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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Kings xi. 1; II Chron. xxii. 10), and made herself queen of Judah. Her influence, since her marriage with Jehoram, had fostered Baal-worship in Judah, and temporarily thrust into the background the worship of Yhwh (II Chron. xxiv. 7). Her six (II

years (843-836 b.c.) of rule doubtless led to a vigorous cultivation of the Baal cult. But in her seventh year the stalwart high priest Jehoiada brought from his hiding-place a young claimant to the throne, Joash, son of Ahaziah (see Joash). Athaliali, being apprised of the great and enthusiastic coronation-assembly at the Temple, rushed into the edifice, apparently unattended by her guard. As soon as she saw the newly crowned king, she rent her clothes in despair, and cried defiantly, " Treason Treason " Jehoiada ordered that she be taken forth through the ranks, and he also pronounced a deathsentence upon any who should espouse her cause. " So they made way for her, and she went to the entry of the horse-gate by the king's house and they slew her there " (II Kings xi. 4-20; II Chron. xxiii. 1-15). !



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ATHANASIUS:

Bishop of Alexandria; born in probably in Alexandria died there May 2, 373. Athanasius was the greatest combatant of the Old Church. No less than twenty out of the forty -seven years of his official life (he was made bishop in 326) were passed in exile, owing to the activity of enemies— pei'sonal, religious, and political he had made. With the extremes of courage and of obstinacy, he united a certain pliability of character, which naturally made him one of the foremost 293,



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leaders in the religious contests of his time. His writings resembled his life for the greater part of his literary productions have the polemic

character strongly marked.

His very first works, an " Address Against Heathens " and Writer of an " Address on the Incarnation of the Polemics. Logos," are devoted to an attack upon heathenism and a refutation of Judaism. Prom the outbreak of the Arian disputes to the campaign against which and all kindred heresies Athanasius devoted his life— he concentrated his literary activity upon one field, that of the defense

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of orthodoxy, thus earning for himself the title of "the Father of Orthodoxy." Of his work of this nature may be mentioned his " Defense Against the Arians," his "Pastoral Letter," and "Pour Speeches Against the Arians. " Of his other writings, his socalled "Exegetical Essays on the Psalter," in explanation of the Psalms; "A Letter to Marcellinus," and " Arguments and Explanations of the Psalms "

worthy of mention. Athanasius' historical importance is neither as an author nor as a theologian his works were for the most part born of passing circumstances and and his dogmatics can not filled no literary want be considered original, as they are almost identical with those of Alexander, his predecessor in the bishIt was Athanasius nevertheopric of Alexandria. less who actually enabled Nicene Christianity to triumph over Arianism and kindred heresies, and who for more than a thousand years shaped the course of the Christian Church so absolutely that he rightly deserves the titles of " the Great " and " the Father are





Atargutis

Athanasius

of Orthodoxy," bestowed Catholicism.

upon him by grateful

Athanasius, as the chief representative of Nicene removed from Christology every trace of Judaism and gave to it a Hellenic cast; so that, curiously enough, at the very time Attitude that the Greek world was surrendering Toward its earthly dominion to Christianity, Christianity,

Judaism.

Hellenism was asserting

itself spiritu-

The

Christology, which began with John's doctrine of the Logos and reached logical completion in the Nicene confession, and was opposed to the Monarchian Sdbellian idea of the person of Jesus which attained fulness in the doctrines of Arius, reflects fundamentally the identical opposition between the strictly Jewish conception of the Messiah as a human, moral ideal, and the Hellenic, according to which Jesus is a metaphysical religious principle. In illustration of Athanasius' position, the following sentences placed by him at the head of his polemic against the Arians may serve: "He, whom we acknowledge, is an actual and genuine and real Son of the Father, whose Being belongs to him likewise. He is neither creature, nor made, but the product of the Essence of the Father; wherefore is he truly God, because of similar being with the true God " ("Orationes Contra Arianos," i. 9). Jesus is for Athanasius not only the true and real Son of God, but he is also of similar essence (homoiisios) and of like eternity, but in such fashion as to permit of a duality of the divine personages. This, of course, is contradictory not only to the ruling idea of strict monotheism among the Jews, but also to the teachings of the Old Testament; and the Arians therefore rightly asked (ib. iii. 7) how Athanasius could harmonize his doctrine with such words of Scripture as " The Lord our God is one Lord " (Deut. vi. 4) " See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me " (Deut. xxxii. 39), and similar passages. lack of all critical sense marked both Athanasius and Arius, and prevented them from realizing that their mutually contradictory conceptions of the person of Jesus lay in the diverThe O. T. gent presentation of the same by the with. Jewish synoptic gospels contrasted Athawith that of the Greek writer of the nasius. fourth Gospel and of the Epistle to the Athanasius did not perHebrews. ceive how far removed he really stood from the Old Testament conception of God. In his controvers}^ with Arius he had no scruple in making the fullest use of the Old Testament. The following are illustrations of his explanations and applications of such Proof of the eternity and infinity of the passages. Logos is found by him in Isa. xl. 28, " the everlasting God," and in Jer. ii. 13, "they have forsaken ally.



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me, the fountain of living waters " (ib. i. 19). The immutability of the Logos he finds expressed in Deut. xxxii. 39, "See now that I, even I, am he," and in Mai. iii. 6, "I am the Lord, I change not." In such fashion, by simply applying to the LogosChristus all Bible passages relating to God, it was not a very difficult task for him to found his whole system of dogmatics upon the Old Testament— at The unity of revelaleast to his own satisfaction. tion in both Testaments is an essential principle with