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

In how many ways “Through whom” is used; and in what sense “with whom” is moresuitable. Explanation of how the Son receives a commandment, and how He is sent.The apostle, it is true, says, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through himthat loved us.” 864 But in a phrase of this kind there is no suggestion of any lowly and subordinateministry, 865 but rather of the succour rendered “in the power of his might.” 866For He Himself has bound the strong man and spoiled his goods, 867 that is, us men, whomour enemy had abused in every evil activity, and made “vessels meet for the Master’s use” 868us who have been perfected for every work through the making ready of that part of uswhich is in our own control. 869 Thus we have had our approach to the Father through Him,being translated from “the power of darkness to be partakers of the inheritance of the saintsin light.” 870 We must not, however, regard the œconomy 871 through the Son as a compulsoryand subordinate ministration resulting from the low estate of a slave, but rather the voluntarysolicitude working effectually for His own creation in goodness and in pity, according tothe will of God the Father. For we shall be consistent with true religion if in all that was andis from time to time perfected by Him, we both bear witness to the perfection of His power,and in no case put it asunder from the Father’s will. For instance, whenever the Lord ison the Incarnation, sect. 54, “He was made man that we might be made God; and He manifested Himself by abody that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we mightinherit immortality. For while He Himself was in no way injured, being impassible and incorruptible and thevery Word and God, men who were suffering, and for whose sakes He endured all this, He maintained andpreserved in His own impassibility.”864 Rom. viii. 37.865 ὑπηρεσία. Lit. “under-rowing.” The cognate ὑπηρέτης is the word used in Acts xxvi. 16, in the words ofthe Saviour to St. Paul, “to make thee a minister,” and in 1 Cor. iv. 1, “Let a man so account of us as of theministers of Christ.”866 Eph. vi. 10.867 cf. Matt. xii. 29.868 2 Tim. ii. 21.869 This passage is difficult to render alike from the variety of readings and the obscurity of each. I have endeavouredto represent the force of the Greek ἐκ τῆς ἑτοιμασίας τοῦ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν, understanding by “τὸ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν,”practically, “our free will.” cf. the enumeration of what is ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν, within our own control, in the Enchiridionof Epicetus, Chap. I. “Within our own control are impulse, desire, inclination.” On Is. vi. 8, “Here am I; sendme,” St. Basil writes, “He did not add ‘I will go;’ for the acceptance of the message is within our control (ἐφ᾽ἡμῖν), but to be made capable of going is of Him that gives the grace, of the enabling God.” The Benedictinetranslation of the text is “per liberi arbitrii nostri præparationem.” But other readings are (i) τῆς ἑτοιμασίαςαὐτοῦ, “the preparation which is in our own control;” (ii) τῆς ἑτοιμασίας αὐτοῦ, “His preparation;” and (iii)the Syriac represented by “arbitrio suo.”870 Col. i. 12, 13.871 cf. note on page 7.165