On the Trinity

^A For He fulfills the bounteous will of the Father, and of the Son, and of Himself—a single will—and He leaves nothing, not even those things that possess but a dim spark of life, destitute of His own providence. For, presiding over His own creation, as He who is goodness itself and as the fellow-worker of the good Creator, He looks upon all things and overlooks nothing; being all-sufficient, He distributes divine gifts. For in the “one good” there is never any place for envy toward anyone; rather, He demonstrates His authority through acts of kindness. And for this reason, we say that the will, and the authority, and the power of the Trinity are one. If the will, and the authority, and the operation are one, then the Godhead is one. ^B For He who performs all things according to His own authority, and is present in every individual thing, belongs to that one and unalloyed nature which is over all things; it has no deficiency in anything, nor does it do what it does not will—nor, indeed, does it do what is not pleasing to the Father and the Son. And in the same way that He demonstrates the Son to be inseparable from the Father by other proofs, and by the text, “Whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does,” so too does He demonstrate that the Holy Spirit, along with other things, performs all things and distributes them as He wills, and breathes where He chooses. For to demonstrate this, and to clearly theologize concerning the Spirit, the Apostle wrote: “That we might see the things granted to us by God.” And a faithful witness to all these things, writing to the Corinthians in the first Epistle, would again be the same Apostle: ^C “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of workings, but the same God who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another, the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another, faith in the same Spirit; to another, gifts of healing in the one Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the discernment of spirits; to another, divers kinds of tongues; to another, the interpretation of tongues. But all these things the one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” It is necessary, however, not ^D to overlook the fact that some animals do not possess all senses, just as worms and caterpillars, and those which appear maimed immediately from their first birth, such as moles and the shrew-mouse.

^A To pass over these, one [point] is that, because of the absolute equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father, he mentions Him first, then the Son, and subsequently God the Father, who works all things in all. The second [point] is that, having said above that God works all things in all, he brings in a single harmony of testimony, setting forth [matters] concerning the Father and His Spirit: "But all these things works that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will," so that from this he might declare the Holy Spirit to be God endowed with authority in His own right. He has not undertaken an inappropriate matter, nor has he innovated the order, nor has he erred from what is correct; but he preserves inviolate the knowledge of the faith and the purity of theology. He does not insult the undivided nature and dignity, as those do who do not reckon the Son and the Holy Spirit *with* the Father, but reckon them *under* the Father.

For he did not shuffle the order of the names casually or without cause; rather, Christ, who speaks in him, in order to remove all suspicion from both malign hearts and those not yet perverted, teaches in various ways one and the same truth: namely, that there is an equality of power, of honor, and of essence—that is, substance—in the Trinity. ^B For he says elsewhere through the same Paul: "And it is the same God who works all in all"; else-where through the Evangelist, saying: "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"; and now through Paul, as was said before: "But all these things works that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." He also supports this chapter in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which reads as follows: "God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will."

Moreover, the Lord’s sayings in John have [weight]: "The Spirit breathes where He will," and "The Spirit is truth." And it is fitting, he says, that you should celebrate Him as God ^C in the primary rank of divinity, and not place Him in the second, so that you may have security in your life. For it is the custom that one who confers benefits should be thanked and honored; this, indeed, even those outside have found to say: "Render to the benefactor the most handsome recompense." For if, he says, the one who possesses authority of himself is better than one who is subordinate, then even a man, being possessed of his own authority, would be proved better than the Holy Spirit in your estimation. Alas for these evils! The Macedonians, regarding the symbols of divine power and nature as if for a created thing, have devised deceits, and have composed ^D dialogues introducing persons of an Orthodox and a Macedonian. They sometimes excise the proofs of the Orthodox person, or at other times do not even set forth as many as they ought; at other times they make him appear at a loss regarding the dialectical and demonstrative response; or they distract and diffuse [the argument] with what are supposedly persuasive words, attempting [to handle] the greatest matters.

^A For it is known even to the Gentiles: "To the well-deserving (50) let there be given pleasant rewards," they say. For if, he says, he who is endowed with his own authority and power is superior to him who is subjected to the power of another, it logically follows that man even, since he is a being of his own authority, would be called by you, O heretics, superior to the Holy Spirit. Away with such intolerable ravings. Furthermore, the Macedonians, taking those things which are the symbols of divine power and nature as though they signified a created power and nature, have devised frauds and committed them to writing. They have introduced the Orthodox and the Macedonian as if they were two persons of a dialogue speaking, and they have either mangled the testimonies (51) of the orthodox interlocutor or omitted them entirely, not presenting as many as was proper; at other times they have made him appear uncertain as to what he should say in response, or with what argument he should answer the points raised; and thus they have obscured the very truth and the propriety of things with truly inept and confused reasonings. They regard as nothing the oracles of the Scriptures, which were brought forth by the breath of God with appropriate dignity; but they drag their discourse wherever it seems good to them, and they toss and shift themselves, while they exult in that which they have proposed to themselves; and, drawing out their speech in one breath, they behave as though they were the victors over everyone with a certain irony and dissimulation, ^B railing at and carping at orthodoxy, as they themselves think. In this dialogue, the Macedonian is introduced disputing and addressing the orthodox person thus: "You said (52), God works; the Holy Spirit also works: and from the fact that God works and the Holy Spirit works, you wished to infer that the Holy Spirit is worthy of equal honor and endowed with equal power with God. But I will omit the point that physicians and all men alike use the term 'energy,' that is, operation, for things of diverse species and nature and definition—whether they are talking about hot waters, or food, or herbs. However, I will only point out that the divine word has used this term even for the opposing power, when the Apostle said concerning the Antichrist: ^C 'Whose coming is according to the operation of Satan, in all signs and lying wonders' (53). Since, therefore, the word 'to work' is used homonymously or synonymously for many things, see to what point you have cast down and depressed the Holy Spirit, and you have not considered that God indeed

