How can we say that He is “begotten, not created”? | Saint Peter & Saint Andrew Coptic Orthodox Church

The answer

When the Fathers formulated the Creed, they used with all precision words that affirm the personal nature of the Master Christ and its glory. They asserted that He is “begotten, not created,” declaring that He was not created, being higher than the level of creatures. He exists in an unknown and intemporal fashion that is from the very essence of the Father, for “In the beginning²⁰ was the Word” (John 1:1). He-to Him be glory-is “begotten” of the Father, for He is in the Father and has His very nature. Just as a son takes from his father his human nature, so too does the Son of God derive His divine nature from the Father in a mystical way that cannot be grasped.

There is, however, another birth for the Master Christ that is different from His eternal generation from the Father. We are referring to His nativity in the flesh, in the fullness of time, from the Virgin Mary.

A creature comes from nothing to existence by the will of God. The Son of God, however, exists in God the Father Himself, and He is no creature. He is rather the eternal “Creator,” Who deigned to be born in the flesh from the Virgin (Gal. 4:4-5).

The summation is that God the Father and God the Son are one in the divine nature, and there is no temporal difference between them; “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). This is one aspect. Another would be that God the Son was born in the fullness of time from the Virgin Mary in the form of the Master Christ without being created, for He Himself is the Creator.

St. Augustine says, “If we cannot comprehend His nativity in the flesh, how then can we comprehend His eternal generation?”

His birth in the flesh has perplexed us. In His birth according to the flesh, He was born of a woman without a father. In His eternal generation, He was begotten of a Father without a mother. Both births are incomprehensible and surpassing the mind.

His Holiness Pope Tawadros II

Notes

²⁰ Translator’s note: Greek, archē.

Pope Tawadros II, My Faith: A Series of Dialogues on the Creed (Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, 2014), 50–51.

The pages in the book (50–51)

His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, My Faith: A Series of Dialogues on the Creed. Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, Cairo; printed at Saint Mena Monastery Press, Maryut, Egypt. ISBN 978-977-344-149-7.