Section CLXXXVI

As a witness to this most sweet truth there is added Photius, certainly learned and, in this matter, most tenacious of the ancient tradition, the author of the Bibliotheca. For in that question to Amphilochius in which¹ he asks, πῶς θελητός τε καὶ ἀθέλητος τῷ Πατρὶ ὁ θάνατος λέγοιτ᾽ ἂν εἶναι τοῦ Χριστοῦ· καὶ πῶς πάλιν ὁ αὐτὸς συνέλθοι τῷ πονηρῷ θελητός τε ἅμα εἶναι καὶ ἀθέλητος, how the death of Christ can be said to have been both voluntary and involuntary to the Father, and how it happens in turn that the same death was simultaneously voluntary and involuntary to the devil, among other things he writes excellently²:

Who would be willing to say at all that, by him who takes care of his servants and of those whose blood was drained, and who hears the cries of the dead as of the living, τὸ δὲ σωτήριον καὶ ζωοποιὸν αἷμα τοῦ κόσμου οὐκ ἐν τοῖς ἀθανάτοις τῆς αὐτοῦ προνοίας ταμείοις συνέχει ἀνώλεθρον αὐτῷ, καὶ φθορᾶς σωμάτων ἀνέπαφον³ συντηρούμενος; the salvific blood which vivifies the world was not preserved unharmed in the immortal treasuries of his providence and protected from every bodily corruption? Therefore he who paid the price suffered no loss; ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ γένους ἡμῶν παντὸς ὁ φιλάνθρωπος προσεκέρδησε τὴν σωτηρίαν, indeed, the lover of men, Jesus, gained the salvation of our entire race.

This infinite amplitude of reparation Photius confirms again—

—in that question in which⁴ he asks, διὰ τί τοῦ γένους ἡ ἀνόρθωσις οὐ διὰ τινὸς τῶν ἀσωμάτων δυνάμεων ἢ δι᾽ ἀνθρώπου ψιλοῦ, ἀλλὰ διὰ τῆς τοῦ Λόγου κενώσεως γέγονεν, why the redemption of the human race was accomplished neither through some incorporeal power nor through a mere man, but through the self-emptying⁵ of the Word. For among other arguments he also employs this one⁶: that it was necessary for the Redeemer to advance to a better condition the laws given by God to the Israelites. But, says Photius:

It is neither possible nor without punishment for a servile creature to convert the laws of the Creator and Lord into another form; τῷ μέντοι τὴν σωτηρίαν διὰ σπλάγχνα ἐλέους κατεργαζομένῳ τοῦ πλάσματος, ἥ τε τῶν δεσποτικῶν νόμων μετακόσμησις πρέπουσα, τὴν δεσποτικὴν ἐξουσίαν κατὰ φύσιν ἔχοντι, καὶ τῆς πολιτείας ῥᾳδία τε καὶ ἁρμόδιος ἡ πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον ἀνανέωσις, but only to him who, moved by his clemency, undertook to procure the salvation of the creature does the reformation of the Lord’s laws also belong, namely, to him who has the Lord’s power by his very nature; and for him the renewal of the polity toward a better state is very easy and congruent.

To this argument he immediately adds another⁷:

A demonstration of such and so great a love, of the kind that we saw in the self-emptying of him who cannot be emptied: how could it have come to our knowledge, or how could we have recognized the magnitude of providence toward us, if God had taken care that through anyone other than himself we should obtain τὴν κοινὴν τοῦ γένους σωτηρίαν, the common salvation of the race? Οὐ μέντοι γε οὐδ᾽ ἀγγελικῆς φύσεως ἐνεργεῖν τὸ μέγα τοῦτο καὶ παγκόσμιον μυστήριον. Nor indeed was it granted even to the angelic nature itself to carry out so great and universal a mystery. For although individual angels received individual boundaries of the nations to guard, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχὶ τοῦ παντὸς γένους τὴν κυβέρνησιν, μήτι γε τὴν ἀνάπλασιν ἐπιστεύθησαν, nevertheless the governance, much less the restoration, of the whole race⁸—

—was not entrusted to them. Much less was it permitted for a mere man to do this, although shining forth among others in virtues. For we see that even the most celebrated among these were often placed over the ruling and instruction of one nation, and indeed one not of the greatest number; and that they discharged this very office not without some defect.