BOOK TWO

^A brought the world out of nothing into existence, and both made and fashioned it; but the Holy Spirit fashioned the distribution of gifts in those who have been created by God. For it is written: “Distributing to each one as He wills,” and not, “bestowing.” But how do you not see, O Macedonian, that these things are in no way consistent with theological opinions and interpretations, and that you are manifestly convicted of hypocrisy by these very things which you say? For everyone admits that this first word, that is, “he operates,” is predicated of different essences and things: for what reason, then, when the text under discussion is concerning the divine and manifest operation of the Holy Spirit, have you brought this forth, and by this reasoning have you rather affected the Spirit of God with indignity than praised Him? Next, this is not what must be attended to, as you say, whether the word *energei*, that is, “he operates,” is received homonymously or synonymously, both concerning God and concerning herbs and Satan; but the persons must be attended to, and the distinctions of the operations: and it is necessary to make judgment concerning those things which pertain to the divine Spirit, whether doctrines or things, not with regard to earthly matters and the demon cast out from heaven, but with regard to God, who is celebrated by that word, that is, “he operates,” as was said above. For the individual passages of Scripture that can be found concerning the Holy Spirit are such that, from the entire series of the discourse and the sequence, it is evident that the Spirit Himself is commemorated with that veneration which befits God, whereas the creature and the demon are commemorated in that way ^B which they deserve: which, not observing, you who are a Macedonian, and not distinguishing the things which the demon operates from hatred, from those which the Holy Spirit operates on account of His love for humanity, you depress, as much as in you lies, and you undermine through those things which you say out of the abundance of your heart, the incomparable glory of God the Father, who is Himself celebrated by similar locutions on account of His divine works, and of the Holy Spirit of the Father Himself: and you have not noticed that you have unworthily (54) numbered yourself among those who think rightly. But rather attend to this, that in the cited words of Paul, the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the first place before God the Father and the Son: that indeed is fitting only for Him who is God. From this, however, infer that there is no discrepancy at all in that venerable Trinity existing in unity, and that it is ineffably its own co-worker. Furthermore, consider that the commemorated divine gifts are conferred upon each one through the Holy Spirit and by the Holy Spirit: besides which there is no other remaining largesse and donation proper to divine grace; but he who does not attain to these, being given by God, is the most miserable of the miserable; and if anyone does not think thus in his writings and discourses, that man remains incurable, neither receiving any help himself, nor ^C bringing it to others, into which things you are led by the abundance of your own surplus—at least as far as it depends on you—to bring down the incomparable glory of God the Father, who is glorified by similar expressions concerning divine matters, and of His Spirit; and you have unwittingly, and rightly so, placed yourself among those who think correctly. But attend rather to this, that in the matters set forth, before God the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is first mentioned in a manner befitting God; and understand from this that the venerable Trinity in unity has no difference, and that it works together with itself in an ineffable way. Next, consider for yourself that to each one, through the Holy Spirit and by the Holy Spirit, are given the aforementioned divine gifts; of which no other gift remains belonging to the divine grace from outside, and he who does not attain to them, as being given by God, is more miserable than the miserable; and he who does not thus write and speak remains incurable, neither being helped himself, nor helping others, but rather ^D even doing harm; and that this one and the same Spirit operates all these things, that is to say, makes and provides: and He who operates in these things, and will operate in all things, is lacking in nothing; and He who is lacking in nothing is impassible; and He who is impassible is God. Or, if it is said concerning God the Father, “The Lord is mighty in battle,” and, “Known in Judea is God,” and everything of this sort, will He not be understood in other things as mighty, and operative, and manifest? Consider likewise that it strips away all heretical specious reasoning, and they guarantee in various ways His divine supreme authority, the like-mindedness of the Father and of the Son, those words which speak thus: “According to His own will,” and, “He distributes to each one as He wills”; and that the Father God bears witness to these things with signs and wonders, and the Savior saying, “The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father,” and, “The Spirit is the truth,” and Peter expressly declaring the Holy Spirit to be God to Ananias as follows: “Why has it been agreed by you to lie to the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to men, but to God.” And know this, that you have not escaped notice by craftily having omitted in your vain and pernicious work—or rather, your blasphemous work—the principle of the divine Scripture. For it contains here: “The one and the same Spirit,” and thus it adds, which you alone have perversely appended, “operating to each one as He wills,” instead of, “bestowing, and distributing, and authentically revealing the heavenly goods.” For one is not of right mind and faith, while misinterpreting and even mutilating the words. For the fact that it contains, “The one and the same Spirit,” excludes you from separating Him from the, identity of the One who is both highest and at the helm of all things (for this most unsearchable and incomprehensible One differs from the Godhead not in the slightest, except only by the reason of paternity; because He proceeded by nature from Him, and not by a creative operation), and from saying: “But it is written, ‘Spirit of God, and Spirit of Christ,’ it shall be understood rightly as two.”

It has been said not long ago for what reason it is thus prophesied. But do not be ignorant of this, that the proposed sayings do not signify that the person bestowing is one, and the person distributing another, as is the case among men who are able neither to know everything nor to act without effort, and for this reason give those things indiscriminately, while ^A others distribute them after careful examination, fearing lest the givers might not suffice, or those being served might not themselves benefit. For the impassive, unchangeable, ever-moving, all-sufficient, and incorrupt God, who is not moved toward what we are worthy to receive—for we are not even worthy of anything by our works—but bestows in accordance with what is fitting for Him to give, knowing all things and being able to do all things, as has been stated even among the Greeks, helping, but rather harming them. And you ought not neglect to consider that this same one and the same Spirit works all these things, that is, He both does and provides; and he who is the operator in the distribution of these things will also work in all things, and He stands in need of nothing; and he who lacks nothing is incapable of passion; and he who is incapable of passion is God. But if it is said of God the Father: “The Lord ^B is powerful in war” [Ps. XXIII, 8], and, “God is known in Judea” [Ps. LXXV, 1], and other things of this kind, shall we think these things in such a way as to suppose that He is not powerful, operative, illustrious, and renowned in other matters? Think likewise of that which you are about to bring forward from the Scriptures, by which you prepare some appearance of truth for your heresy; it is rendered altogether void, and we are made more certain concerning the Spirit, that He has from Himself 212 divine authority and power, in agreement and concord with the authority of the Father and of the Son. For they speak thus: “According to His own will” [1 Cor. XII, 11]; and: “He divides ^C separately to each one as He wills.” To these, however, you should add the testimony at once, both where God the Father is present with signs and wonders [Heb. II, 4], and where the Savior says: “The Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father” [John XV, 26]; and: “The Spirit is truth” [1 John V, 6]; and also Peter, who expressly said that the Holy Spirit is God, and announced it to Ananias in this manner: “Why have you conspired together to lie to the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to men, but to God” [Acts V, 3-4]. And know also that which does not escape notice, that you have fraudulently omitted in your inept and pernicious booklet, or rather, in your blasphemous one, that which precedes in the divine text. For it is thus: “One and the same Spirit,” and then it adds that which you, with these words omitted, have perversely adduced: “Dividing separately to each one as He wills”; namely, bestowing, and distributing, and revealing through Himself, and by His own power, celestial blessings. It is not the way of one who thinks and believes rightly, not only to interpret divine oracles incorrectly, but moreover to mutilate them. For the fact that they contain, “one and the same Spirit,” forbids you first from separating Him from that identity by which He is the same as He who exists as the one and supreme God, and who governs all things: for this supremely invisible and supremely incomprehensible God does not differ in the least in deity from the Spirit, but only by the reason of Paternity: because He proceeded by nature from Him, and not by a creative operation. It forbids you, secondly, to say: If “Spirit of God,” and “Spirit of Christ” is mentioned in the Scriptures, two Spirits are to be understood. But it was stated not long ago why it was written in this way. But do not ignore even this, that the other oracles of Scripture do not signify that there is one person who gives, and another who distributes, as happens among men, who are neither able to know everything nor perform 213 things without labor, and for this reason some bestow not without choice, while others distribute not without careful examination and probation: lest perhaps either those who bestow might not actually carry the work through, or the ministers themselves might not reap a gain.

