On Accepting the Homoousion

I. I marvel that even now one understanding is not held with settled mind among us: we all understand rightly, and yet we are not united. I shall therefore set forth the whole mystery, the words, opinions, meanings, and reasoning of all, in brief speech, so that we may be able to exclude Arius. The Greeks, whom they call Hellenes, or Pagans, say there are many gods. The Jews or Hebrews say one: we, because the later truth and grace has come, say against the Pagans one God; against the Jews, Father and Son: thus saying two, Father and Son, but yet one God, having embraced both religions, we resist each by the contrary of the other. And the Pagans indeed, having fallen far, even said that the elements and their foods were their gods. The Jews by carnal error deny Christ, whom they confess in another manner. Our dogma therefore is to prove what taught the truth and corrected the error.

This will be easy to know if the force of the word set down by our forebears is known, which has been named ὁμοούσιον, and I do not wish anyone to err, when I shall have said ὁμοούσιον only of the Father and the Son: because the Holy Spirit is both from the Father and in the Son. This reasoning will prevail most strongly against the Arians and against the heretics. We confess that God exists; so it is to exist: let us confess Christ thus: in this manner I say, God exists, Christ exists. But what is this existence? We confess that he is light, that he is Spirit, that he is God, that he is λόγος. Therefore no one denies these things: this existence the Greeks call οὐσία or ὑπόστασις: we in one Latin word call it substantia. And οὐσία is used by few and rare Greeks, ὑπόστασις by all.

II. They differ indeed; but let us now pass over that. The divine Scripture in Greek often said ὑπόστασις, in Latin substantia. And the prophet Jeremiah spoke of the substance of God: But if these had stood in the substance of the Lord, they would have seen my Word. But what is it to stand in the substance? To understand the substance of God, that it is the true light, that it is the infinite Spirit. When they had understood this, they would understand the λόγος of the Lord, that is, they would have seen the Word of the Lord. And so also a little later the same Jeremiah speaks. David says: And my substance in the lower parts of the earth, and he speaks of God, and he says substance, and what this means is manifest. The Apostle says to the Hebrews: Who is the character of his substance. For he called the Spirit the character of the substance of God. There are many other examples, but what does it matter?

It has been read that the substance of God both is and is spoken of. Now the substance of God is light, Spirit, God. Likewise the substance of Christ is λόγος, light, Christ. Hence we all truly say Christ is true light from true light, God from God: rightly therefore is he said to be of the same substance, that is ὁμοούσιον. You confess therefore ὁμοούσιον, when you say light from light, God from God; why do you resist? Because it is Greek? Ὁμο is such that, joined to something, it now signifies of the same thing, now that a thing exists together with a thing, as for instance species, which in Greek is called eidos, form: these, ὁμο and eidos, form, are joined, and it signifies of the same species: so ὁμώνυμον, of the same name. Therefore when ὁμο is joined to οὐσία, ὁμοούσιον is formed, of the same οὐσία, that is of the same substance. By this Arius is excluded, who said that Christ is from nothing.

Likewise we said that ὁμο signifies ὁμοῦ, together, when joined to a thing, meaning nothing other than to say that a thing exists simultaneously, as ὁμοηλικής, of the same age together, and ὁμοτρόφους, ὁμοῦ τραφέντας, nourished together: therefore we shall say ὁμοούσιον means simultaneously substantial, or consubstantial. Behold we have names in Latin as well: and if this is so, by this also Arius is excluded, who said, there was a time when he was not. For if we say, always Father, always Son, and if in the beginning was the λόγος and the λόγος was with God, since the beginning is without origin and without time, God always was, always the λόγος, always the Father, always the Son. If this is so, it is excluded, as I said, that there was a time when he was not. Behold ὁμοούσιον is present in both senses, set against Arius and the whole heresy of Arius.

III. If these things are true, accept ὁμοούσιον: for if you do not wish to, you do not hide that you are new Arians. But as is clear from your own actions, you do indeed say Christ is God from God, light from light; but made, and in this manner born not from the substance of God but from nothing, and this you compel others to say through your arguments, so that you may hear it said rather than say it yourselves; and why these arguments? O God, O Christ, come to our aid: if Christ was born from God, then God is either divided or diminished. These and similar unworthy things you often put forward, as though God were a body, or corporeal, or matter: for in such things division or diminution can occur. But concerning this we have already said much, in what manner in divine things, in incorporeal things, especially in the soul, in spirit, in mind, and still more in God, either motion or generation occurs in every mode.

For perfect things can neither be increased nor diminished, especially with regard to substance, for since they are αὐτόγονα and αὐτοδύναμα—I speak of God, of spirit—they emit things of the same kind as themselves: nor is generation there a generation by change, nor is there any passion there, or any phantom of passion. Meanwhile by these reasonings of yours, what do you compel us to confess, that Christ was born from nothing? Is your blasphemy any less, when you yourselves think the same things? Or why is your profession not open, if you think thus? But you do not see that you speak contradictory things: for you say God from God, light from light. This is from nothing, when you say whence. Therefore Christ is from God, not therefore from nothing; from light, not from nothing; for from God, from his very substance, is understood. For that which is from God is one thing: for all things are from God, but Christ is from God; and Christ himself is the λόγος, or the λόγος is Christ.

IV. Finally, seek what the λόγος is, and you will find that the λόγος cannot be from nothing. But those men deceive you, those men, I say, who not understanding the mode of generation, say, Who can declare the generation of the Lord? First it can seem to have been said of men: who? Or, no one. But the Holy Spirit can both suggest and declare it. Whence also we have spoken by the permission of God the Father and of Jesus Christ our Lord; and certainly this was said not in despair but with wonder. Then let the mode of generation be unknown; we speak of substance: if Father and Son, ὁμοούσιον. But how God is Father, and how the λόγος is Son, is difficult to know. Now however this does not seem to need to be sought: for first it must be confessed that the Son is from the substance of the Father, and then how he is Son; which mode is truly difficult, and has been treated by us elsewhere.

Therefore now concerning ὁμοούσιον, certainly so as to satisfy you (for we desire peace with all), we have a way to express ὁμοούσιον, first consubstantial or simultaneously consubstantial. Then if we say God from God, light from light: but the Father is light, likewise the Son is light: when we say that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son, let us also say—we who rightly say God from God, light from light—that this will be the true and full ὁμοούσιον. Do you doubt? What if this too has been read? It is blasphemy to contradict. David: For with thee is the fountain of life; and: In thy light shall we see light. Confess now this also, and ὁμοούσιον. Similarly this can be objected to one who says like substance: for we say the same and simultaneously substance, certainly it is said in Isaiah: No one before thee, God, and no one after thee like thee, God. And David: Who shall be like unto thee, O God?

These things against those who say like substance: but I also pass over many things which have been treated more fully and more abundantly, in the treatises against those which they themselves sent. For nothing need be said of those who say unlike; nor of those who think that those who treat the things we are saying are Patripassians. For all these and other heretics have been easily refuted in a larger treatise. Be present, O God the Father, and O God the Lord Jesus Christ, that there may be ὁμοουσία in thy people through ὁμοούσιον. Amen.