66F. FRAGMENT FROM MICHAEL PSELLOS, ON “IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE
WORD” 75.102-16
“Porphyry uses clever constructs against our Divinity. For if he is a
Word, he says, then he is pronounced or intrinsically thought. But if he is
pronounced, then he is not of (the Father’s) essence, since he is both
announced and departs. But if he is intrinsically thought, he is inseparable
from the Father’s nature. How then did he separate and how did he make his way
from there into this (human) life?”
67F. FRAGMENT FROM MICHAEL PSELLOS, WHAT DOES “MEASURE AND WORD OF
THE FATHER” MEAN? 97.18-24
“If I have opportunity to solve the dilemmas and to provide a rebuttal
to Porphyry—which indeed he artfully brings forward in the passage where he
wrestled against the Son himself. Either, he says, (the Word) is spoken or intrinsically
thought. IF spoken, then when it is pronounced, it does not exist. But if intrinsically
thought within the father, how is it separate from him?
Commentary
Fragments 66 and 67 derive from the same work of Michael Psellos (about
1019-1078 CE), a Byzantine theologian and politician. Psellos probably did not
have direct access to Porphyry’s work Against the Christians. His
comments, however, show that Porphyry dealt with John 1:1.
Psellos knew that Porphyry constructed a dilemma against early Christian
Logos theology. Christians referred to God as “Logos” or “Word.” Stoics said
that the Word exists in two phases: as innate in God’s mind and as projected or
pronounced. Christians insisted that the Word was of the same or similar
essence of the Father, but a distinct entity.
Porphyry tried to show that, if the Word is still a thought in the
Father, it is not a distinct entity. But if it is a distinct entity (“pronounced”),
then it is born and thus foreign to the Father’s unborn nature. In effect,
Christians cannot have their cake and eat it too.
Compare Celsus in Origen, Against Celsus 2.31: “Christians try
to sound smart and convincing when they speak of the son of God as God’s very Reason
[or: Word]. Although they announce that the son is God’s Reason, we
prove that he is not a pure and holy Reason, but a human being most dishonorably
arrested and beaten to a bloody pulp.”
68F. FRAGMENT FROM THEOPHYLACT, ENARRATIONS ON JOB
“The Word of God is neither pronounced nor thought. For those natural
philosophers are also against us. Rather, the Word of the Father is above
nature, and so is not subject to crafty arguments. Thus fails the sophism of
Porphyry the Hellene. For he tried to overthrow the Gospel, and used logical
dilemmas of this kind: He says that if there is a Word, the Son of God, he is either
pronounced or intrinsically thought. But he is neither. Therefore there is no
Word.”
Commentary
This fragment comes from Theophylact (about 111050-1107), a student of
Michael Psellos. Theophylact adds Porphyry’s apparent conclusion, that the Christian
doctrine of the Word is logically absurd, therefore the Word cannot exist as Christians
understand it. (M. David Lita, A Reconstruction of Against the Christians by
Porphyry of Tyre [Melbourne, Australia: Gnosis, 2025], 105-7)
