Part 1 — Creation, and the Fall into Corruption
Man was made out of nothing and given a share in the Word so that he would not return to nothing; turning away, he began falling back toward the nothing he came from.
Before you listen
This is a book about the Incarnation that opens with the creation of the world, and Athanasius knows how that looks. He stops in the middle of part one to admit it and to explain why he is doing it. Listen for the reason he gives: the renewal of creation had to be the work of the same Word who made it, so the story has to start where the making started.
Listen for The phrase "out of nothing". It arrives early and keeps coming back, and by the end of the part it is carrying the whole argument — both how men were made and what they are falling back into.
Open the reading · 14:59The text in hand
The passage, in full
For God is good; or rather, He is the very source of goodness. And one who is good grudges nothing. Grudging existence to none, He made all things out of nothing through His own Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. And among all things on earth, He took special pity on the race of men. Seeing that by the terms of its own origin it could not endure forever, He gave it a further grace. He did not simply create men, as He created all the irrational animals on the earth. He made them after His own image, and gave them a share even in the power of His own Word, so that, having in themselves as it were shadows of the Word, and being made rational, they might be able to abide in blessedness, living the true life, the life of the saints in paradise.
The passage, in full
For men have non-existence as their nature, and were called into being by the presence and the love for mankind of the Word. It followed, then, that when they were emptied of the knowledge of God, and turned back to what is not, they should be emptied also of being forever. For evil is what is not, and good is what is, since it comes from the God who is. That is to say: dissolved, they should remain in death and in corruption.
A line to keep
the Father worked the salvation of the world in the same One through whom He first created it
A line to keep
not merely to die, but to remain forever in the corruption of death?
What this part is doing
It starts at the creation, on purpose
Before any account of the Incarnation, Athanasius clears away three rival accounts of how the world came to be — that it made itself, that God shaped pre-existing matter, and that its maker was someone other than the Father of Christ. He needs the Maker and the Saviour to be the same one, and the rest of the book leans on it.
Incorruption was a gift, not a property
Man is mortal by nature here, because he was made out of nothing. What he was given beyond that was a share in the Word, held in place by looking at God, and it is that added grace which could be lost. The distinction runs through everything that follows.
Corruption is a direction, not an event
Death is described as being turned back toward where you came from — emptied of the knowledge of God, and so emptied of being. And the turning does not stop at a limit: the last three passages of the part describe wrongdoing advancing little by little until it goes beyond all measure.
Words it keeps using
Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or counted. They exist so you can notice what did not land.
Why does a book about the Incarnation begin with the creation of the world?
So that the renewal of creation is seen to be the work of the same Word who made it. Athanasius says it plainly in section 1: the Father worked the salvation of the world in the same One through whom He first created it.
What does "dying you shall die" mean in section 3?
Not merely to die, but to remain forever in the corruption of death. Athanasius asks the question about the phrase himself and answers it in the same passage.
As made, was man mortal or immortal?
Mortal by nature, because he was made out of nothing. But by his likeness to the One who is, guarded through the contemplation of God, he would have blunted that natural corruption and remained incorrupt (section 4).
Terms
out of nothing
The claim that God brought the universe into being from what in no way existed, rather than shaping matter that was already there. It is load-bearing twice over: it makes God a Creator rather than a craftsman, and it is what man is falling back toward when he turns away.
the image
The share in the Word given to men beyond bare existence, so that they carry a shadow of Him, are rational, and can abide in blessedness. To be stripped of the grace of being in the image is the loss that repentance cannot repair.
incorruption
Not merely deathlessness but permanence in being: what man would have kept had he guarded his likeness to the One who is. It is promised again through the Resurrection.
corruption
The dissolving back toward the non-existence out of which man was made. It is what men are held fast in after the transgression, and it is what the Word came down into.