NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Homiletical.that the phrase has more than one meaning. There are in this world many beginnings ofmany things, yet there is one beginning which is beyond them all. ‘Beginning of good way,’says the Proverb. But the beginning of a way is the first movement whereby we begin thejourney of which the earlier part can be discovered. And, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginningof wisdom.’ 616 To this beginning is prefixed something else, for elementary instructionis the beginning of the comprehension of arts. The fear of the Lord is then a primary elementof wisdom, but there is something anterior to this beginning—the condition of the soul,before it has been taught wisdom and apprehended the fear of the Lord.…The point is thebeginning of the line, and the line is the beginning of the surface, and the surface is the beginningof the body, and the parts of speech are the beginnings of grammatical utterance.But the beginning in the text is like none of these.…In the beginning was the Word! Marvellousutterance! How all the words are found to be combined in mutual equality of force!‘Was’ has the same force as ‘In the beginning.’ Where is the blasphemer? Where is thetongue that fights against Christ? Where is the tongue that said, ‘There was when He wasnot’? Hear the gospel: ‘In the beginning was. ’ If He was in the beginning, when was Henot? Shall I bewail their impiety or execrate their want of instruction? But, it is argued,before He was begotten, He was not. Do you know when He was begotten, that you mayintroduce the idea of priority to the time? For the word ‘before’ is a word of time, placingone thing before another in antiquity. In what way is it reasonable that the Creator of timeshould have a generation subjected to terms of time? ‘In the beginning was—’ Never giveup the was, and you never give any room for the vile blasphemy to slip in. Mariners laughat the storm, when they are riding upon two anchors. So will you laugh to scorn this vileagitation which is being driven on the world by the blasts of wickedness, and tosses the faithof many to and fro, if only you will keep your soul moored safely in the security of thesewords.”In § 4 on the force of with God. 617 “Note with admiration the exact appropriateness ofevery single word. It is not said ‘The Word was in God.’ It runs ‘was with God.’ This is toset forth the proper character of the hypostasis. The Evangelist did not say ‘in God,’ to avoidgiving any pretext for the confusion of the hypostasis. That is the vile blasphemy of menwho are endeavouring to confound all things together, asserting that Father, Son, and HolyGhost, form one subject matter, and that different appellations are applied to one thing.The impiety is vile, and no less to be shunned than that of those who blasphemously maintainthat the Son is in essence unlike God the Father. The Word was with God. Immediatelyafter using the term Word to demonstrate the impassibility of the generation, he forthwithgives an explanation to do away with the mischief arising in us from the term Word. As616 Prov. i. 7.617 πρὸς τὸν Θεόν.105