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

Dogmatic.be observed in the meaning of the terms. The word unbegotten is predicated of that whichhas origin of itself, and no cause of its being: the word eternal is predicated of that whichis in being beyond all time and age. 359 Wherefore the Son is both not unbegotten andeternal. 360 Eunomius was ready to give great dignity to the Son as a supreme creature. Hedid not hold the essence of the Son to be common to that of the things created out of nothing.361 He would give Him as great a preëminence as the Creator has over His own createdworks. 362 Basil attributes little importance to this concession, and thinks it only leads toconfusion and contradiction. If the God of the universe, being unbegotten, necessarily differsfrom things begotten, and all things begotten have their common hypostasis of the nonexistent,what alternative is there to a natural conjunction of all such things? Just as in theone case the unapproachable effects a distinction between the natures, so in the otherequality of condition brings them into mutual contact. They say that the Son and all thingsthat came into being under Him are of the non-existent, and so far they make those naturescommon, and yet they deny that they give Him a nature of the non-existent. For again, asthough Eunomius were Lord himself, and able to give to the Only Begotten what rank anddignity he chooses, he goes on to argue,—We attribute to Him so much supereminence asthe Creator must of necessity have over His own creature. He does not say, “We conceive,”or “We are of opinion,” as would be befitting when treating of God, but he says “We attribute,”as though he himself could control the measure of the attribution. And how muchsupereminence does he give? As much as the Creator must necessarily have over His owncreatures. This has not yet reached a statement of difference of substance. Human beingsin art surpass their own works, and yet are consubstantial with them, as the potter with hisclay, and the shipwright with his timber. For both are alike bodies, subject to sense, andearthy. 363 Eunomius explained the title “Only Begotten” to mean that the Son alone wasbegotten and created by the Father alone, and therefore was made the most perfect minister.“If,” rejoins Basil, “He does not possess His glory in being perfect God, if it lies only in Hisbeing an exact and obedient subordinate, in what does He differ from the ministering spiritswho perform the work of their service without blame? 364 Indeed Eunomius joins ‘created’to ‘begotten’ with the express object of shewing that there is no distinction between the Sonand a creature! 365 And how unworthy a conception of the Father that He should need axxxvii359 ἀΐδιον δὲ τὸ χρόνου παντὸς καὶ αἰ& 242·νος κατὰ τὸ εἶναι πρεσβύτερον.360 Id. ii. 18.361 Eunomius is therefore not to be ranked with the extreme “Exucontians.” cf. Soc. H.E. ii. 45.362 Id. ii. 19.363 Id. ii. 19.364 So. R.V. distinguishes between the words λειτουργικὰ and διακονίαν which are confused in A.V.365 Id. i. 21.61