Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

To the same Amphilochius.
Letter CCXXXVI. 2975
1. Enquiry has already frequently been made concerning the saying of the gospels as
to our Lord Jesus Christ’s ignorance of the day and of the hour of the end; 2976 an objection
constantly put forward by the Anomœans to the destruction of the glory of the Only-Begotten,
in order to show Him to be unlike in essence and subordinate in dignity; inasmuch as,
if He know not all things, He cannot possess the same nature nor be regarded as of one
likeness with Him, who by His own prescience and faculty of forecasting the future has
knowledge coextensive with the universe. This question has now been proposed to me by
your intelligence as a new one. I can give in reply the answer which I heard from our fathers
when I was a boy, and which on account of my love for what is good, I have received without
question. I do not expect that it can undo the shamelessness of them that fight against
Christ, for where is the reasoning strong enough to stand their attack? It may, however,
suffice to convince all that love the Lord, and in whom the previous assurance supplied
them by faith is stronger than any demonstration of reason.
Now “no man” seems to be a general expression, so that not even one person is excepted
by it, but this is not its use in Scripture, as I have observed in the passage “there is none good
but one, that is, God.” 2977 For even in this passage the Son does not so speak to the exclusion
of Himself from the good nature. But, since the Father is the first good, we believe the words
“no man” to have been uttered with the understood addition of “first.” 2978 So with the
passage “No man knoweth the Son but the Father;” 2979 even here there is no charge of ignorance
against the Spirit, but only a testimony that knowledge of His own nature naturally
belongs to the Father first. Thus also we understand “No man knoweth,” 2980 to refer to the
Father the first knowledge of things, both present and to be, and generally to exhibit to men
the first cause. Otherwise how can this passage fall in with the rest of the evidence of
Scripture, or agree with the common notions of us who believe that the Only-Begotten is
the image of the invisible God, and image not of the bodily figure, but of the very Godhead
2975 This letter is also dated in 376, and treats of further subjects not immediately raised by the De Spiritu
Sancto: How Christ can be said to be ignorant of the day and the hour; Of the prediction of Jeremiah concerning
Jeconiah; Of an objection of the Encratites; Of fate; Of emerging in baptism; Of the accentuation of the word
φάγος; Of essence and hypostasis; Of the ordaining of things neutral and indifferent.
2976 Mark xiii. 32.
2977 Mark x. 18. i.e. in Adv. Eumon. iv. vide Proleg.
2978 The manuscripts at this point are corrupt and divergent.
2979 Matt. xi. 27.
2980 Matt. xxiv. 36.
To the same Amphilochius.
767