The Mariology of Eustatius of Antioch

It appears that the provided text contains placeholders or markers for a content management system (possibly related to “BSF” – Bible Study Tools or similar), but does not contain any actual content to translate. Therefore, no translation is possible from this input.If you provide actual text to translate, I will be happy to assist.Eustatius of Antioch (d. 343)Born in Side (Panphilia), he was the first bishop of Berea (Alepo) and later of Antioch (324). An opponent of Arianism, he played a leading role in the Council of Nicaea (325). Later, he engaged in a dispute with Eusebius of Caesarea. In the context of the anti-Nicene reaction that began soon after the council, he was accused by an Arian synod in Antioch in 327, under the presidency of Eusebius, condemned and deposed, not for doctrinal reasons, but presumably for disciplinary ones (immorality, abuse of power?).Exiled to Trapezus (Thrace), there is no further record of him, so it is believed that he disappeared during his exile before the death of Constantine (337).Only fragments survive of several anti-Arian treatises attributed by Jerome: Against the Arians, On the Soul.Of a monarchical, but moderate, configuration, he distinguishes in the divine nature Una the prosopa of the Father and the Son, but considers the prosopon merely as a way of presentation of the divinity, and insists strongly on the perfect unity of the Father and the Son, Logos and wisdom of the Father. He was the only one, in this early phase of the Arian controversy, to discuss with the logos-ark of the opponents, of Alexandrian derivation, in the name of a Logos-anthropos conception, which preserved the integrity of the humanity assumed by the divine Logos.Logos-anthropos: Thus is called a Christology from below, characteristic of the Antiochene School, interested in defending the full humanity of Jesus Christ. Since the Antiochenes started from the duality of natures (the full human nature of Christ and his divine nature), they had to address the question: how is the divinity and humanity of Christ united in the single acting subject? Their Christology could veer, abandoning the real unity of Christ and ending up admitting two subjects: the Word that assumes and the man Jesus who is assumed.Logos-ark: A Christology “from above,” characteristic of Origen (d. 254), centered on the Logos, who, pre-existent from all eternity, descended into the world. The Alexandrian school generally succeeded in preserving the genuine divinity and true unity of Christ as the sole acting subject.For some Alexandrians, the most serious issue was to demonstrate the true humanity of Christ and address the question: how could the eternal Word of God assume a genuine and fully human mode of action? In emphasizing the Logos-anthropos, Eustatius sets the Asian scene and, indeed, his Christological terminology has notable points of contact with that of Paul of Samosata, though he does not share the excesses of Adoptionism that led to his condemnation.Adoptionism: the heresy that Christ, as God, was the true Son of God by nature, but as a man, he was only an adopted son of God.The only surviving work of Eustatius is On the Endor Seeress (1Sam 28), strongly polemical against Origen, whom Eustatius accuses of allegorizing the whole Scripture. From what we know of him, he seems to be one of the last representatives of the Asian tradition, whose trends would be continued by the school of Antioch: in this sense, his opposition to Arianism fits into the broader context of Asian culture, a reaction to the spread of Alexandrian culture in the Syrian area.In the context of the Marian question, he was among those who preferred the title Theotokos (Mother of God) as the name of the Holy Virgin.The Incarnation of the WordIf, therefore, the Word received the beginning of generation, from which he drew the corresponding bodily traits by passing through the mother’s womb, it is clear that he was made of a woman. Now, if the Word and God were originally with the Father, and we say that all things were made through him, then he who already exists and is the principle cause of the existence of all creatures, could not become a man from a woman. Now, therefore, he is a self-sufficient God, infinite and unintelligible according to his nature. Instead, he became a man from a woman, he who was placed in the virgin womb by the work of the Holy Spirit.(Fragment 18)Christ redeems from the bondage of the lawJust as it is said that the man born of the Virgin was made of a woman, so it is written that he was made under the Law and it was when he followed the precepts of the Law that he fulfilled the Law’s prescriptions. He is particularly referring to the moment when the parents, with loving eagerness, hastened to circumcise the child on the eighth day, as the evangelist Luke reports. Satisfying the oblation of his purification, they then took him to the temple to present him to the Lord and offer a sacrifice, as the Lord’s Law prescribes, a pair of turtledoves or two pigeons (cf. Lk 2:21-24).Since he brought humanity assumed by the Virgin, and was made under the Law and purified according to the rite of the firstborn, he submitted to this therapy of worship, not because he needed personally that remedy, but to redeem from bondage those who were sold under the condemnation of the curse. (Fragment 23)His entrance into the Virgin’s womb did not diminish his power, for the Spirit did not remain contaminated even though his body was nailed to the cross. (Fragment 30)Christ and MelchizedekMelchizedek is represented to us as an orphan: although in truth he was considered like God and the Word, and to say in one word, although he seemed to have his image and to retain his impression. Yet he is not without a mother, he is not without a father: Christ, in fact, has both the mother, Mary, and the royal lineage of David (…) in his genealogy. (Fragment 66)Mary at the Wedding of CanaThe Mother according to the body, having finished the wine for those who were drinking with him, informed him of it, saying to him immediately: They have no wine (Jo 2:3). And he in response said: What is between you and me, woman, adding: My time has not yet come (Jo 2:4). Then, through the form of reproach to which he strove, he showed, as God, that he knows all and that he is within divine prescience, not in any way needing to learn from others what happens, especially because he is consoled by his nature to do nothing inactive. (Fragment 69)To deepen the study of Marian theology according to the Fathers, consult the encyclical Redemptoris Mater by John Paul II, which illuminates Mary’s role in the history of salvation and in the tradition of the Fathers of the Church.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian theology, Marian apparitions, and the Graduate Program in Mariology.