational. But he voluntarily departed from the virtue that is natural and came into the darkness of evil, being far removed from God, who alone is good and can give life and light. For from Him every good thing derives its goodness, and so far as it is separated from Him in will, for it is not in place, it falls into evil. CHAPTER XXI. THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH GOD IN HIS FORKNOWLEDGE CREATED PERSONS WHO WOULD SIN AND NOT REPENT. God in His goodness brought that which exists into being out of nothing, and has foreknowledge of what will exist in the future. If, therefore, they were not to exist in the future, they would neither be evil in the future, nor would they be foreknown. For knowledge is of what exists, and foreknowledge is of what will surely exist in the future. For simple being comes first, and then good or evil being. But if the very existence of those who through the goodness of God are in the future to exist were to be prevented by the fact that they were to become evil of their own choice, evil would have prevailed over the goodness of God. Therefore God makes all His works good, but each becomes of its own choice good or evil. Although, then, the Lord said, Good were it for that man that he had never been born, he said it in condemnation not of his own creation, but of the evil which his own creation had acquired by his own choice and through his own heedlessness. For the heedlessness that marks man's judgment made his Creator's beneficence of no profit to him. It is just as if any one, when he had obtained riches and dominion from a king, were to lord it over his benefactor, who, when he has worsted him, will punish him as he deserves, if he should see him keeping hold of the sovereignty to the end. CHAPTER XXII. CONCERNING THE LAW OF GOD AND THE LAW OF SIN. The Deity is good and more than good, and so is His will. For that which God wishes is good. Moreover, the precept which teaches this is law, that we, holding by it, may walk in light. And the transgression of this precept is sin, and this continues to exist on account of the assault of the devil and our unconstrained and voluntary reception of it. And this, too, is called law. And so the law of God, settling in our mind, draws it toward itself, and pricks our conscience. And our conscience, too, is called the law of our mind. Further, the assault of the wicked one, that is, the law of sin, settling in the members of our flesh, makes its assault upon us through it. For, by once voluntarily transgressing the law of God, and receiving the assault of the wicked one, we gave entrance to it, being sold by ourselves to sin. Wherefore our body is readily impelled to it. And so the savour and perception of sin that is stored up in our body, that is to say, lust and pleasure of the body, is law in the members of our flesh. Therefore the law of my mind, that is, the conscience, sympathizes with the law of God, that is, the precept, and makes that its will. But the law of sin, that is to say, the assault made through the law that is in our members, or through the lust and inclination and movement of the body and of the irrational part of the soul, is in opposition to the law of my mind, that is, to conscience, and takes me captive, even though I make the law of God my will, and set my love on it, and make not sin my will, by reason of commixture. And through the softness of pleasure and the lust of the body, and of the irrational part of the soul, as I said, it leads me astray and induces me to become the servant of sin. But what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, for he assumed flesh, but not sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but in the spirit. For the spirit helpeth our infirmities, and affordeth power to the law of our mind, against the law that is in our members. For the verse, We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself maketh intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered, itself teacheth us what to pray for. Hence it is impossible to carry out the precepts of the Lord except by patience and prayer.