Athanasius Of Alexandria Quotes

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Christ was made man that we might be made God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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If the world is against the truth, then I am against the world.
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Athanasius of Alexandria
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For God is good - or rather, of all goodness He is the Fountainhead.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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For, indeed, everything about is marvelous, and wherever a man turns his gaze he sees the Godhead of the Word and is smitten with awe.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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You cannot put straight in others what is warped in yourself.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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This distinctness of things argues not a spontaneous generation but a prevenient Cause; and from that Cause we can apprehend
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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It was a dictum of his that the soul's energy thrives when the body's desires are feeblest.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Life Of St. Anthony)
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For God has not only created us from nothing, but also granted us by the grace of the Word to live a life according to God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation: Saint Athanasius (Popular Patristics Series Book 44))
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Let no one who hath renounced the world think that he hath given up some great thing... the whole earth set over against heavenΚΌs infinite is scant and poor
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Life Of St. Anthony)
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For we were the purpose of his embodiment, and for our salvation he so loved human beings as to come to be and appear in a human body.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation: Saint Athanasius (Popular Patristics Series Book 44))
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Evil, then consists essentially in the choice of what is lower in preference to what is higher.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (Against the Heathen)
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So purity of soul is sufficient of itself to reflect God, as the Lord also says, β€œBlessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (Against the Heathen)
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You know how it is when some great king enters a large city and dwells in one of its houses; because of his dwelling in that single house, the whole city is honored, and enemies and robbers cease to molest it. Even so is it with the King of all; He has come into our country and dwelt in one body amidst the many, and in consequence the designs of the enemy against mankind have been foiled and the corruption of death, which formerly held them in its power, has simply ceased to be. For the human race would have perished utterly had not the Lord and Savior of all the Son of God, come among us to put an end to death.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On The Incarnation)
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Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot the passers-by sneer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So has death been conquered
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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The Greek philosophers have compiled many works with persuasiveness and much skill in words; but what fruit have they to show for this such as has the cross of Christ? Their wise thoughts were persuasive enough until they died;
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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The presence and love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it; for it is God alone Who exists, evil is non-being, the negation and antithesis of good.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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Heracles is worshipped as a god by the Greeks because he fought with humans equal to himself and killed wild beasts by guile. But what was that compared to what was done by the Word, who banished sicknesses and demons and death itself from human beings?
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation: Saint Athanasius (Popular Patristics Series Book 44))
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For the Word, realizing that in no other way would the corruption of human beings be undone except, simply, by dying, yet being immortal and the Son of the Father of the Word was not able to die, for this reason he takes to himself a body capable of death, in order that it, participating in the Word who is above all, might be sufficient for death on behalf of all, and through the indwelling Word would remain incorruptible, and so corruption might henceforth cease from all by the grace of the resurrection.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot the passers-by sneer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Savior on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, all who are in Christ trample it as they pass and as witnesses to Him deride it, scoffing and saying, "O Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting?"35
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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through death deathlessness has been made known to us,
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation: Saint Athanasius (Popular Patristics Series Book 44))
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the presence of the Word with them shielded them even from natural corruption,
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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we see the fitness of His death and of those outstretched arms: it was that He might draw His ancient people with the one and the Gentiles with the other, and join both together in Himself.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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The answer is this. The Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach suffering men. For one who wanted to make a display the thing would have been just to appear and dazzle the beholders. But for Him Who came to heal and to teach the way was not merely to dwell here, but to put Himself at the disposal of those who needed Him, and to be manifested according as they could bear it, not vitiating the value of the Divine appearing by exceeding their capacity to receive it.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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Five times was Athanasius expelled from his throne; twenty years he passed as an exile or a fugitive; and almost every province of the Roman empire was successively witness to his merit, and his sufferings in the cause of the Homoousion, which he considered as the sole pleasure and business, as the duty, and as the glory, of his life. Amidst the storms of persecution, the archbishop of Alexandria was patient of labour, jealous of fame, careless of safety; and
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Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)
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It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation: Saint Athanasius (Popular Patristics Series Book 44))
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repentance recall men from what is according to their nature; all that it does is to make them cease from sinning. Had it been a case of a trespass only, and not of a subsequent corruption, repentance would have been well enough; but when once transgression had begun men came under the power of the corruption proper to their nature and were bereft of the grace which belonged to them as creatures in the Image of God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that β€œnothing happens” when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation: Saint Athanasius (Popular Patristics Series Book 44))
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For of what use is existence to the creature if it cannot know its Maker? How could men be reasonable beings if they had no knowledge of the Word and Reason of the Father, through Whom they had received their being? They would be no better than the beasts, had they no knowledge save of earthly things; and why should God have made them at all, if He had not intended them to know Him? But, in fact, the good God has given them a share in His own Image, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and has made even themselves after the same Image and Likeness. Why? Simply in order that through this gift of Godlikeness in themselves they may be able to perceive the Image Absolute, that is the Word Himself, and through Him to apprehend the Father; which knowledge of their Maker is for men the only really happy and blessed life.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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The hermit Anthony once told me that a monk is like a fish: take him out of his element and he dies. Silence is his element. In silence you can trade this shoddy world for Heaven.