^A Furthermore, God is blameless, impassible, never idle, sufficient for all, and liberal; for in bestowing, He does not look to what we deserve to receive (since we do not even deserve any good from our works), but He looks to what is fitting for Himself to give. ^B He is the one who knows all things and can do all things, as it has also been said by the Greeks: “For no one will conceive of a mind better than this.” [As I conceive it: by a nod alone, and not by manual labor, ^C nor by distress and pain, does He always liberally and copiously provide good and generous gifts to individuals; and not sometimes providing them and sometimes not; nor sometimes more, and at other times less, but continuously, in the same manner, and similarly, with total harmony (for how could it be otherwise?) of both His own Son, the Word, and His one holy Spirit. For no one among those who exist is rejected by Him, seeing that He makes His sun to rise alike upon the just and upon the sinners, and to those who began to work at the eleventh hour, He grants the same reward as to those who labored ^D and worked the vineyard from dawn, according to agreement. Nor is anyone to be dreaded by Him, as though, by reason of His... [index: entries preserved]

^A need, or because He does not give in abundance, He might bring about a war; nor is there anyone else who might be found to contend with Him for authority, so that He should envy him, and fear lest he be made His equal by occupying things that belong to Him: a thing which it is not even lawful to say, unless one is speaking of malignant substances. Nor is He angry again because of that which He has once forgiven. "For You spare all," says the Scripture, "because all things are Yours, O Lord, You lover of souls; and Your incorruptible Spirit is in all things." Since you cannot say these things, what is left for you but to quibble captiously? Conversely, when the Son or the Holy Spirit is said to bestow divine gifts, it is manifest that this is done through the Father's good pleasure; for how could it be otherwise? Therefore, listen to Paul teaching the Romans: ^B "Because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us"; and: "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." And again: "He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you, and works miracles among you." And in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are no longer under the law." And to the Galatians: "For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." Wherefore he also said here: "There are ^C divisions of gifts, but the same Spirit"; that is (by ellipsis of speech and syncopation), the Spirit who grants; and afterward he added: "One and the same Spirit, dividing to each one individually as He wills," in order to show that He Himself both grants and divides, in such a way, indeed, that He wills precisely the same thing as that One whose Spirit He is, and to whom all things are referred, as it is written to the Romans: "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things." But attend also to all the other oracles which the Scriptures have regarding Him. For if you had attended to all, and if you believed in God the Father Himself, and in His only-begotten Son, and furthermore in so many ^D saints, whose eyes of the mind were as watchful as those of the Cherubim, whom we follow with so much the greater reverence and honor the more we truly receive the contribution and teaching made by them in deed, and the faith approved by them; and if, furthermore, you had not from the beginning followed in any way the cohorts of Arius, whom it is not lawful for us even to name or to know, having revered them as those who laid upon you the name of bishop, when previously you were but a deacon of the orthodox and apostolic Church; you would not have brought about the comparison of those things spoken concerning the Holy Spirit with things said concerning created beings, nor would you have given greater suspicion to those who share your impiety, nor would you have used railing—to say nothing of blasphemy—that surpasses moderation; for you could have known that He was present and working ineffably.

^A For He is the Spirit of God, existing in the same [substance]; but God and Father was pleased, as has been said above, for all things to be brought forth from non-existence through the Son, the Word, while the Father Himself and His sanctifying Spirit were concurrently considered in the creating—for how could they not be? But with regard to humans or even angels, there is need of many persons and hands to accomplish anything perfectly and successfully. The one who inspired these things warrants them to be mentioned in our regeneration through baptism; for it is mentioned that He is present, and acting with [them], and is not lowered from the ineffable nature. Thus, then, these things are so, and not otherwise, though I shall omit saying more.

But God also distributes through the Spirit, just as He creates through His Word. This does not exclude Him from the Godhead, just as it does not the Son; no, it even declares Him to be God through these things as well. ^B For since the goods that lead to salvation and are spoken of everywhere are provided through the Holy Spirit to those who were created through the Son, for one thing is bound to another, and for the thing that has been created, to be provided for is more advantageous than to be created, and to be deemed worthy of the flowing multitude of divine gifts from heaven; and everywhere it is held preferable not to have been born, than to have been born and to lack the inexhaustible goods from above. These, even when given, are not seen, just as the Giver Himself also bestows them throughout the ages, and is in a certain way unknown. For eye has not seen them, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into our consideration; nor are they laid open to our cognition. But whatever is high and sublime, whatever is beautiful anywhere, all this we gather together in our mind, so that our faith might at length approach the truth in some way; ^C for where the truth itself, or the precision, is not yet graspable, one must look toward what is possible.

The unerring voice therefore said concerning the one who has become a stranger to these things: "It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." You have therefore already brought yourself into question, and turned upon yourself the accusation you chose to direct against us; and you seemed to differ nothing from those who beat the air, having been led to stitch together some puzzles, and to bring in between, ^D among divine things and discourses, things that are unlearned, the urgency not requiring it, and other material things, and indeed also the opposing, rejected, and all those things you mentioned as if they were suggestions. You are far removed from anyone who has done anything decent or good, and no Christian who has rightly and dispassionately studied the Scriptures, and to whom the brilliance of the grace given by the divine Spirit immediately belonged, would approve of what you have worked out, which is harmful to the soul. For according to your attempt, all Scripture that possesses a demonstration of theology would perhaps be cast out. And come, if these things are not true, [look] at the slander itself—they gave to Ischyras as a reward the name of bishop, he who was not even a presbyter, and he deemed himself worthy of the name of his ministry to the ruin of the Church.

^A Let us consider ^B this gently and moderately. For I myself will show it accurately, not by simple proofs from ambiguous points, but from those that are acknowledged, and I will teach easily, and you will learn. Paul, who possessed a blessed zeal for the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, hotter, as they say, than fire, writes that Christ became a minister. And our Benefactor himself said clearly concerning himself: "I have received a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak," and, "I do nothing of my own self." And it is said elsewhere: "The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." And yet we understand these things to have been written faithfully and in a manner becoming to God, because of the one will of the holy Trinity, and because all things are referred to the Father. As, therefore, no change of divinity is contemplated in the Son (for he does not serve as one foreign in nature to another, nor as one of lesser power, but as Son and Word to the genuine Father; nor does he receive a commandment as one ignorant of what is fitting and of the Father’s will, but as has been said before), so [100 A] also is it with the divine Spirit. And in the same manner by which the things of God the Word are referred to God the Father, so too—and by no other—are the things of the Holy Spirit. So that, whomsoever the heretics have puffed up in their thinking, against them they have stirred up the slander of arrogance and false opinion. Nor did their impious and unbecoming slander stop there. For attempting to muddy the spotless opinion concerning the divinity of the Holy Spirit, as if no good thing came to them from him, and at the same time to cast us into accusation, these very men who used some men as teachers do not hesitate to innovate and say this verbatim: that though we take the scriptural text, "The Spirit blows where it wills," as referring to divine dignity, we bring it down to human nature; since it follows with other things: "So shall everyone be who is born of the Spirit." But they themselves say that they neither elevate the Spirit to divine dignity nor drag him down to the nature of others; for he occupies a middle rank, being neither God nor one of the others. And who will not truly write against them for such boldness? Come, therefore, pay attention to the mind, for I will speak briefly. For he did not say, "Thus is the man," the simple man, but, "So shall everyone be who is born of the Spirit," that is, he who has been deemed worthy to be reborn in the divine font, and to become ^C as... ^D

is manifest in the Catholic, that is, universal, Epistles, a partaker of the divine nature. These words are similar to these: "Let us make man according to our image and likeness," and to these other words: "That you may be according to the image of him who created us." And just as the Most High Father and his Son are not, by these holy utterances which transcend our understanding, brought down to the condition of human nature, so neither is the Holy Spirit, by the aforementioned testimonies or by his beneficence toward us, reduced to that condition.

