Ante-Nicene Christianity

Whatever came first is true. Truth is from the beginning.

Letter of Eusebius to Constantia

[1] A letter from Eusebius to Queen Constantia.

[2] Since you have written about a certain image, as if it were of Christ, desiring that such an image be sent to you by us; [3] what do you mean and what is this image that you say is of Christ? [4] I do not know where this idea originated from that you command us to draw an image of our Savior. [5] What image of Christ do you seek? [6] Do you seek the true and unchanging one, bearing the natural features of Himself? [7] Or do you seek the one which He took upon Himself for us, putting on the form of a servant? [8] For the Word of God and God, taking the form of a servant, condemned sin in the likeness of sinful flesh, as the divine Apostle says.

[9] Thus, He redeemed us from the old bitterness and demonic bondage with His precious blood, setting us free. [10] Therefore, since two forms of Him are presented, I do not think that you seek the form of God, having been taught by Him once, that no one knows the Father except the Son, nor does anyone know the Son properly except the Father who generated Him…

[11] But surely you seek the form of the servant, and that which He put on for our sake, that is, flesh. [12] But we have also learned that this is mingled with the glory of the divinity, and that the mortal has been swallowed up by life. [13] And it is not at all surprising if, after His ascension into heaven, He appeared in such a way, when even while still living among men, the Word of God, giving His chosen ones an earnest of the vision of His own kingdom, having changed the form of the servant, revealed that very form on the mountain above human nature; [14] when His face shone like the sun, and His garments were as white as light.

[15] Who, then, would be able to inscribe on dead and lifeless colors and shadows the gleaming and flashing radiance of such great worth and glory, when even the divine disciples could not bear to look at Him when He appeared in this way, but fell on their faces, confessing that the sight was unbearable for them? [16] If, therefore, His form in the flesh then received such power, being transformed by the divinity dwelling in Him, what shall we say when, having put off mortality and washed away corruption, He changed the form of the servant into the glory of the Lord and God, after the victory over death, and after the ascension into heaven, and after being seated on the royal throne at the right hand of the Father, after the rest in the ineffable and indescribable bosom of the Father, into which, when He ascended and was seated, the heavenly powers cried out, saying, [17] “Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O eternal doors; and the King of glory shall come in.”

[18] Therefore, even the form of the servant, when it became such, was completely transformed and shone with an ineffable and indescribable light, a light worthy of God the Word Himself, a light which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the heart of man. [19] How then could any of the weak attain to it? [20] And how could anyone paint an image of such a marvelous and incomprehensible form, if indeed it should still be called a form, this divine and intellectual essence? [21] Unless, like the unbelieving nations, someone were to paint things that are in no way like themselves, just as a painter paints things that are nothing like them. [22] For such people, when they made idols, as they thought, or any so-called heroes, or anything of that kind, they would want to mold and represent nothing similar or even close, being able to paint only strange shadows, carving out misshapen figures.

[23] Surely you too would agree that it is not right for us to do such things. [24] But if you say that you are not asking for an image of His form transformed into God, but rather the form of His flesh before the transformation, that is, of His mortal body, did the reading escape you where God commanded not to make any likeness of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath? [25] Or have you heard such a thing in the Church, either from yourself or from someone else? [26] Has not such a thing been banished throughout the whole world and exiled far from the Churches, and has it not been proclaimed to all that we alone are not permitted to do such a thing?

[27] For I do not know how a certain woman once held two tablets, as if they were philosophers, and declared them to be of Paul and the Savior; [28] I cannot say where she got them or where she learned this. [29] In order that neither she nor others might be scandalized, I took them from her and kept them myself, not thinking it right to bring these things out to others, lest we might seem to carry around our God in an image, as idolaters do. [30] I hear that Paul teaches us all not to be conformed to this world. [31] For if we have known Christ according to the flesh, he says, yet now we know Him no more.

[32] It is said among the godless heretics that Simon Magus is worshiped in an inanimate material image. [33] And we ourselves have seen the namesake of madness being supported by an image among the Manicheans. [34] But such things are forbidden to us. [35] For since we confess the Lord our Savior as God, we prepare ourselves to see God, diligently purifying our own hearts, so that we might see Him when we are purified. [36] For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. [37] If, out of abundance, before the future face-to-face vision of our Savior, you value His images so highly, what better painter of the Word of God could we have? [38] Surely….

Translated from Migne’s Patrologia Graeca 20, 1545 f.

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