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Gillian Bradshaw (The Beacon at Alexandria)
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Athanasius contra mundum.
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Athanasius of Alexandria
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A king who has founded a city, so far from neglecting it when through the carelessness of the inhabitants it is attacked by robbers, avenges it and saves it from destruction, having regard rather to his own honour than to the people’s neglect.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On The Incarnation)
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He prudently declined the tribunal of his enemies; despised the summons of the synod of Caesarea; and, after a long and artful delay, submitted to the peremptory commands of the emperor, who threatened to punish his criminal disobedience if he refused to appear in the council of Tyre. ^104 Before Athanasius, at the head of fifty Egyptian prelates, sailed from Alexandria, he had wisely secured the alliance of the Meletians; and Arsenius himself, his imaginary victim, and his secret friend, was privately concealed in his train.
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Edward Gibbon (History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volumes 1-6)
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It is, indeed, in accordance with the nature of the invisible God that He should be thus known through His works; and those who doubt the Lord's resurrection because they do not now behold Him with their eyes, might as well deny the very laws of nature. They have ground for disbelief when works are lacking; but when the works cry out and prove the fact so clearly, why do they deliberately deny the risen life so manifestly shown? Even if their mental faculties are defective, surely their eyes can give them irrefragable proof of the power and Godhead of Christ. A blind man cannot see the sun, but he knows that it is above the earth from the warmth which it affords; similarly, let those who are still in the blindness of unbelief recognize the Godhead of Christ and the resurrection which He has brought about through His manifested power in others.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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There were thus two things which the Savior did for us by becoming Man. He banished death from us and made us anew; and, invisible and imperceptible as in Himself He is, He became visible through His works and revealed Himself as the Word of the Father, the Ruler and King of the whole creation.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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You know how it is when some great king enters a large city and dwells in one of its houses; because of his dwelling in that single house, the whole city is honored, and enemies and robbers cease to molest it. Even so is it with the King of all; He has come into our country and dwelt in one body amidst the many, and in consequence the designs of the enemy against mankind have been foiled and the corruption of death, which formerly held them in its power, has simply ceased to be. For the human race would have perished utterly had not the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, come among us to put an end to death.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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I have sometimes gone so far as to wish to banish all the melodies and sweet chants commonly used for David's psalter from my ears and from the Church as well. But I think a safer course one which I remember being often told of Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria. He used to make the reader of the psalm chant with so flexible a speech-rhythm that he was nearer to reciting than to singing. Nevertheless, when I remember the tears which I poured out at the time when I was first recovering my faith, and that now I am moved not by the chant but by the words being sung, when they are sung with a clear voice and entirely appropriate modulation, then again I recognize the great utility of music in worship.
