Athanasius’ treatment of Proverbs 8 is not convincing as exegesis, but as a piece of theology it is brilliant. When Proverbs says that God “made” and “created” His Wisdom (in the LXX), it doesn’t refer, Athanasius says, to His nature but to His incarnation. The Son of God is created as Son of Man.
That’s incarnation with a capital I. The eternal Son enters time; the sovereign Lord becomes servant; God the Son becomes man. And, Athanasius says, the Creator is created as creature. Being created is not alien to being eternal Son.
The Son becomes all that we are yet without sin.
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