Whence, after other arguments of no less weight, he at last concludes⁹:

Διὰ γοῦν ταῦτα καὶ πολλὰ τοιαῦτα, θεοσόφως ἄρα καὶ θεοπρεπῶς ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος καὶ Υἱὸς καὶ οὐχ ἕτερός τις, παρ᾽ αὐτὸν τὴν ἡμετέραν προσειληφὼς σάρκα, τὴν κοινὴν τοῦ γένους σωτηρίαν εἰργάσατο. On account of these and very many other things of this kind, most wisely the Word and Son of God and true God—not someone else—having taken our flesh about himself, accomplished the common salvation of the race.

Therefore Photius is not unworthy to be heard as a witness of the Church of Constantinople. When he discusses the reparation of man, a) he attributes it to the benignity and bowels of mercy with which Christ embraced us. But b) he teaches that it is altogether universal, and he confirms this both by open statements and by arguments: c) by open statements in which he extols ζωοποιὸν αἷμα τοῦ κόσμου, the blood which vivifies the world; τοῦ γένους τὴν ἀνόρθωσιν, the restoration of the race; τὴν σωτηρίαν τοῦ πλάσματος, the salvation of the creature; τὴν κοινὴν τοῦ γένους σωτηρίαν, the common salvation of the race; and τοῦ παντὸς γένους τὴν ἀνάπλασιν καὶ τὴν σωτηρίαν, the restoration and salvation of the whole race. Likewise d) he confirms it by arguments, since from a reparation which is infinite and bound by no barriers he concludes that it could have been expected neither from a mere man, however excellent, nor even from an angel.

But with this universal reparation there is joined that order of divine providence which Photius weighs while investigating the meaning to be placed beneath these and similar testimonies of the Scriptures¹⁰: He delivered them to serve the host of heaven; he delivered them into passions of ignominy; he gave them a spirit of compunction, eyes that they should not see; and God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. For concerning the former he writes¹¹—

Unless the homonymy of the word is distinguished, it produces an absurd meaning. For how or when does God blind the eye of the soul? How does he, who is the purifier of these, deliver it to passions and to impiety and error? But once the notions of the word have been distinguished, the discourse is freed from every cavillation. Τὸ γὰρ παρέδωκε σημαίνει μὲν καὶ τὸ ἐνεχείρισεν καὶ παρέπεμψεν, ἢ συνώθησε καὶ συνήλασε· σημαίνει δ᾽ οὐδὲν ἔλαττον καὶ μάλιστα γε τῷ βουλήματι τῆς γραφῆς καὶ τὸ συνεχώρησε, καθυφῆκε καὶ ἐνέδωκεν, εἴασε φέρεσθαι ταῖς ὁρμαῖς, ἀφῆκε τὸ ἑκούσιον αὐτοδέσποτον. For the word delivered indeed signifies “gave into another’s power,” “sent over,” “compelled”; nevertheless, and indeed especially according to the meaning of Scripture¹², it signifies “conceded,” “indulged,” “permitted,” “allowed to be borne by its own impulse,” “suffered the choice to be free.” When the word delivered is understood in this sense, no absurdity follows. Ἀφέλκει μὲν γὰρ τὸ θεῖον νόμῳ φιλανθρωπίας καὶ προνοίας τῶν παθῶν καὶ ἁμαρτημάτων τὸ ἀνθρώπινον· ἐπειδὰν δὲ μοχθηρίας ὑπερβολῇ τὸ ἀναστελλόμενον τῆς εὐεργεσίας καὶ χάριτος οὐκ ἀνέχοιτο, οὐδ᾽ ἐθέλοι τῷ μεθέλκοντι πείθεσθαι, τότε δὴ τότε ὑπενδίδωσι φέρεσθαι τῇ ῥύμῃ τὸ ἀπειθοῦν, καὶ ἀφίησιν ἀποκεχρῆσθαι τῷ βουλήματι, ἵνα μὴ ἐπὶ πλέον ἀναστέλλων καὶ ἀναχαιτίζων τῆς ῥοπῆς, δόξῃ διαφθείρειν τὸ αὐτεξούσιον· καὶ ἡ εὐεργεσία καὶ ἡ πρόνοια τοῖς ἀγνώμοσι καὶ ἀχαρίστοις εἰς ἔγκλημα περιτρέποιτο. For God, according to the inborn manner of his goodness and providence, draws men away from passions and sins; but when they, through the excess of malice, disdain the reins imposed by divine beneficence and grace and refuse to obey him who draws them back, then at last he allows the contumacious to be borne along in their course and grants the power to abuse their choice, lest, if he should restrain and arrest the inclination more vehemently, he should seem to destroy the faculty of free will, and thus his beneficent power and providence should be turned into a charge by the senseless and ungrateful.