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Augustine of Hippo (Confessions)
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He, the Life of all, our Lord and Savior, did not arrange the manner of his own death lest He should seem to be afraid of some other kind. No. He accepted and bore upon the cross a death inflicted by others, and those others His special enemies, a death which to them was supremely terrible and by no means to be faced; and He did this in order that, by destroying even this death, He might Himself be believed to be the Life, and the power of death be recognized as finally annulled.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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Even the very creation broke silence at His behest and, marvelous to relate, confessed with one voice before the cross, that monument of victory, that He Who suffered thereon in the body was not man only, but Son of God and Savior of all. The sun veiled his face, the earth quaked, the mountains were rent asunder, all men were stricken with awe. These things showed that Christ on the cross was God, and that all creation was His slave and was bearing witness by its fear to the presence of its Master.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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Supporters of apokatastasis in roughly chronological order: - [c. 30-105] Apostle Paul and various NT authors - [c. 80-150] Scattered likely references among Apostolic Fathers o Ignatius o Justin Martyr o Tatian o Theophilus of Antioch (explicit references) - [130-202] Irenaeus - [c. 150-200] Pantaenus of Alexandria - [150-215] Clement of Alexandria - [154-222] Bardaisan of Edessa - [c. 184-253] Origen (including The Dialogue of Adamantius) - [β™± 265] Dionysius of Alexandria - [265-280] Theognustus - [c. 250-300] Hieracas - [β™± c. 309] Pierius - [β™± c. 309] St Pamphilus Martyr - [β™± c. 311] Methodius of Olympus - [251-306] St. Anthony - [c. 260-340] Eusebius - [c. 270-340] St. Macrina the Elder - [conv. 355] Gaius Marius Victorinus (converted at very old age) - [300-368] Hilary of Poitiers - [c. 296-373] Athanasius of Alexandria - [β™± c. 374] Marcellus of Ancrya - [β™±378] Titus of Basra/Bostra - [c. 329-379] Basil the Cappadocian - [327-379] St. Macrina the Younger - [β™±387] Cyril of Jerusalem (possibly) - [c. 300-388] Paulinus, bishop of Tyre and then Antioch - [c. 329-390] Gregory Nazianzen - [β™± c. 390] Apollinaris of Laodicaea - [β™± c. 390] Diodore of Tarsus - [330-390] Gregory of Nyssa - [c. 310/13-395/8] Didymus the Blind of Alexandria - [333-397] Ambrose of Milan - [345-399] Evagrius Ponticus - [β™±407] Theotimus of Scythia - [350-428] Theodore of Mopsuestia - [c. 360-400] Rufinus - [350-410] Asterius of Amaseia - [347-420] St. Jerome - [354-430] St. Augustine (early, anti-Manichean phase) - [363-430] Palladius - [360-435] John Cassian - [373-414] Synesius of Cyrene - [376-444] Cyril of Alexandria - [500s] John of Caesarea - [β™±520] Aeneas of Gaza - [β™±523] Philoxenus of Mabbug - [475-525] Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite - [β™±543] Stephen Bar Sudhaili - [580-662] St. Maximus the Confessor - [β™± c. 700] St. Isaac of Nineveh - [c. 620-705] Anastasius of Sinai - [c. 690-780] St. John of Dalyatha - [710/13-c. 780] Joseph Hazzaya - [813-903] Moses Bar Kepha - [815-877] Johannes Scotus Eriugena
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Ilaria Ramelli
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Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot, the passersby sneer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage because of the King who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Saviour on the cross. It is bound hand and foot; all who are in Christ trample it as they pass, and as witnesses to Him (King Jesus) deride it, scoffing and saying, β€œO Death where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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All the disciples of Christ despise death; they take the offensive against it and, instead of fearing it, by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ trample on it as on something dead. Before the divine sojourn of the Savior, even the holiest of men were afraid of death, and mourned the dead as those who perish. But now that the Savior has raised His body, death is no longer terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the resurrection.