Letter 275

To Gainas the General. [Gainas: the Gothic magister militum under the emperor Arcadius; an Arian.] "As being the radiance of the glory." [Hebrews 1:3] The great Apostle [Paul] speaks by way of an illustration, in order to indicate that which is free from passion, and that this radiance is not from a Father who has been diminished, nor from one who has been lessened; it is not without subsistence, but it has its being in another. Do not, then, conceive this with regard to God the Word; for see what the Apostle immediately adds: "And the exact imprint of his substance." [Hebrews 1:3; "hypostasis," his very person] For just as the Father is subsisting in his own person, so too the Son is subsisting in his own person, though not without beginning; the Son [has a beginning], for the Father is the cause of him, in that he is Father, not in that he is Creator. And observe how in the Gospels the radiance itself says: "I am the light of the world" [John 8:12], light from light. The imprint is something other than the prototype, yet not wholly other, but only according to its subsisting in its own person.

« Ὡς ὧν ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης. » Ὑποδείγματι διαλέγεται ὁ μέγας 'Απόστολος, ἵνα σημάνῃ τὸ ἀπα- θὲς, καὶ ὅτι οὐκ ἐξ ἐλαττωθέντος τοῦ Πατρός, οὐδὲ μειωθέντος τόδε ἀπαύγασμα, οὐκ ἀνυπόστατον, ἀλλ' ἐν ἑτέρῳ ἔχει τὸ εἶναι. Μὴ οὖν τοῦτο ἐννοήσῃς ἐπὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου· βλέπε γὰρ τί εὐθὺς ὁ 'Απόστολος ἐπάγει· « Καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ. » Ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ Πατὴρ ἐνυπόστατος, οὕτως καὶ ὁ Υἱὸς ἐνυπόστατος οὐκ ἄναρχος· ὁ Υἱὸς, αἴτιος γὰρ αὐτοῦ ὁ Πατὴρ, καθ' ὃ Πατὴρ, οὐ καθ' ὃ Κτίστης. Ὅρα δὲ πῶς λέγει ἐν Εὐαγγελίοις αὐτὸ τὸ ἀπαύγασμα· «Ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου», φῶς ἐκ φωτός. Ὁ χαρακτὴρ ἄλλο τί ἐστι παρὰ τὸ πρωτότυπον, ἄλλο δὲ οὐ πάντη, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ ἐνυπόστατον.