Part 7 — The Scoffing of the Greeks Put to Shame
The Greeks are answered twice over: first on reason, that the Word in one body is no odder than the Word in the universe; then from what anyone can see has changed since He came.
Before you listen
This is the longest part in the book, thirty-eight minutes, and it divides cleanly enough to be taken in two sittings. The first half answers the mockery on reasonable grounds: if the Word is already in the whole universe, there is nothing absurd in His being in one part of it, and man is a part. Then, at the close of section 45, Athanasius says plainly that if the arguments are not enough, the Greeks may be assured instead from the things that are plain before the eyes of all. Follow where he makes that switch, and notice how differently he speaks after it.
Listen for The words "in former times", answered a moment later by "but now". Once the second half begins, Athanasius keeps setting those two against each other, and the shape of the sentence is itself the argument.
Open the reading · 38:18The text in hand
The passage, in full
The philosophers of the Greeks say that the universe is a great body, and in saying so they speak the truth. For we see the universe, and we see its parts, and they fall under our senses. If, then, the Word of God is in the universe, which is a body, and has entered both the whole of it and every one of its parts, what is surprising or absurd in our saying that He has entered into man as well? For if it is absurd that He should come to be in a body at all, then it would be absurd that He should have entered the whole, and should be giving light and movement to all things by His own providence. The whole, after all, is itself a body.
The passage, in full
And here is the marvel. The objects of worship were many and various; each place had its own idol; and the one they called a god among themselves had no power to pass over to the neighboring place and persuade the people next door to worship him. He was barely served even among his own, since no one worshipped his neighbor's god, but each man kept to his own idol, thinking it lord of all. Yet against all this, Christ alone is worshipped among all peoples as one, and everywhere as the same. What the weakness of the idols could not do, namely persuade even those living close at hand, Christ has done. He has persuaded not only those close at hand but the whole world without exception to worship one and the same Lord, and through Him God, His own Father.
A line to keep
Let them understand that the Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach those who were suffering.
A line to keep
But if they think the arguments are not enough to shame them, then let them at least be assured of what we say from the things that are plain before the eyes of all.
What this part is doing
The whole and the part
The Greek philosophers say the universe is a great body, and Athanasius takes them at their word. If the Word is granted to be in the whole of it and in each of its parts, then a single human body cannot be the exception, because the race of men is one of those parts. He puts the same move several ways: a man's power reaching to his toe, a mind present through the whole man but spoken by the tongue alone.
Why not a word of command
The objection is raised directly: God made everything out of nothing by a nod, so He might have saved by a nod too, without His Word touching a body. The reply turns on what was there to be healed. A nod sufficed when nothing existed anywhere, but the corruption had grown onto the body rather than standing outside it, so life had to be bound closely into the body in its place, as asbestos is put upon stubble.
The turn to what can be seen
From section 46 onward the argument stops reasoning and starts pointing. It is a sequence of questions about dates: when did the oracles fall empty, when did magic begin to be trodden underfoot, when did the wisdom of the Greeks become foolishness. Each is answered by the same event, and the evidence offered is what has ceased and what has changed rather than what follows from a premise.
Words it keeps using
Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or counted. They exist so you can notice what did not land.
Why is it no more absurd for the Word to be in one human body than in the universe?
Because the universe is itself a body, as the Greek philosophers themselves say, and the Word has entered both the whole of it and every one of its parts. The race of men is a part of the whole, so whatever is granted of the whole has to be granted of the part (section 41).
The objection is that God should have saved men by a nod alone, as He made the world. What is the reply?
That a nod and a bare act of will were enough when nothing whatever existed anywhere, but the need that arose was to heal not what did not exist but what had been made. So the Physician and Saviour came among things already made, and used the body as a human instrument (section 44).
Where does the argument change its footing, and to what?
At the end of section 45. Athanasius says that if the arguments on grounds of reason are not enough to shame them, then let them at least be assured from the things that are plain before the eyes of all — and from section 46 he argues from what has visibly ceased and changed since the Saviour appeared.
Terms
the Word
Athanasius's usual name for the Son: the one through whom the Father made all things, who fills all things and holds them in being, and who is bodiless by nature until He takes a body for our sake.
instrument
The human body as the Word takes it up and uses it: a part of the whole creation, entered so that men who could not know Him in the whole might at least recognise Him in the part. He works through it without taking on anything of its properties.
the sign of the Cross
The mark by which, in this part, believers tread death down as already dead. Athanasius pairs it repeatedly with faith in Christ, and says that by it all magic is stopped and all sorcery brought to nothing.
providence
God's ordering of and care for what He has made. Athanasius argues for it from the ordered distinctness of things — a universe made by chance would be all sun or all moon, and a man all hand or all eye.