Q on todays reading: St. Athanasius' Letter to Epictetus

[Neil_Anthony]

Today’s second reading for the office of readings is from St. Athanasius’ letter to Epictetus, and I wonder if anyone can help me understand this:

Even when the Word takes a body from Mary, the Trinity remains a Trinity, with neither increase nor decrease. It is forever perfect. In the Trinity we acknowledge one Godhead; and thus one God, the Father of the Word, is proclaimed in the Church.

In the last phrase he seems to equate the trinity with the Father but not with the Word (the Son)? Was his view of the trinity different from ours today? It just sounds kind of odd.

 

[japhy]

That last phrase is a bit odd, but if you read the whole letter (of which your excerpt is the end of section 9), you’ll see he’s not contradicting himself nor the theology of the Trinity. Perhaps by saying “one God is preached, the Father of the Word”, he is trying to say that there are not two gods preached, the Father (one god) and the Word (another god), but one God who is Father of the Word and the Word Himself; for in preaching the Father of the Word, both Father and Word are preached.

 

[Isa_Almisry]

It help to know that in Semitic (St. Athanasius’ native tongue was the related Coptic) a “human” is literally “son of a man.” “Son of God” (btw Shenoudah in Coptic, name of their current Pope) has the same connotation, thus the reason why the Jews went to stone Christ when He called God His Father (John 5:18. Even the JWs can’t get around that, and translate “On this account, indeed, the Jews began seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.)”

Btw this leads to the names in Ancient Egyptian (it has the same realtionship to Coptic as Latin to French) with m-s “born” hence Ramsis “Sun/Ra (the sun god)-born.” It is thought that this is at the origin of Moses’ name (Egyptian m-s and Hebrew Moshe “draw out” are cognates).

Not to go too much off the OP, but this is one of the reasons why the Orthodox reject the filioque. In the ECF (including Athanasius) the Father is the Source of the Trinity: there is One God because there is One Father, from Whom the Son is begotten (hence Only-Begotten), and from Whom the Spirit proceeds.