Then—and this is a far worse thing—they think that the Holy Spirit is neither God nor one of the other things. It remains, therefore, that they think him to be devoid of existence. Or, to put it otherwise: if he is not God, as they say, he is subject to the common reason and definition of creatures. But no argument for this is found in the Scriptures, nor have the divine oracles declared him to be of a middle nature; but on the contrary, they say that he is the Spirit of God, and that he proceeds from the Father, and is a divine Spirit. It remains, therefore, that he is God, both from the utterances of Peter and Paul, and from the entire sense of the Scriptures and from the word "proceeds." For since this is indefinite, it most divinely shows his nature to be eternal and inseparable from him, from whom he proceeds in an ^A ineffable manner. And I add this also: if there is nothing else, as they themselves truly say, then he is God. In addition to this, if nothing created is found in one hypostasis, or substance, as was demonstrated in the first book, and the Holy Spirit, as one and alone, belongs to the unity, or monad, of essence, then the heretics are understood to be impostors from the very things they have written.

^B Indeed, he is revealed by Catholic marks to be a partaker of the divine nature. And these things are similar to, "Let us make man according to our image and likeness," and to, "That you may become according to the image of him who created us." And as the Most High Father and his Son are not dragged down from these holy and transcendent utterances into human nature, so neither is the Holy Spirit, according to the aforementioned expressions and his philanthropies toward us. Furthermore, it seems to them—which is still worse—that the Holy Spirit is neither God nor one of the other things. It remains that one must think him to be non-existent. And otherwise: if he is not, as they say, God, he is brought under the common classification of creatures. But no such proof is found in the Scriptures, nor has it been oracularly declared that there is a middle nature; on the contrary, he is the Spirit of God, and proceeds from the Father, and is a divine Spirit. It ^C remains that he is God, from the utterances of Peter and Paul, from the entire sense of the Scriptures, and from the word "proceeds." For as it is indefinite, it most divinely indicates the eternal and inseparable nature of him toward that [Father] from whom he proceeds without beginning. And moreover, this too: if he is nothing of the others, as this of theirs is true, he is God. To these things: if nothing created is found in one hypostasis, as was demonstrated in the first book, and the Holy Spirit is in one and only one, that is, of the monad of the essence: as they would therefore be caught, if they were understood from those things which they wrote, even if they seem to be clever at saying what they want, and [it would be] so that not even the crest of arrogance against us might be raised from them; for human boasts are quickly refuted. A wise man has judged regarding each of them thus: "Do not be over-wise, that you may not be amazed." And Stephen in the Acts also rebukes them ^D in this way: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you." By "their fathers" he meant Arius [and] Macedonius, the destructive dyad. I proceed, therefore, to another chapter.

II. ^B Since the Holy Spirit appointed prophets and apostles so that they might shepherd the rational flock and have care of it, and [since] he sent them by his own authority and caused them to speak as he willed—in no way differing in this from the Father and the Son, inasmuch as he is the Spirit of God by procession, and not by creation, and the genuine Spirit of wisdom and intelligence, having a dominion common with the Ruler of all things, the Father and the Son—the nature of a creature is not of this order. That these things are true, the books of Moses persuade us, which say: "Who shall give ^C all the people to be prophets, when the Lord gives his Spirit upon them?" then the Apostolic Acts, which speak in this manner: "There appeared to them tongues distributed as fire, and it sat upon each one of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them to speak;" and again from the blessed Paul: "Well did the Holy Spirit speak to your fathers through the prophet." And again, having summoned the presbyters of Ephesus at Miletus, he says: "Take heed ^D to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has set you as bishops, to shepherd the Church of the Lord, which he acquired through his own blood;" and again: "They passed through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia: and when they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them." Indeed, as God, foreknowing all things and having his own authority, he did not allow them to speak, nor to travel where they wished, because it was for their advantage; doing the very same thing as the Son, who says: "Do not carry a bag, or a staff, or sandals;" and again the apostles and presbyters say: "It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to lay upon you nothing further..."

than these things, which are necessary: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and blood, and what has been strangled, and fornication; by keeping yourselves from which, you will do well." Now, no one accepts as valid what has seemed good to a subordinate, but not to the sovereign; but whatever seems good to a king and to those appointed by him, this is law, bringing praise to those who obey, and danger to those who disobey. "For," he says, "disobedience works death, but obedience eternal life." ^A For a king is mightier when he is angry with an inferior.

Just as, therefore, a king is accustomed to transmit his own decrees to the great prefects who hold the place nearest to him, and to whom he has given the reins of those governed, while they are accustomed to sign these ^B and make them known to all, so that all may submit themselves to the things decreed by the king or emperor, and customarily threaten dangers to those who violate such sanctions; so also the apostles, whom God placed first, knowing the self-authority of the Spirit and that He is consubstantial with the Father, wrote: "It has seemed good," they say, "to the Holy Spirit" (as to a King, and Ruler, and Guardian of the race) "and to us," as those who have been set apart to preside over the faith and the Churches. "By keeping yourselves from which, you will do well; but if you violate these precepts," they say, "the opposite will befall you." For they remembered what the Savior had said to them in the Gospel according to Mark: "For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit." And so that no one might suppose ^C that the matter which we are now pursuing is of small importance, but rather believe that the will, the command, and the operation are the same for the holy Trinity, and furthermore that the deity is the same; Paul, who first was a student of the Law and a persecutor, and later was revealed as a mystagogue of this very ineffable dispensation, declares that it is harmonious concerning the Father and the Son,

writing to the Corinthians first: “And God has set some in the Church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers”; and elsewhere: “But I say, not I, but the Lord, that a wife should not be separated from her husband.” And to the Galatians: “When it pleased God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb, to reveal His Son in me, that I might evangelize Him among the nations”; and elsewhere: “Just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, who judges our hearts.” And none the less, the Savior also deigned to say to His disciples: “I have chosen you.”