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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Again the enemy suggested the ease of pleasure. But he like a man filled with rage and grief turned his thoughts to the threatened fire and the gnawing worm, and setting these in array against his adversary, passed through the temptation unscathed. All this was a source of shame to his foe. For he, deeming himself like God, was now mocked by a young man; and he who boasted himself against flesh and blood was being put to flight by a man in the flesh. For the Lord was working with Antonyβ€” the Lord who for our sake took flesh and gave the body victory over the devil, so that all who truly fight can say 1Β CorinthiansΒ 15:10, 'not I but the grace of God which was with me.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (St. Athanasius: Life of St. Anthony)
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For the Lord touched all parts of creation, and freed and undeceived them all from every deceit. As St. Paul says, "Having put off from Himself the principalities and the powers, He triumphed on the cross,"64 so that no one could possibly be any longer deceived, but everywhere might find the very Word of God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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But since the will of man could turn either way, God secured this grace that He had given by making it conditional from the first upon two things--namely, a law and a place. He set them in His own paradise, and laid upon them a single prohibition. If they guarded the grace and retained the loveliness of their original innocence, then the life of paradise should be theirs, without sorrow, pain or care, and after it the assurance of immortality in heaven. But if they went astray and became vile, throwing away their birthright of beauty, then they would come under the natural law of death and live no longer in paradise, but, dying outside of it, continue in death and in corruption.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On The Incarnation)
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At the beginning of the fourth century, in Alexandria in the north of Egypt, a theologian named Arius began teaching that the Son was a created being, and not truly God. He did so because he believed that God is the origin and cause of everything, but is not caused to exist by anything else. β€˜Uncaused’ or β€˜Unoriginate’, he therefore held, was the best basic definition of what God is like. But since the Son, being a son, must have received his being from the Father, he could not, by Arius’ definition, be God. The argument persuaded many; it did not persuade Arius’ brilliant young contemporary, Athanasius. Believing that Arius had started in the wrong place with his basic definition of God, Athanasius dedicated the rest of his life to proving how catastrophic Arius’ thinking was for healthy Christian living. Actually, I’ve put it much too mildly: Athanasius simply boggled at Arius’ presumption. How could he possibly know what God is like other than as he has revealed himself? β€˜It is,’ he said, β€˜more pious and more accurate to signify God from the Son and call Him Father, than to name Him from His works only and call Him Unoriginate.’2 That is to say, the right way to think about God is to start with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, not some abstract definition we have made up like β€˜Uncaused’ or β€˜Unoriginate’. In fact, we should not even set out in our understanding of God by thinking of God primarily as Creator (naming him β€˜from His works only’) – that, as we have seen, would make him dependent on his creation. Our definition of God must be built on the Son who reveals him. And when we do that, starting with the Son, we find that the first thing to say about God is, as it says in the creed, β€˜We believe in one God, the Father.’ That different starting point and basic understanding of God would mean that the gospel Athanasius preached simply felt and tasted very different from the one preached by Arius. Arius would have to pray to β€˜Unoriginate’. But would β€˜Unoriginate’ listen? Athanasius could pray β€˜Our Father’. With β€˜The Unoriginate’ we are left scrambling for a dictionary in a philosophy lecture; with a Father things are familial. And if God is a Father, then he must be relational and life-giving, and that is the sort of God we could love.
