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

A transcript of the faith as dictated by Saint Basil, and subscribed by Eustathius, bishop ofSebasteia.was of the same substance with the Father, and some asserted that He was not of the substanceand was of some other hypostasis, they thus condemned both opinions as outside that heldby the Church. When they set forth their own view, they declared the Son to be of the substanceof the Father, but they did not add the words “of the hypostasis.” The former clausestands for the condemnation of the faulty view; the latter plainly states the dogma of salvation.We are therefore bound to confess the Son to be of one substance with the Father, asit is written; but the Father to exist in His own proper hypostasis, the Son in His, and theHoly Ghost in His, as they themselves have clearly delivered the doctrine. They indeedclearly and satisfactorily declared in the words Light of Light, that the Light which begatand the Light which was begotten, are distinct, and yet Light and Light; so that the definitionof the Substance is one and the same. 2411 I will now subjoin the actual creed as it was drawnup at Nicæa. 24122. πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα παντοκράτορα, πάντων ὁρατῶν τε καὶ ἀοράτωνποιητήν· [ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς ὁρατῶν τε πάντων καὶ ἀοράτων·]καὶ εἰς ἕνα Κύριον Ιησοῦν Χριστόν, τὸν υἱ& 232·ν τοῦ Θεοῦ [τὸν μονογενῆ] γεννηθένταἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς μονογενῆ. [τὸν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τών αἰ& 240·νων.]τουτέστιν ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ Πατρός, Θεὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ [omit], 2413 Φῶς ἐκ Φῶτος, Θεὸνἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ, γεννηθέντα οὐ ποιηθέντα, ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρι, δι᾽ οἷ τὰπάντα ἐγένετο, τά τε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ γῇ [omit].τὸν δι᾽ ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρωποὺς καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμέτεραν σωτηρίαν, κατελθόντα [ἐκ τῶνοὐρανῶν] καὶ σαρκωθέντα. [ἑκ πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ Μαρίας τῆς παρθένου.]καὶ ἐνανθρωπήσαντα [σταυρωθέντα τε ὑπὲρ ημῶν ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, καὶ], παθόντα[καὶ ταφέντα], καί ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρα [κατὰ τὰς γραφὰς καὶ], ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺςοὐρανοὺς. [καὶ καθεζόμενον ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ Πατρός.]1952411 cf. Letters xxxviii. and xcii. Basil is anxious to show that his own view is identical with the Nicene, anddoes not admit a development and variation in the meaning of the word hypostasis; but on comparing such apassage as that in Athan. c. Afros, “hypostasis is substance, and means nothing else but very being” (ἡ δὲ ὑπόστασιςοὐσία ἐστὶ καὶ οὐδὲν ἀλλὸ σημαινόμενον ἔχει ἢ αὐτὸ τὸ ὄν) with St. Basil’s words in the text it appears plainthat hypostasis is not used throughout in the same sense. An erroneous sense of “three hypostases” was understoodto be condemned at Nicæa, though Athanasius, e.g. “In illud omnia,” etc., Schaff and Wace’s ed., p. 90,does himself use the phrase, writing probably about ten years after Nicæa; but he more commonly treats ουσίαand ὑπόστασις as identical. See specially the Tomus ad Antiochenos of a.d. 362 on the possible use of either“three hypostases” or “one hypostasis.” cf. also n. on p. 179.2412 I give the creed in the original Greek. The passages in brackets indicate the alterations of the Constantinopolitanrevision according to the text of Chalcedon.2413 “Deum de Deo” is inserted in the Sarum Breviary.565