THE BEGINNING OF THE BLESSED THEODORET ON THE TRINITY
Salvation, indeed, is the knowledge of the Existent, and the knowledge of the Existent in truth is God; and God is the Trinity, the knowledge of whom the Word—having become like us, apart from sin—gave, saying to the disciples: “Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” He indicates three subsistences, or persons, speaking of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For the Father is the Father, and is not the Son nor the Spirit; and the Son is the Son, and is not the Father nor the Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and is not the Father nor the Son. The holy Trinity manifested Itself in the Jordan, with the Father bearing witness, the Son being baptized, and the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove. And it was not the Father who was being baptized, but the Son. He who was testifying from above was not the Son, but the Father. And He who descended in the form of a dove was not the Son who was being baptized, nor the Father who was crying out from the heights, but the Holy Spirit. For the Father was crying out from the heights: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” revealing the Word who was hidden by reason of the incarnation. The Son, however, is the incarnate Word, and was baptized by John. And the Holy Spirit, having His own subsistence, was revealed descending in the form of a dove and remaining upon Him. A
Against Sabellius, by the same blessed Theodoret.
The senseless Sabellius is therefore refuted, who, in Jewish fashion, asserts a monarchy, understanding and thinking the Father is not truly Father, and the Son is not truly Son, and the Holy Spirit is not truly Holy Spirit; but bringing together three names into one person, without subsistences. But that it may be clearly understood, let us reveal the sense of this by a certain example. For he says the Trinity is not in truth a Trinity of subsistent persons, but it is as if the name were Peter B in baptism, but Andrew in the military, and Thomas in the militia: but there is no such trinity in truth; it is a trinity of names only, and not of realities. But the Father is a truly subsistent reality, from whom are all things, and the Son is a truly subsistent reality, through whom C are all things, and the Holy Spirit is a truly subsistent reality, in whom are all things. Because of three subsistences, three realities; and because of one and the same nature, one and the same reality. Therefore, all things that have been made have their essence from the holy Trinity and consist in It. “For by the word of the Lord (that is, of the Father) the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their power.” Moreover, the Father is the Lord, the Son is the Lord, and the Holy Spirit is in truth the Lord. For Lord and God is common to the three persons. “For the Lord your God is one Lord.” Pay attention to what is said: one God in substance and nature, but three persons. It is not that the Father is of one nature, the Son of another, and the Holy Spirit of another; but there is one nature and substance. For even the rational animals having six wings, by saying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord,” proclaim the unity in the trinity of persons. For unity is recognized in the trinity; in the unity there is one trinity, one deity, and one power, and one kingdom. What the Father wills, the Son wills, and the Holy Spirit wills. The Trinity, however, [is so called] because the Father is the Father of the subsistent Son, and the Son is the Son of the subsistent Father, and the Holy Spirit is subsistent, proceeding from the Father and given through the Son. D
Against the impious Arius.
But it is necessary, while confessing three subsistences, that we flee the evil sect of Arius. For proceeding on a path contrary to the Judaizing Sabellius, and fleeing the monarchy, he rushes into the pagan opinion of many gods, not understanding the subsistences of the holy Trinity into one substance of deity, but defining the Father as the great God, and the Son as small and of least value. Flee this lack of understanding. For fleeing an incongruous thing, he arrived at one more incongruous. For he introduced an uncovenanted war into the holy Church by diminishing the Son of God. See, therefore, how Sabellius, while fleeing Arius, became a Jew, and how Arius, while fleeing Sabellius, became a pagan. For the former is a one-principle man, while the latter...
