Codex 107

[Basil of Cicilia, Against John Scythopolita]

Read the work of the presbyter Basil of Cilicia,[1] written against John Scythopolita, whom he calls “pettifogger” and several other names, and otherwise abuses. For instance, he asserts that he was suspected of being a Manichaean; that he limited the sacred forty days to three weeks, and during them did not even abstain from eating fowl; that he took part in heathen rites; that he was greatly given to gluttony, and never communicated while the sacred office was being performed, but after the Gospel took part in the holy mysteries with the boys, and immediately hurried to the holy table. Such insulting and brutal remarks are scattered broadcast throughout the work. The work is dramatic in character, in the form of a dialogue, dedicated to a certain Leontius, who had asked the author to write it. The characters are Lampadius, who defends Basil, and Marinus, who defends John. Marinus, during the course of the discussion, is represented as condemning his client and going over to Lampadius, a certain Tarasius being then introduced as interlocutor. The disputants are represented as asking and answering questions intended to benefit themselves and to censure and perplex the opponent’s advocate. The whole work is divided into sixteen books : the first thirteen are in the form of a dialogue in which the author has expended great energy and labour in attacking John’s first book alone, while the remaining three are directed against the statements in the second and third books.

In the first book, after the preface is concluded, he takes his stand against two chief points, the first that “The word suffered in the flesh,”[2]the second, “To say Christ is the same as saying God.” In the second book he attempts to show that he has been unjustly blamed and that John has misunderstood the words, “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse.”[3] In the third book he asks how the words, “Now the son of man was glorified and God was glorified in him,” and the rest of the passage are to be understood. In the fourth book, he inquires how the body is said to be peculiar to God, about His unity, the words, “God, thy God hath anointed thee,” [4] and “I sanctify myself.” [5] In this book Marinus, abandoning the role of opponent, goes over to Lampadius. In the fifth book, where Tarasius is introduced as taking up the part of Marinus, the author makes more bitter accusations against John, with which nearly the whole book is taken up. In the sixth book he attacks more severely the union of Christ our Saviour. He also discusses the words “God, thy God, hath anointed thee,” and the attitude of the Church towards the expression “He was made flesh.”[6] In the eighth book, he falls headlong into numerous absurdities in discussing “The Word was made flesh” and also “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”[7]In the ninth book he speaks of “That Rock was Christ,”[8] “Thy life shall hang in doubt before thee,”[9] and “This gate shall be shut,” to all of which he gives an impious interpretation. The tenth book deals with “To you is the word of this salvation sent” [10] and “He who spared not his own Son” and “Of the Word of life,” which your hands have touched, and “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son” and so on. In the eleventh book he discusses, “This is our God, there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of him,” and “Afterwards did he show himself upon earth and conversed with men,”[5] and “Arise, O God, and judge the earth,” and “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,”’ and against those who asserted that the apostles could not teach the truth owing to the weakness of their hearers. In the twelfth book he teaches that one of the Trinity suffered, and discusses “Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”[11] He puts forward a weak and sinful plea for our denying that there are two Christs, in which his defence is prompted by his wishes. In the thirteenth book he inquires how it is that there are not two Sons, and indeed it would seem from his defence that there must be. Tarasius, as if unable to meet the arguments against him, remains silent, and Basil (or Lampadius) discontinues his zealous questions and answers. The last three books are more detailed, and attack the statements of John in the second and third books.

This Basil, as he himself tells, us, was a presbyter of the Church at Antioch, when Flavian was bishop there, and Arcadius emperor of Rome. His style is poor, and especially in the dialogues differs little from the language of the common people. Nor is he accurate in composition, but frequently makes mistakes and uses solecisms; at the same time, he endeavours to be clear. His arguments against the orthodox are keen and show the practised logician; in fact, he seems to have wasted his whole life in his idle attacks upon the true faith. Although he is tainted with Nestorianism, he does not defend Nestorius, but praises the fathers Theodore and Diodorus. He does not openly use so much blasphemous language against the divine Cyril. He declares that John, the object of his attack, relies for support on nothing but the twelve “chapters” of Cyril, especially the twelfth, in which he introduces the suffering of God. With this he concludes his idle labours. As mentioned above, the work is dedicated to a certain Leontius, whom he pompously calls most holy, most beloved of God, and Father.