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Michael Reeves (The Good God)
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Paul also said, β€œbeing rooted and grounded in love, that you may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3.17–19). For the Word unfolded himself everywhere, above and below and in the depths and in the breadth: above, in creation; below, in the incarnation; in the depths, in hell; in breadth, in the world. Everything is filled with the knowledge of God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation: Saint Athanasius (Popular Patristics Series Book 44))
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(2) In regard to the making of the universe and the creation of all things there have been various opinions, and each person has propounded the theory that suited his own taste. For instance, some say that all things are self-originated and,
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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For it is a fact that the more unbelievers pour scorn on Him, so much the more does He make His Godhead evident. The things which they, as men, rule out as impossible, He plainly shows to be possible; that which they deride as unfitting, His goodness makes most fit; and things which these wiseacres laugh at as β€œhuman” He by His inherent might declares divine. Thus by what seems His utter poverty and weakness on the cross He overturns the pomp and parade of idols, and quietly and hiddenly wins over the mockers and unbelievers to recognize Him as God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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For by nature human beings are afraid of death and of the dissolution of the body. But this is most amazing, that one who has put on the faith of the cross scorns even things according to nature, and is not afraid of death because of Christ.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation: Saint Athanasius (Popular Patristics Series Book 44))
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What other things have given men such certain faith in immortality as have the cross of Christ and the resurrection of His body? The Greeks told all sorts of false tales, but they could never pretend that their idols rose again from death: indeed it never entered their heads that a body could exist again after death at all. And one would be particularly ready to listen to them on this point, because by these opinions they have exposed the weakness of their own idolatry, at the same time yielding to Christ the possibility of bodily resurrection, so that by that means He might be recognized by all as Son of God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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if someone would wish to see a city or a country, he would certainly go to that place for the sight; in the same way, one wishing to comprehend the mind of the theologians must first wash and cleanse his soul by his manner of life, and approach the saints themselves by the imitation of their works, so that being with them in the conduct of a common life, he may understand also the things revealed to them, and thenceforth, as joined to them, may escape the peril of the sinners and their fire on the day of judgment, but may receive what has been laid up for the saints in the kingdom of heaven, β€œwhich eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor 2.9),
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation: Saint Athanasius (Popular Patristics Series Book 44))
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Surely it would have been better never to have been created at all than, having been created, to be neglected and perish; and, besides that, such indifference to the ruin of His own work before His very eyes would argue not goodness in God but limitation, and that far more than if He had never created men at all. It was impossible, therefore, that God should leave man to be carried off by corruption, because it would be unfitting and unworthy of Himself.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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Death had to precede resurrection, for there could be no resurrection without it. A secret and unwitnessed death would have left the resurrection without any proof or evidence to support it. Again, why should He die a secret death, when He proclaimed the fact of His rising openly? Why should He drive out evil spirits and heal the man blind from birth and change water into wine, all publicly, in order to convince men that He was the Word, and not also declare publicly that incorruptibility of His mortal body, so that He might Himself be believed to be the Life?
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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Thus He would make death to disappear from them as utterly as straw from fire.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On The Incarnation)
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His approach to the Miracles is badly needed today, for it is the final answer to those who object to them as β€œarbitrary and meaningless violations of the laws of Nature.” They are here shown to be rather the retelling in capital letters of the same message which Nature writes in her crabbed cursive hand; the very operations one would expect of Him who was so full of life that when He wished to die He had to β€œborrow death from others.” The
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On The Incarnation)
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that devil who of old wickedly exulted in death, now that the pains of death are loosed, he alone it is who remains truly dead. There is proof of this too; for men who, before they believe in Christ, think death horrible and are afraid of it, once they are converted despise it so completely that they go eagerly to meet it, and themselves become witnesses of the Savior’s resurrection from it. Even children hasten thus to die, and not men only, but women train themselves by bodily discipline to meet it. So weak has death become that even women, who used to be taken in by it, mock at it now as a dead thing robbed of all its strength. Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot the passers-by sneer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Savior on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, all who are in Christ trample it as they pass and as witnesses to Him deride it, scoffing and saying, β€œO Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). (28) Is this a slender proof of the impotence of death, do you think? Or is it a slight indication of the Savior’s victory over it, when boys and young girls who are in Christ look beyond this present life and train themselves to die?