^C III. Because He establishes laws and commands what is fitting for each of His works, as a king making use of a gentle and lawful governance, and bestowing infinite peace upon the whole universe, both heaven and earth, and tempering lordship with care. But it belongs to the nature of the Queen of all things alone to establish laws and to judge; for the creature, it is to live under law and be subject to judgment. For Paul, that vessel of election, defined this, as we have already said, writing: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death.” And the Apostolic Acts, which have it thus: “As Peter was thinking about the word, the Spirit said to him: Behold, three men are looking for you. But arise, go down, and travel with them, doubting nothing; because I have sent them.” And again: “The Spirit said to Philip: Go up and join yourself to this chariot.” And further from the person of the prophet Agabus: “Thus says the Holy Spirit: The man whose this girdle is, so shall they bind.” And Paul: “Behold, now I, bound by the Spirit, journey,” which is similar to that: ^D

^A “Thus says the Holy Spirit: Separate to me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them.” These words are similar to those: “But the Lord said: Go into the city, and there it shall be told to you what you must do.” And again to Peter the Spirit said: “Arise, go into the house of Cornelius.” And indeed, Paul writes to Timothy in the Epistles: “But the Spirit expressly says.” Observe, then, that Paul not only displays the Spirit again through such a word as a lawgiver—for those who have established laws in a worldly manner have also used that word “expressly”—but that other testimonies also demonstrate the equality of the nature of the Holy Spirit with the Father, and His authority. For in like manner it is written in many places concerning God and the Father: “Thus says the Lord Almighty.”

But those heretics, to whom everything that is true exists as a matter of contradiction, conceiving nothing worthy of the divine operation and spending their time on empty fantasies, tenaciously hold onto whatever they catch, and as if they were some sort of antitype, they set these things up in opposition as if they were certain proofs. They say, for instance, that even concerning the angel, Zechariah, when he beheld the vision of the candelabrum, said: “The angel who spoke ^B in me.” Therefore, they suggest that the Holy Spirit can be conceived of as an angel. But their stubbornness is accounted for from that very text. For that angel did not speak from himself, nor was he speaking his own words, but as a minister, he spoke those things which he had been commanded by God and His Spirit. For the passage exists as follows: “And I inquired and said to the angel who was speaking in me, saying: What are these? And the angel who was speaking in me answered and said to me: This is the word of the Lord to Zorobabel, saying: Not by great power, nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.” Then the Son and the Spirit were called an angel, in the oak of Mamre, when the glorious Trinity appeared to Abraham, because they were announcing things unknown. In addition to which, from the angelic multitude, no one ^C

ever sent holy men by their own authority and proper motion, nor did they make them utter oracles, or establish laws, or say anything at all which they themselves wished. Furthermore, the angels are ignorant of the counsels of the ineffable and benevolent Trinity, nor do they comprehend the power of its divine aid; but they serve its serene nod, and appease it with prayers, with unceasing mouths and an incomprehensible voice. ^B

IV. For with God the Father, His Holy Spirit sends and leads by His own authority; for it is truly a work of philanthropy of the all-wise and most good Trinity, that sending, guidance, and kindness towards all, into the path of a pious life. But of them, the guidance is the same, and the serenity is the same, and the essence is the same. And this obtains the most manifest proof through works. For when God had said to Moses: "I will send My angel before your face, and he shall cast out the Canaanite," ^C that great Moses, knowing full well that angels are creatures, but the Holy Spirit is God, entreated Him, saying: "Unless You Yourself go with us, do not lead me up from here." And when the Almighty answered him in these words: "And this word of yours, which you have spoken, I will do; for you have found grace before Me, and I know you above all," Isaiah, manifesting the identity of the concordant Trinity in one deity, says that the divine Spirit was their leader and guide, in these very words: "Who brought up from the earth the shepherd of the sheep? Where is He who put the Holy Spirit in them? Who led Moses by the right hand?" And not long after he adds: "The Spirit descended from the Lord, and guided them; so You led Your people, to make to Yourself a name of glory." Behold then also this, in that place: that the Scripture did not say that the Holy Spirit was sent, but that He descended authentically and royally. Moreover, being mindful of both divine hypostases, He declares them with equal honor: "And now the Lord has sent Me, and His Spirit." Whence Moses is often found frequently celebrating Him: "The Lord God who goes before your face." And [the people], giving thanks, sang in such a manner: "To Him who led His people in the desert, for His mercy [endures] to the age." And even God the Father, having nothing different in essence ^D and power

his mercy. ^A But God the Father also, showing that there is no difference in essence, power, will, and glory between Himself, the Only-begotten Word, and His one Holy Spirit, says through almost the entire Scripture: "I brought you up out of the land of Egypt. You are witnesses if there was any God alien among you besides me." And He who is of the same nature and will with the most high Father and His Holy Spirit is our kind savior.

CHAPTER X

...against my Spirit, or concerning my Spirit. And I believe that for this reason, and for this sole reason, sparing them, He ordered them to come to Job, that he might pray for them; this was done, I think, on account of the words pertaining to Him which they uttered; for most rightly, I know not how, and most conveniently did they speak: "The divine Spirit that made me, and the breath of the Almighty that teaches me." ^B And in a few words they explained His great power, and His creative nature, and His nature as the bestower of salvation and expeller of evils. But does Eliu ^C stop at this theological utterance? He added many things openly concerning the almighty God the Father, to which nothing can be opposed. For he says: "For He is Eternal who is above mortals." And again: "If there be a thousand death-dealing angels, not one of them shall harm any of them, if he shall have perceived in his heart to turn to the Lord." And again: "He will pray to the Lord, and he shall be accepted by Him." And again: "Save my soul, that it may not depart into corruption, and my life shall see light. Behold, the Strong One works all these things." ^D Therefore, the things he teaches regarding God and His Spirit are right; but those concerning other matters are wrong. For Job, also, when he had called upon the divine Holy Spirit, as was said above, obtained such great praise from God. Consider, therefore, that even if you do not accept the testimony of Eliu, these things are sufficient.

^A who have called the Holy Spirit divine; and that the testimony of even one of them is worthy of faith. For often the demon, wishing to deceive us, mixes with falsehood, as a snare, some truth already known to the one with whom he holds discourse. Indeed, we hear in the Gospel the devil holding discourse with the Lord of all from the divine Scriptures, and intertwining the holy oracles with his own profane reasonings and words, and saying temptingly: “If thou art the Son ^B of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, That he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee.” Moreover, we hear even the demons speaking better things concerning the divinity of the Son than the Arians, who ordained your heresiarch Macedonius, and after Macedonius, Marathonius. “What have we,” they say, “to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the living God? Art thou come hither before the time to torment us?” And James also, showing that faith without works is dead, and vice-versa, that the one cooperates with the other, and from both something perfect is obtained, openly and ^C manifestly declares: “Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder.” Nay, but also the Samaritan woman, whom Christ, who wishes all to be saved, rebuked for the things she had said at the beginning, spoke again afterwards as a believer, and not as a Samaritan; and she was deemed worthy of both praise and mercy. And perhaps many other things of this kind might be found by those who labor more diligently upon these matters. Do you see, therefore, that you, O Macedonian, do not believe even as Eliu did concerning the Holy Spirit; but every prudent thought concerning Him has been poured out from you; and on account of the diminution ^D which you work concerning His divine essence, and your not being a perfect partaker of His grace, does He draw back from you His eternal gifts? But of these things, enough. And now to the

