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

To the same Amphilochius.Letter CCXXXVI. 2975To the same Amphilochius.1. Enquiry has already frequently been made concerning the saying of the gospels asto our Lord Jesus Christ’s ignorance of the day and of the hour of the end; 2976 an objectionconstantly 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 onelikeness with Him, who by His own prescience and faculty of forecasting the future hasknowledge coextensive with the universe. This question has now been proposed to me byyour intelligence as a new one. I can give in reply the answer which I heard from our fatherswhen I was a boy, and which on account of my love for what is good, I have received withoutquestion. I do not expect that it can undo the shamelessness of them that fight againstChrist, 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 suppliedthem 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 exceptedby it, but this is not its use in Scripture, as I have observed in the passage “there is none goodbut one, that is, God.” 2977 For even in this passage the Son does not so speak to the exclusionof 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 thepassage “No man knoweth the Son but the Father;” 2979 even here there is no charge of ignoranceagainst the Spirit, but only a testimony that knowledge of His own nature naturallybelongs to the Father first. Thus also we understand “No man knoweth,” 2980 to refer to theFather the first knowledge of things, both present and to be, and generally to exhibit to menthe first cause. Otherwise how can this passage fall in with the rest of the evidence ofScripture, or agree with the common notions of us who believe that the Only-Begotten isthe image of the invisible God, and image not of the bodily figure, but of the very Godhead2975 This letter is also dated in 376, and treats of further subjects not immediately raised by the De SpirituSancto: How Christ can be said to be ignorant of the day and the hour; Of the prediction of Jeremiah concerningJeconiah; Of an objection of the Encratites; Of fate; Of emerging in baptism; Of the accentuation of the wordφάγος; 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. 36.767