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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One cannot possibly understand the teaching of the saints unless one has a pure mind and is trying to imitate their life. Anyone who wants to look at sunlight naturally wipes his eye clear first, in order to make, at any rate, some approximation to the purity of that on which he looks; and a person wishing to see a city or country goes to the place in order to do so. Similarly, anyone who wishes to understand the mind of the sacred writers must first cleanse his own life, and approach the saints by copying their deeds. Thus united to them in the fellowship of life, he will both understand the things revealed to them by God and, thenceforth escaping the peril that threatens sinners in the judgment, will receive that which is laid up for the saints in the kingdom of heaven.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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The Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach suffering men.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On The Incarnation)
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For the demons do all thingsβ€” they prate, they confuse, they dissemble, they confound β€” to deceive the simple.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (St. Athanasius: Life of St. Anthony)
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he neither bathed his body with water to free himself from filth, nor did he ever wash his feet, nor even endure so much as to put them into water, unless compelled by necessity.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (St. Athanasius: Life of St. Anthony)
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There was also a maiden from Busiris Tripolitana, who had a terrible and very hideous disorder. For the runnings of her eyes, nose, and ears fell to the ground and immediately became worms.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (St. Athanasius: Life of St. Anthony)
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He, indeed, assumed humanity that we might become God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On The Incarnation)
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But if, without any illness and without any pain, he had hidden his body away by itself privately and "in a corner" (Acts 26.26), or in a desert place or by a house or anywhere at all, and afterwards suddenly appearing again said he had raised himself from the dead, he would have been supposed by all to be telling tall tales and would have been distrusted even more when speaking about the resurrection, as there would be no one at all to witness his death. Death must precede resurrection, for there would be no resurrection without death preceding, so that if the death of the body took place somewhere in secret, death neither appearing nor taking place before witnesses, its resurrection would also be unseen and unwitnessed.
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Athanasius of Alexandria
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Theologian Michael Vlach has done an admirable job chronicling the appearances of penal substitution in the writings of the fathers,9 citing Clement of Rome, Ignatius, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Epistle to Diognetus, Justin Martyr, Eusebius of Caesarea, Eusebius of Emesa, Hilary of Poitiers, Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, Ambrose of Milan, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Gregory the Great, Severus of Antioch, Oecumenius, and of course Augustine of Hippo. Vlach’s significant documentation spans the first ten centuries of the orthodox church.
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Jared C. Wilson (The Gospel According to Satan: Eight Lies about God that Sound Like the Truth)
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and as they had at the beginning come into being out of non-existence, so were they now on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again. The presence and love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it; for it is God alone Who exists, evil is non-being, the negation and antithesis of good.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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following passage from St. Chrysostom (+ 407) has become a veritable classic : " The dispensation of the things that are in heaven God hath not given to angels or to archangels ; for not to these was it said : ' Whatsoever you shall bind/ etc. (Matth. XVIII, 18). They that rule on earth have indeed also power to bind, but the bodies only ; 17 whereas this bond reaches to the soul itself, and transcends the heavens. 18 And what the priests do be low, the same does God ratify above, and the Lord con firms the sentence of His servants. 19 What then has He given them but all heavenly power? For, He saith, ' Whose sins ye shall remit,' etc. (John XX, 23). What power could be greater than this ? ... It would be mani fest folly to contemn such a great power, without which we could obtain neither salvation nor the good things promised. . . . For not only when they regenerate us [in Baptism], but they [the priests] have also the power to forgive the sins committed after regenera tion." 20 The extent of this power is described as follows by Timothy, the second successor of St. Athanasius in the see of Alexandria (+ 384 ) 21 : " Which sins have no for giveness? None; everything confessed before God " will be forgiven.