Proceeding to the final testimony¹³, he notes:

God is said to have hardened the heart of Pharaoh, not because he converted it, at first soft and docile to his commands, into hardness, pertinacity, and contumacy; ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι μεθέλκων καὶ ἀνακόπτων τῆς ἀπειθείας καὶ τοῦ ἀντιτύπου φρονήματος, ἐπείπερ οὐδαμῶς εὗρεν ὑπενδίδοντα καὶ πρὸς πειθὼ μεθιστάμενον τὸν Αἰγύπτιον, ἀλλ᾽ ὅλον ἑαυτὸν ποιοῦντα τοῦ ἀντιθέτου καὶ ἀντιταγμένου βουλήματος, ὁ μηδαμοῦ φθείρων τὸ αὐτεξούσιον, ἀφῆκε τῇ γνώμῃ φέρεσθαι τὸν οὐ βουληθέντα πεισθῆναι τῇ κρείττονι, but because, after he had long taken care to recall that heart from disobedience and a refractory spirit, when he perceived the Egyptian in no way yielding or returning to obedience, but rather wholly confirming himself in a contrary and repugnant judgment, God, who never harms the force of free choice, allowed him to be borne by his own will, who refused to obey the better counsel.

Whence, speaking of evils universally¹⁴, he establishes:

In the primary sense sins are called evils, of which God is not the cause; moreover, those things are evils which afflict us with distress and happen against our will—disease, poverty, … and however many other things are frequently said and believed to be sent upon the guilty by divine providence, either that it may restrain mortals rushing toward sins or that it may wash away stains: οὐ κακύνουσα τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, οὐδὲ πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον τὸ δημιούργημα μεταπλάττουσα, μὴ τί γένηται· ἀπάγουσα δὲ τῶν κακυνόντων μᾶλλον, καὶ τῇ καταλλήλῳ τοῦ νοσοῦντος θεραπείᾳ τὸ ἠῤῥωστηκὸς τῆς γνώμης πρὸς τὸ ἄμεινον ἐπανάγουσα, not indeed that God may deprave the human race, nor that he may transform his creature into a worse condition, which God forbid; rather, that he may draw it away from the incentives of vices and, by a treatment congruent with the one laboring, recall the infirm part of the soul to better fruit.

Therefore by this order of providence the life of men is administered: a) God is the cause of sinning for no one and the cause of perishing for no one; rather, b) his grace is present to all and even to the most abandoned men—

—it shines upon them and imparts to them the means of a sounder mind. Yet c) he reverences the work founded by himself, and neither impedes nor destroys the liberty of choice which he made; but d) he excites and advances it toward that which is good, and, by applying reins, restrains the heat of desire. With this counsel e) he also visits temporal evils upon the guilty and labors by means of diseases and pains, that he may quiet the incentives of vices and turn the mind, torn away from carnal delights, toward spiritual sweetnesses. But nothing is more manifest than that by this order both 1) the first and salvific will is displayed, and 2) universal reparation is established, and 3) the blame for ruin and eternal destruction is cast back upon those who perish, but in no way upon the rationale of their state or the defect of helps.