Letter 361

361. To Apollinaris

To my master, the most reverend Apollinaris, from Basil. Earlier I wrote to you concerning the obscure passages in the Scriptures, and I rejoiced both in what you sent and in what you promised. But now a greater anxiety, over greater matters, has come upon me — one for which I have no one else among the men of our day to call upon as such a partner and protector as God has given us in you, exact in knowledge and in argument alike, and yet easy of approach.

Since, then, those who confound everything, and have filled the world with words and disputes, have cast out the term "essence" as foreign to the divine oracles, be so good as to indicate to us both how the Fathers used it, and whether you have ever found it set down anywhere in Scripture. For they spit upon "the bread of subsistence," and "the people of God's own possession," and anything of the sort, as having nothing to do with the matter. And then, concerning the term "of one essence" itself — for the sake of which I believe they are contriving all this, deeply slandering the word "essence," so as to leave no place for "of one essence" — be willing to set out for us more fully what meaning it has, and how it could soundly be used, in cases where no common genus is contemplated lying above, nor any material substratum existing beforehand, nor any partitioning of the first into the second. How, then, are we to call the Son "of one essence" with the Father, when we fall into none of the notions just mentioned? Be willing to articulate this for us more fully. For we have supposed that whatever, by hypothesis, may be taken to be the essence of the Father, this must by all means be taken to be also the essence of the Son. So that, if one were to call the essence of the Father intelligible light, eternal and unbegotten, he will call the essence of the Only-begotten also intelligible light, eternal and unbegotten. Yet for such a conception it seems to me that the phrase "exactly alike" fits better than "of one essence." For light that has, in respect of more and less, no difference at all from light is not the same as it (since each exists within its own proper bounding of essence), but it would, I think, rightly be called like it in essence, exactly and without difference. Whether, then, these are the conceptions one must reason through, or whether one must take up other and greater ones — as a wise physician (for we have laid bare to you what is in our heart) — heal what is sickly, prop up what is unsound, and in every way make us firm.

I greet the brethren who are with your reverence, and I ask them to pray together with you on our behalf, that we may be saved. Our companion Gregory, having chosen the life with his parents, is with them. May you be kept in health for us for very long, helping us both by your prayers and by your knowledge.