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Joseph Pohle (The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3)
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What, then, was God to do? What else could He possibly do, being God, but renew His Image in mankind, so that through it men might once more come to know Him? And how could this be done save by the coming of the very Image Himself, our Savior Jesus Christ? Men could not have done it, for they are only made after the Image; nor could angels have done it, for they are not the images of God. The Word of God came in His own Person, because it was He alone, the Image of the Father Who could recreate man made after the Image.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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How he confuted the philosophers by healing certain vexed with demons 80. 'And these signs are sufficient to prove that the faith of Christ alone is the true religion. But see! You still do not believe and are seeking for arguments. We however make our proof not in the persuasive words of Greek wisdom as our teacher has it, but we persuade by the faith which manifestly precedes argumentative proof. Behold there are here some vexed with demons;'β€”now there were certain who had come to him very disquieted by demons, and bringing them into the midst he saidβ€”'Do you cleanse them either by arguments and by whatever art or magic you choose, calling upon your idols, or if you are unable, put away your strife with us and you shall see the power of the Cross of Christ.' And having said this he called upon Christ, and signed the sufferers two or three times with the sign of the Cross. And immediately the men stood up whole, and in their right mind, and immediately gave thanks unto the Lord. And the philosophers, as they are called, wondered, and were astonished exceedingly at the understanding of the man and at the sign which had been wrought. But Antony said, 'Why marvel ye at this? We are not the doers of these things, but it is Christ who works them by means of those who believe in Him. Believe, therefore, also yourselves, and you shall see that with us there is no trick of words, but faith through love which is wrought in us towards Christ; which if you yourselves should obtain you will no longer seek demonstrative arguments, but will consider faith in Christ sufficient.' These are the words of Antony. And they marvelling at this also, saluted him and departed, confessing the benefit they had received from him.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Life of Saint Anthony)
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The Self-revealing of the Word is in every dimensionβ€”above, in creation; below, in the Incarnation; in the depth, in Hades; in the breadth, throughout the world. All things have been filled with the knowledge of God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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The Word was not hedged in by being present elsewhere as well. When He moved His body He did not cease also to direct the universe by His Mind and might. No. The marvelous truth is, that being the Word, so far from being Himself contained by anything, He actually contained all things Himself.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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Thus it happened that two opposite marvels took place at once: the death of all was consummated in the Lord’s body; yet, because the Word was in it, death and corruption were in the same act utterly abolished.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On The Incarnation)
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As, then, he who desires to see God Who by nature is invisible and not to be beheld, may yet perceive and know Him through His works, so too let him who does not see Christ with his understanding at least consider Him in His bodily works and test whether they be of man or God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On The Incarnation)
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It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation: Saint Athanasius (Popular Patristics Series Book 44))
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David sings in the psalm [35:10], saying: β€˜For with You is the font of Life;’ because jointly with the Father the Son is indeed the source of the Holy Spirit.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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The desire of the soul is this---to be beautifully disposed.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (Letter to Marcellinus on the Psalms: Spiritual Wisdom for Today)
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In short, such and so many are the Savior’s achievements that follow from His Incarnation, that to try to number them is like gazing at the open sea and trying to count the waves. One cannot see all the waves with one’s eyes, for when one tries to do so those that are following on baffle one’s senses. Even so, when one wants to take in all the achievements of Christ in the body, one cannot do so, even by reckoning them up, for the things that transcend one’s thought are always more than those one thinks that one has grasped. As we cannot speak adequately about even a part of His work, therefore, it will be better for us not to speak about it as a whole. So we will mention but one thing more, and then leave the whole for you to marvel at. For, indeed, everything about it is marvelous, and wherever a man turns his gaze he sees the Godhead of the Word and is smitten with awe.
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Athanasius of Alexandria
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So, men as they were, and human in all their thoughts, on whatever objects they fixed their senses, there they saw themselves met half-way , and taught the truth from every side. 4. For if they looked with awe upon the Creation, yet they saw how she confessed Christ as Lord; or if their mind was swayed toward men, so as to think them gods, yet from the Saviour's works, supposing they compared them, the Saviour alone among men appeared Son of God; for there were no such works done among the rest as have been done by the Word of God. 5. Or if they were biassed toward evil spirits, even, yet seeing them cast out by the Word, they were to know that He alone, the Word of God, was God, and that the spirits were none. 6. Or if their mind had already sunk even to the dead, so as to worship heroes, and the gods spoken of in the poets, yet, seeing the Saviour's resurrection, they were to confess them to be false gods, and that the Lord alone is true, the Word of the Father, that was Lord even of death. 7. For this cause He was both born and appeared as Man, and died, and rose again, dulling and casting into the shade the works of all former men by His own, that in whatever direction the bias of men might be, from thence He might recall them, and teach them of His own true Father, as He Himself says: ​"​ I came to save and to find that which was lost. ​"​
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died, and He died for all that we should no longer live unto ourselves, but unto Him
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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For formerly the whole world and every place was led astray by the worshipping of idols, and men regarded nothing else but the idols as gods. But now, all the world over, men are deserting the superstition of the idols, and taking refuge with Christ; and, worshipping Him as God, are by His means coming to know that Father also Whom they knew not.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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But as to Gentile wisdom, and the sounding pretensions of the philosophers, I think none can need our argument, since the wonder is before the eyes of all, that while the wise among the Greeks had written so much, and were unable to persuade even a few from their own neighbourhood, concerning immortality and a virtuous life, Christ alone, by ordinary language, and by men not clever with the tongue, has throughout all the world persuaded whole churches full of men to despise death, and to mind the things of immortality;
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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And this was the wonderful thing that He was at once walking as man, and as the Word was quickening all things, and
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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And this was the wonderful thing that He was at once walking as man, and as the Word was quickening all things, and as the Son was dwelling with His Father.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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For just as, though invisible, He is known through the works of creation; so, having become man, and being in the body unseen, it may be known from His works that He Who can do these is not man, but the Power and Word of God.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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For who that saw Him give back what was deficient to men born lacking, and open the eyes of the man blind from his birth, would have failed to perceive that the nature of men was subject to Him, and that He was its Artificer and Maker?
