Letter 2

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: Emperor Gratian Date: ~380 AD Context: Ambrose sends additional books of "On the Faith" to Gratian, expanding his argument against the Arian heresy with scriptural proofs. To the most gracious Emperor Gratian — Ambrose, Bishop. Your Clemency received my earlier work with such favor that you have now requested more. I gladly comply. You asked for two books on the faith; I now send three additional ones [books 3-5 of De Fide]. The topic demands thoroughness, and the Arian challenge deserves no half-measure in reply. The Arians [followers of Arius, who denied the full divinity of Christ] claim that the Son was created — that there was a time when he did not exist. Against this I marshal the testimony of Scripture itself. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Not "the Word was made" — "the Word was." The difference is everything. They twist the phrase "begotten, not made" to mean what it does not mean. To beget is the act of a father communicating his own nature to a son. A father begets what he himself is. God begets God. The Son is not a work of the Father's hands but the radiance of his glory. I have also addressed their favorite proof-texts — those passages they love to cite in isolation, stripped of their context. When Scripture says the Son "was made" in certain passages, it speaks of the Incarnation, not of his eternal being. The Son was made flesh; he was not made God. He always was God. Accept this work, most faithful Emperor, and know that the faith you carry into battle is the faith of Nicaea — the faith of your predecessors, the faith of the apostles, the faith once delivered to the saints. No power of earth or hell prevails against it.

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