let us proceed to what follows. ^A Likewise, Paul writing in the second Epistle to the Corinthians [105 a]: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, which you are.” Consider how he said that the Spirit of God is God dwelling in the temple of man, which he named the temple of God, as elsewhere he says: “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God has said: I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” And as he writes to Timothy: “Keep that good deposit through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.” And as it is in the Gospel, as has already been said: “In this we know that God is in us, by His Spirit which He has given us.” Indeed, as if from the person of two hypostases, the Scripture says in Isaiah: “I am, and there is no more.” As also the evangelist says from the person of the Son: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and the My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and we will make ^B our abode with him.” And to the Hebrews: “But Christ as Son over His own house, whose house we are.” And the Psalmist: “But You dwell in the holy places, the praise of Israel.” I think that by saying “holy dwelling place of the uncircumscribed God,” he refers to the entire rational nature of the believers. It is demonstrated, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is not only God, but also equal and like to the Father and to the Son, in every nature of rational creatures called the house of the Savior: “But Christ over His own house, whose house we are.” This house of Christ is the temple of God, in which the Spirit of the same God dwells. ^C In both places, therefore, Didymus omits those words, “as Son.” It is not permitted, however, to infer that the copies of the Scriptures which he used lacked the words “as Son.” For in the commentaries on the Psalms, explaining the title of the ninth psalm, he himself brought forth this passage of Paul and did not omit the words, “as Son.” For these things are read in the handwritten catena on the Psalms, fol. 20, at the title which I mentioned, that is: “Didymus: In many places of the Scripture, the Son is spoken of indefinitely, without adding whose Son He is; while in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Paul says, ‘Christ as Son over His own house; whose house we are,’ and again: ‘In the last of these days, He spoke to us in the Son.’ And the Savior Himself says in the Gospels concerning Himself: ‘If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be truly free.’ It is clear, then, that He now indicates Him by not adding whose Son He is; and not as the Jews might say of Absalom, who also secretly plotted against his father. For he did not confess him when he died, he who had spoken against his destruction and lamented his death… ^D”

^A even as the man who is the house of the Father also contains within himself the Son and the Spirit of God. Just as, in turn, he who has been deemed worthy of the visitation of the Spirit of the Son possesses, in every respect, the Father as well. And again, in the same second Epistle: [105b] "Know you not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your bodies." By saying that the bodies of the faithful are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and advising them to glorify God in their bodies, he clearly shows that this is the Holy Spirit. And by saying that he is from God, he teaches that he proceeds from him by nature. Which, in turn, also demonstrates that man is the temple of God, and also [possibly] of the Father and the Son. Likewise, in the same second Epistle: "For until this day the same veil remains in the reading of the Old Testament, not taken away (because it is abolished in Christ). But when one returns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit." He has called the Holy Spirit "Lord" so often, as well as the one who bestows liberty to those upon whom he shines, and as having glory in himself. The entire interpretation of the chapter is as follows: The Jewish observances of the Old Testament, he says, still remain for some who do not recognize that they have been abolished or abrogated in Christ, who said, "I did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it"—that is, either to conclude it or to supplement what is lacking. But when anyone turns to the Lord and passes from the type to the truth, from the law to grace, according to that saying, "You are not under law but under grace," he casts off that veil which, as it were, [106a] covers him, acting like Moses, who, when he was deemed worthy to converse with the invisible God, took off the veil from his face, which was glorified by the divine manifestation and dazzled the eyes of those looking at him like the rays of the sun. He says here that the Lord is the Holy Spirit. ^B

BOOK TWO OF ON THE TRINITY

...the rational nature of the uncircumscribed God a holy dwelling, I think. Therefore, it has been demonstrated that the Holy Spirit is not only God, but also equal and similar to the Father and the Son, both because man is a temple of the three persons in an equal and similar manner 72, and also because he who is the house of the Father has within himself the Son and the Spirit of God existing; just as, conversely, he who has become worthy of the coming of the Son or the Spirit, has altogether the Father also; and again in the same second Epistle 73: "Do you not know that your bodies 74 are a temple of the Holy Spirit existing in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price. Glorify God, who is in your bodies." After he said that the bodies of the faithful are the temple of the Holy Spirit, he warns that God must be glorified in our bodies, namely, the Holy Spirit. Moreover, by saying that we have him from God, he teaches that he proceeds from God according to his nature 75. This is confirmed again by the fact that man is his temple, equally as he is the temple of the Father and the Son. Similarly, in the same second Epistle: "For until 76 this day the same veil remains in the reading of the Old Testament, not revealed (because 77 it is evacuated in Christ). But when someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. We all, however, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord the Spirit." Observe that the Holy Spirit is here frequently called Lord, and him who bestows liberty on those upon whom he shines, and as having glory in himself. The interpretation of the whole chapter is as follows: The Judaic observances of the Old Testament, he says, still remain uncorrected for some who do not know that they have been evacuated, or abrogated, in Christ, who said: "I did not come 78 to destroy the law, but to fulfill," that is, either to put faith in it, or to supply what is wanting. But when anyone has turned to the Lord, and has migrated from the type into the truth, from the law into grace, according to that: "You are not 79 under the law, but under grace;" he casts off that veil which, as if it were a covering, ^{C D}

^A had been a hindrance to the eyes of those who fixed their gaze upon him, striking and dazzling them like the rays of the sun. But he says that the Holy Spirit is the Lord in this place: from whom we, who are His temple, receiving liberty, with face now unveiled, and yielding no longer to the yoke of servitude, behold the glory of the Lord dwelling in us, passing from the glory of the Spirit into the glory of the Father.

But let us proceed to what follows. "If," he says, "all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an unlearned person enters, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all; the secrets of his heart are made manifest: and so, falling on his face, he will worship God, declaring that truly God is in you." Therefore, the Holy Spirit, who speaks and works in the prophets and in the saints, and who bestows charisms or gifts, is also clearly called God here. And it is to be noted that He is also worshipped. ^B He sees fit to write similar things to the Romans as well; his words are as follows: "May the God of patience and of hope grant you to be of the same mind one with another, according to Jesus Christ, that with one accord and one mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Who else then is the God who grants us to be of such a mind concerning the Father and His Only-begotten, if not the Holy Spirit? For He alone remains whom we might understand here.

But he writes similarly to the Thessalonians also: "And may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the patience of Christ." So that the Holy Spirit is that Lord who directs into the love of God and Father, and into the patience of the Son. And again: "And may the Lord make you to increase ^C and abound in love toward one another, and toward all, as we also do toward you; so as to strengthen your hearts blameless in holiness, before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Who therefore is the Lord who makes us increase and strengthens us in holiness before the Father and the Son, if not the Holy Spirit? He exhorts them further, that they should not, out of some petulance or negligence, reject His eternal grace, which is as it were kindled in us, writing these things: "Do not quench the Spirit." And again, making Him God, and declaring Him to be of equal rank and dignity with the Father, and in concord with Him, he says: "He who rejects, does not reject man, but God, who gives his Holy Spirit ^D to us."

