.—Letter to Maximus. (Written about 371 )
To our beloved and most truly longed-for son, Maximus, philosopher, Athanasius greeting in the Lord.
Having read the letter now come from you, I
approve your piety: but, marvelling at the rashness of those ‘who
understand neither what they say nor whereof they confidently affirm,’ I had really decided to say nothing. For to reply upon matters which are so plain and which are clearer than light, is simply to give an excuse for shamelessness to such lawless men. And this we have learned from the Saviour. For when Pilate had washed his hands, and acquiesced in the false accusation of the Jews of that day, the Lord answered him no more, but rather warned his wife in a dream, so that He that was being judged might be believed to be God not in word, but in power. While after vouchsafing Caiaphas no reply to his folly, He Himself by his promise brought all over to knowledge. Accordingly for some time I delayed, and have reluctantly yielded to your zeal for the truth, in view of the argumentativeness of men without shame. And I have dictated nothing beyond what your letter contains, in order that the adversary may from henceforth be convinced on the points to which he has objected, and may ‘keep his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile.’ And would that they would no longer join the Jews who passed by of old in reproaching Him that hung upon the Tree: ‘If thou be the Son of God save Thyself.’ But if even after this they will not give in, yet do you remember the apostolic injunction, and ‘a man that is heretical after a first and second admonition refuse, knowing that such an one is perverted and sinneth being self-condemned.’ For if they are Gentiles, or of the Judaisers, who are thus daring, let them, as Jews, think the Cross of Christ a stumbling-block, or as Gentiles, foolishness. But if they pretend to be Christians let them learn that the crucified Christ is at once Lord of Glory, and the Power of God and Wisdom of God.
2. But if they are in doubt whether He is God at
all, let them reverence Thomas, who handled the Crucified and
pronounced Him Lord and God. Or let them fear
the Lord Himself, who said, after washing the feet of the disciples: ‘Ye call Me Lord and Master, and ye say well, for so I am.’ But in the same body in which He was when he washed their feet, He also carried up our sins to the Tree. And He was witnessed to as Master of Creation, in that the Sun withdrew his beams and the earth trembled and the rocks were rent, and the executioners recognised that the Crucified was truly Son of God. For the Body they beheld was not that of some man, but of God, being in which, even when being crucified, He raised the dead. Accordingly it is no good venture of theirs to say that the Word of God came into a certain holy man; for this was true of each of the prophets and of the other saints, and on that assumption He would clearly be born and die in the case of each one of them. But this is not so, far be the thought. But once for all ‘at the consummation of the ages, to put away sin’ ‘the Word was made flesh’ and proceeded forth from Mary the Virgin, Man after our likeness, as also He said to the Jews, ‘Wherefore seek ye to kill Me, a man that hath told you the truth?’ And we are deified not by partaking of the body of some man, but by receiving the Body of the Word Himself.