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Handout #65 |
The Thalia (Banquet) of Arius |
| This work, in which Arius presents his
teaching, is only known from quotations by his opponents. It has not only
a prose text but also passages in verse which the supporters of Arius
learned by heart. Perhaps these poems should not be confused with the
songs which Arius is also said to have composed.
God was not always Father. There was a time when he was not yet Father, then he became Father. The Son was not always: for all things were made from the nonexistent, and all existing creatures and works were made, so also the Word of God himself was made from the nonexistent, and there was when he did not exist, and he was not before he was made, but he also had a beginning of creation. For God was alone, the word and wisdom did not yet exist... By nature the Word is, like all of us, subject to change, but free in himself he remains in good as far as he wills. If he wills, he can change like us since he is by nature subject to change ... The Word is not truly God. But if he is called God, nevertheless he is not truly; but by participation of grace ... just as all things are by nature alien to God and different from him, so too the Word is absolutely alien to the essence and properly of the Father; he is of the order of works and creatures: he is one of them ... The essences of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are divided by nature, estranged, disjunct and without exchanges between them: thus they are totally dissimilar in essence and glory ... |