But Peter, who held the primacy among the apostles, plainly presenting the Holy Spirit as God and Lord, threatened such a one, saying specifically to a certain man named Ananias: "Why has Satan filled your heart, for you to lie to the Holy Spirit?"

^A Was it not yours while it remained, and after it was sold, was it not in your power? You have not lied to men, but to God." And immediately, addressing Sapphira, the wife of Ananias, he says the following: "Why did you agree together to test the Spirit of the Lord?" ^B This is similar to the words: "You shall not test the Lord your God," and to that which was written by James: "For God is not tempted by evils, and He Himself tests no one." John, moreover, theologizing about the Spirit, as was said above, said: "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth." For just as God is Spirit, and His Holy Spirit is God; and just as God is that which He is also called, that which is His Spirit; so too is the Holy Spirit that very thing which it is, of whom it is the Spirit: that is, the unbegotten God. ^C He says that we ought to worship the Holy Spirit in our whole spirit, without doubt, with truth, and not with lips only and empty words. But if the Macedonians should say that in the...

^D

Concerning the interpretation of the word "to reject."

^A And just as God is, and that which is His Spirit is called, so too is the Holy Spirit that which He is, whose Spirit it is: namely, that He is God without a beginning. The meaning of these words, therefore, is this: We must worship the Holy Spirit with all our spirit, confidently and without hesitation, in truth and not merely with lips and empty words. But if the Macedonians should say that it is indeed said in the brought-forth oracle of Scripture that God is worshipped in the Holy Spirit, but that it is not also said that the Spirit is worshipped, they will be compelled to say that we worship in the Son, but that the Son Himself is not worshipped: for He Himself says, "I am the truth." Nor will there be any difference from this text regarding these blessed hypostases.

^B Isaiah, however, prophesying concerning the Church and those instructed in her in the wisdom of the Spirit, and introducing God as speaking, sets out this list: "Behold, I prepare for you your carbuncle stone, and your foundations as sapphire; and I will set your bulwarks as jasper, and your gates as stones of crystal, and your surrounding wall as choice stones, and all your sons taught of God." The Savior remembered this prophecy in John, saying: "It is written in the prophets: And they shall all be taught of God." And Paul also writes to the Thessalonians things consistent with these: "For you yourselves are God-taught to love one another." Both speak concerning the Holy Spirit, as the Master says again in John: ^C"He will teach you, and will bring everything to your remembrance." If, therefore, those who are taught by the Holy Spirit are called taught of God, let the reader understand what the Holy Spirit is, hearing also another boasting: "God taught me wisdom," and again: "God taught me from my youth."

The Scripture is also called "God-breathed" and divine, as the Holy Spirit, who breathed it, is God, according to Paul writing to Timothy in the second epistle: "All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable." And Peter again, removing the notion that one ought to think that the Holy Spirit is to be ranked among created things, writes the second epistle generally: "For prophecy was never brought by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." And the Acts of the Apostles also contain the following: "Peter, filled with the Spirit..."

spoke to the people, those things which he spoke. ^A Each of these things, therefore, that are declared in the Scriptures concerning the divine Spirit, is a sufficient proof of his equality in all things with the divinity of God the Father and the Son. But those who hold the view of Macedonius, deeming the simplicity of the Scriptures to be more important, and wishing to show this to be more honorable than our uncorrupted faith, opposing the Holy Spirit, have also written disparagingly [108 a] concerning his indwelling in us, in these very words: "Things which are said allegorically, or denominatively, or metaphorically, or homonymously, ought not to be taken for the accurate explanation of a dogma. ^B For even the temple that was in Jerusalem, made of lifeless matter, was termed 'temple' first; and subsequently, homonymously, human beings also are called temples. And furthermore, a dwelling house is called a 'temple' [naos], derived from the word meaning 'to dwell' [en-nein and enoikein]. For Scripture says: 'Nabuchodonosor was in the temple of the kingdom.' And again, 'If we are men by nature, we are temple by denomination, and not, forsooth, in truth.' And again, 'Since, therefore, we are also called sheep, are we therefore sheep by nature?' And again, 'He who redeemed us is He who died for us; but he who redeems does not redeem what is alien.' ^C They themselves thus, helplessly and senselessly, and in a way that not even those who are capable of reasoning upon even the smallest things would accept them. For they bring into our midst cattle and lifeless buildings to examine the divine utterances concerning the incontestable divinity itself and concerning us, the rational works of His hands; and they play, as it were, with fearful Scriptures and matters, and through these supposedly simple and loose arguments, they call men to their own abyss, like those who entice fish with a little bait. But we, showing from every side that we have taken the greatest care throughout our whole life, as far as it seems to us, to speak nothing at all rashly, nor with hatred against anyone, and that we have avoided reasonable reproach, have come [108 b] to those who are of a sound… ^D [alt-version omitted]

mind and to those like-minded with us, reminding them of what they have heard from the Scriptures; but to others, we persuade them, as far as lies with us, so that they might not hold to this opinion or faith as they presently do for the future. For those who are judged worthy to have dwelling within them the Spirit of God, who fills all things and subsists, are not called His temple by homonymy or synonymy, nor by allegory, nor by metaphor, but properly and in truth. Whence the Apostle, ^B showing that the Holy Spirit is God—not in relation to the Jerusalem temple or those things which the heretics used as examples, but to the faithful—said: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you?" And to the Hebrews: "We are partakers of the Holy Spirit." For if we are a temple of the Holy Spirit, not as of God, but only on account of the "dwelling" and "inhabiting," then not even when called the temple of God have we been so named as being God's. But God the Father, possessing us as Lord, dwells within us (for a temple is fitting for God alone), and in like manner His only-begotten Son, and His one Holy Spirit. And in the way that God the Father—even if it is not written that He redeemed us with His own blood—is our Lord, so also is His Holy Spirit. For to these things, which are said for the description of the divinity of the Holy Spirit, it follows that the ^C same belief should be held regarding God the Father. Who, then, could be persuaded more rightly by Paul and the other saints than by Macedonius and Arius, who feigned repentance? For if the argument of the saints has any weight with them, how did they escape having set themselves among the adversaries, and why do they not choose to say and think the same things as them? But if to them it seems otherwise than to the others (for this is beyond dispute from what has been shown. For not against walls and creatures in a disdainful and mocking way, as these abusive men do, comparing or judging the rational temple, which is after the image of God, the work of His hands, and the most beautiful of things on earth, to be one and the same with these—using the cited oracles), this is not of Christians, nor of the wise in any way; nor would anyone initially think they ^D were teaching such things in truth. But having truly learned that they hold such an opinion, how would one not think it more prudent to flee from the heretics, and be persuaded by those who are far better—I mean the saints—or, to speak more truly, by those of God Himself? For no one, even if he were entirely inexperienced in the Scriptures, would say that those excellent and glorious men spoke these things from their own opinion alone, but rather through the