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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will any one still hold his mind in doubt whether a Resurrection has been accomplished by the Saviour, and whether Christ is alive, or rather is Himself the Life?
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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But if, because He is not seen, His having risen at all is disbelieved, it is high time for those who refuse belief to deny the very course of Nature. For it is God's peculiar property at once to be invisible and yet to be known from His works, as has been already stated above.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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For what more is there for him whom they expect to do, when he has come? To call the heathen? But they are called already. To make prophecy, and king, and vision to cease? This too has already come to pass. To expose the godlessness of idolatry? It is already exposed and condemned. Or to destroy death? He is already destroyed. 7. What then has not come to pass, that the Christ must do? What is left unfulfilled, that the Jews should now disbelieve with impunity? For if, I sayβ€”which is just what we actually seeβ€”there is no longer king nor prophet nor Jerusalem nor sacrifice nor vision among them, but even the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of God, and Gentiles, leaving their godlessness, are now taking refuge with the God of Abraham, through the Word, even our Lord Jesus
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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it belonged to none other to bring man back from the corruption which had begun, than the Word of God, Who had also made them from the beginning.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive:
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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He gives them a share in His own Image, our Lord Jesus Christ, and makes them after His own Image and after His likeness: so that by such grace perceiving the Image, that is, the Word of the Father, they may be able through Him to get an idea of the Father, and knowing their Maker, live the happy and truly blessed life.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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did not raise their heads toward the truth, but loaded themselves the more with evils and sins, so as no longer to seem rational, but from their ways to be reckoned void of reason.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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For it will appear not inconsonant for the Father to have wrought its salvation in Him by Whose means He made it.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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seeing, once more, the unseemliness of what had come to pass: that the things whereof He Himself was Artificer were passing away: seeing, further, the exceeding wickedness of men, and how little by little they had increased it to an intolerable pitch against themselves: and seeing, lastly, how all men were under penalty of death:
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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firstly, all being held to have died in Him, the law involving the ruin of men might be undone (inasmuch as its power was fully spent in the Lord's body, and had no longer holding-ground against men, his peers), and that, secondly, whereas men had turned toward corruption, He might turn them again toward incorruption, and quicken them from death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of the Resurrection, banishing death from them like straw from the fire. 9.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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when transgression had once gained a start, men became involved in that corruption which was their nature, and were deprived of the grace which they had, being in the image of God,
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Athanasius of Alexandria (The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books): Cross-Linked to the Bible)
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He saw how the surpassing wickedness of men was mounting up against them; He saw also their universal liability to death. All this He saw and, pitying our race, moved with compassion for our limitation, unable to endure that death should have the mastery, rather than that His creatures should perish and the work of His Father for us men come to nought, He took to Himself a body, a human body even as our own.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation)
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This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant
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Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation: Saint Athanasius (Popular Patristics Series Book 44))
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Divine Scripture is sufficient above all things.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (De synodis 13,3 - Apologia ad Constantium 3,4 (Ancient Greek Edition))
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Holy Scripture is of all things most sufficient for us.
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Athanasius of Alexandria (Later Treatises of Saint Athanasius (Illustrated))