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Proof of the Gospel
Eusebius of Caesarea, tr. Ferrar, 1920
Book 4, That renewing Humanity He afforded to us all the Hope of Eternal Good
That renewing Humanity He afforded to us all the Hope of Eternal Good
(d) Now it was actually the case that the whole Humanity was absorbed by the Divinity, and moreover the Word of God was God as He had previously been man, and He deified humanity with Himself,1 being the firstfruits of our hope, since He thought actual manhood worthy of eternal life with Him, and of fellowship in the blessed Godhead, and afforded to us all equally this mighty proof of an immortality and kingdom with Him.
Notes
- συναποθεόω, to deify together. Cf. Greg. Nyss. For a full discussion of the doctrine of Deification, see W. R. Inge, Christian Mysticism, Appendix C, pp. 356-368. He quotes Clement, Strom. V. 10. 63, and Hippolytus, Philos. x. 34, “Thou hast become God,” and notes that Harnack says: “After Theophilus, Irenæus, Hippolytus, and Origen, the idea of deification is found in all the Fathers of the ancient Church, and that in a primary position.” The words of Athanasius are the most famous statement of the doctrine: “He became man that we might be deified.” Inge suggests that the Fathers chiefly meant that man becomes “imperishable” (Ibid. 13). See also Intr. to Dionysius the Areopagite in the present series of translations.