A has bound himself to a many-principle error. Yet there is a middle and truly royal road, to abstain from both this and that. It is said, in fact: "Do not decline to the right or to the left; proceed on the royal road."* The royal road is such that neither the continuity of Sabellius is accepted as a confusion, nor the division of Arius: but rather that three subsistences or persons are believed, yet not one subsistence of the Trinity, according to Sabellius, and one substance or nature is confessed, and not three natures, according to Arius. But because those things that are said are uncertain to the ignorant—what is nature and substance or person or subsistence—it is necessary to explain these things briefly. For many who are unlearned err regarding the holy Trinity and regarding the incarnate dispensation of one of the Trinity, God the Word, not knowing what is nature and substance, and what is substance and person. Nature and substance do not differ in any of their significations except in name. For nature is substance. Substance and nature do not differ in any of their significations except in name. For substance is person. But nature and substance signify that which is common. Person and substance signify that which is proper. Just as the nature and substance of all men is one and common; but subsistence and person is the proper [attribute] of each individual man. And it is not because there are innumerable persons and subsistences of men that there are therefore innumerable natures or substances. For one and the same substance and nature exists among men, and it is not other. And again, not because there is one and the same nature and substance of all men is there therefore one single person or subsistence of all men. For we know the different persons of men, and not one. For Peter and James and John are indeed one in nature and substance, according to the fact that they are men; but they are not one in subsistence or person. For each is individual. For Peter is not James or John. Likewise also each of these is not what another is. For the person or subsistence of each one is proper. But it is the same in the immutability of nature or substance. For what Peter is by nature, that also is James and John. But what Peter is by subsistence, neither James nor John is. For Peter is one, and James is another, and John is another. It has been proven, therefore, that nature and subsistence are not the same, nor are substance and person the same. But nature and substance are the same thing that signifies common and not proper, and person and subsistences are the same thing that declares proper and not common. Having been instructed, therefore, B and taking an example, as they say, according to man, let us ascend to the divine reasoning of the holy Trinity, surpassing all things. For nothing of created things will be equal to the Creator, even if some of the things that have been made are taken as an example because of our brevity, lying here on earth and learning as if through certain images. For the Psalmist says: "Even in an image does man walk,"† not so that he may rest in this alone, but he exerts his mind from sensible things to intelligible ones. Therefore, the nature and substance of the holy Trinity is one. For the substance of the three is common, but not one substance or the three subsistences of the persons of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, one who desires spiritual riches and wishes to defend the dogmas of Christians must not be ignorant of what things are of their own property, lest perhaps he might err C if he understands nature and person to be the same, and falls either into the division of Arius or into the confusion of Sabellius. For Arius, saying there are three subsistences, also says there are three natures. Sabellius, however, saying there is one nature, will also say there is one subsistence. Therefore, both heresies have suffered the same thing, because they thought that nature and subsistence were the same thing, even though they seem to be contradictory in their dogmas. The holy Church, however, preserving its dogmas excellently from the beginning, most certainly knows how to discern the causes, saying that there is one nature of the holy Trinity, not one subsistence as Sabellius does; but saying there are three subsistences, not three natures, as Arius does. And it knows one nature, which is common, but not one subsistence, which is proper. For by saying one nature, it proclaims the indivisibility of the Trinity: but by saying three subsistences, it acknowledges the inconfusibility of the Trinity. But many of the children of the Church, declining to learn on account of reverence or fear, sin out of ignorance regarding the Trinity and regarding the incarnate dispensation. The most Christian realization, however, is truly the knowledge of the ineffable holy Trinity: through this holy knowledge one is liberated from ignorance. Man is called a son of God by grace, cleansing the stains of sins through good works, by which the mind, being especially purified, becomes susceptible to the holy Trinity and its unity. For such a mind receives the Trinity of subsistent persons, that is, both in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; D "For we will come," says the Trinity, "and make our abode with him."‡ For where the Son is, there also is the Father and the Holy Spirit. Now let there be for us an example in man, made to the image and likeness of God. For he preserves in himself, as an image, the likeness of Him whose image he is. But he is inferior as a product and a creature. Yet he is not alien.
* Num. XXI, 22. † Ps. XXXVIII, 7. ‡ Joan. XIV, 23.