voice of God speaking to us, and that they teach other things, too, which are of greater understanding than that of men, and that God himself, and his only-begotten Son, and his one Spirit, dwell within the faithful in like manner and equally and undefiledly. ^A Refuting, therefore, and casting aside their sophistical babblings, and exhorting them not to choose what is harmful because of Arius and Macedonius, ^B he admonishes them in the 104th Psalm: "Do not deal malignantly in my prophets." But enough of those men, who are never and nowhere friends to God, who has bestowed upon men the gift of sharing in the same name: "Do not stir Camarina; for it is better to leave it unmoved." Now that it has been determined that the Holy Spirit is God and that he himself inspired the prophecies, it is time to pass on to Zechariah—not that sickle-bearing prophet, but the father of John, who also professes that he himself, who spoke in the prophets, is the God and Lord of Israel. I shall now set forth the very words which he uttered: ^C "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he has visited and wrought redemption for his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began." And the sacred Psalmist, never departing from dogmatic teaching, agrees with these things, saying in the 84th Psalm: "I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me"; ^D and in the second book of the History of Reigns he expressed of what Lord and God this desirable enthusiasm was, explaining: "The Spirit of the Lord spoke in me, and his Word was upon my tongue." Not accepting these things at the beginning. "And behold, a flying sickle... I see a flying sickle,"

^A

CHAPTER XI: That the Holy Spirit sits upon the cherubic throne and sends forth power. And that Paul knows Him to be the Lord Sabaoth who was seen by Isaiah. And against the Macedonian opinion. And that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. And that heretics deceitfully pervert the divine Scriptures.

Now, with regard to that most accurate psalmist whom I mentioned, who treats all necessary things copiously in the 109th Psalm—a psalm which is entirely spoken from the person of the Father to the Son—the Holy Trinity is honored equally, and the Spirit is announced as the Lord who sends forth power, and who sits together with the Father and the Son, [revealed] more manifest ^B than enigmatically. It has seemed good to me, for a ready demonstration, to transcribe the whole of this sacred passage in order, leaving nothing out of it. It reads as follows: "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.' The Lord shall send forth a rod of power for you from Sion, and rule in the midst of your enemies. With you is the beginning in the day of your power in the splendors of the saints. From the womb before the morning star I have begotten you. The Lord has sworn, and will not repent: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand." If, then, the Father says to the Son, "Sit at my right hand," and, "The Lord ^C shall send forth a rod of power for you," and, "You shall rule over your enemies," and, "The Lord has sworn," and, "The Lord is at your right hand," who is the Lord that sends the rod to Him, and swears, and sits at the right hand of the Son, if not the Holy Spirit? So that we discover the Son to be at the right hand of the Father, while having the Spirit of God at His own right hand. It is necessary to remember that here the Spirit also swears, as one who has no one greater than Himself, just as the Son, who said, "I swear by myself," as was mentioned in the first book. But also in the 60th Psalm [61st in some numbering], the same David appears to announce the Holy Trinity, while singing: "God has spoken once; ^D these two things I have heard." What, then, are these two? He adds: "That the power belongs to God, and to you, O Lord, belongs mercy." For who is the God who said, "That the power belongs to God?" and to whom does He say, "And to you, O Lord, belongs mercy?" And even in the case of Daniel, He says in the judgment concerning Susanna: "God raised up the Holy Spirit upon Daniel," and likewise here...

^A Dei est?», et cui dicit: «Tua, Domine, misericordia?» Indeed, in the case of the judgment of Susanna, it is written: «God raised up the Holy Spirit in Daniel,» and here ^A he has shown that the Holy Spirit is God. For he adds: «And he judged the elders, being filled with the Holy Spirit.» We may also find Elisha, the most excellent among the prophets, deeming the Holy Spirit worthy of being known as God. His request to Elijah, seeking to inherit the Holy Spirit along with the mantle, is formulated thus: «Let the Spirit that is upon thee be doubled upon me.» And he said: «Thou hast hardened [the heart] in asking» (meaning: Thou hast asked for great things). «Nevertheless, if thou seest me when I am taken up, it shall be so for thee; but if thou dost not see ^B it, it shall not be.» He saw him, therefore, and cried out: «My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horseman thereof!» When, then, ^C he struck the Jordan with the mantle of Elijah, and the water was not parted as it had been with Elijah, seeking his request and the promised gift, he no longer said...

"Where is the double Spirit?" but: "Where is the God of Elijah, the ^A *appho* [the double]?"—thereby revealing to us that the Holy Spirit is God, and teaching at the same time that it is the same thing to say "God" or "Holy Spirit," and vice versa. Now, the word *appho* is a brotherly form of address. And what is it that Ezekiel also prophesies when, the heavens being opened to him, he saw the vision of God and the cherubim? "And when the living creatures stood," he says, "the wheels stood; and when they were lifted up, they were lifted up, because the Spirit of life was in the wheels"; that is to say, He who sits upon the cherubim. And going down a little further, he says: "This is the living creature which I saw under the God of Israel, and I knew that they were the cherubim." Having said above that the Spirit is above the cherubim, he goes down and says that the cherubim and the living creatures are under God, that is, under the Spirit. Behold, therefore, again the Holy Spirit of God, both called God and Spirit of life, and sitting upon the eternal cheriubic throne. ^B We must also make use of this chapter for the Judges, who themselves did not neglect this, but who, above all other things, judged this rightly, to acknowledge and confess the Spirit of God as the powerful Lord and helper. For having spoken concerning Him—that He would go along with Samson and direct him, so that he might show forth a power greater than human nature allows—they did not say afterward that the Spirit, from whom Samson had received all his strength, had departed from him, and that for this cause Samson had become weak, but that the Lord had departed from him. They speak as follows: "The Spirit of the Lord began to go along with Samson," and again: "He leaped upon him," and again: "He turned aside into the vineyard of Thamna, and behold, a lion's whelp met him; and the Spirit of the Lord directed him, and he tore him in pieces as one tears a kid," and again: "They cried out," he says, (the Philistines) "and ran to meet him" (that is, Samson), "and the Spirit of the Lord directed him, and the cords became..."

brac- ^A hiis ejus as tow, when it smells the fire." But when, later, he had put off his strength along with his hair, and had suffered for his own foolishness by excessively loving a foreign woman, Dalida, not as he ought, "He awoke," he says, "from his sleep, and said: I shall go out, and I shall shake myself, and I shall act as I always did. And he did not know that the Lord had departed from him." For Moses, too, having had experience of the power of this Lord, said: "How shall one pursue a thousand, and two move ten thousand, unless the Lord had handed them over, and God had sold them?" ^B And even concerning Him who appeared to Isaiah as King, the Lord Sabaoth, sitting upon a high and lifted-up throne, in a house filled with glory, and being glorified by the seraphim with the thrice-holy voice, the prophet indeed recognized the Father, but John the Son, while Paul in the Acts, because of the identity of the Godhead, declared the all-wise Spirit to be He by these words: "Well did the Holy Spirit speak to your fathers through the prophet Isaiah, saying: Go to this people and say to it, you shall hear with your hearing and you shall not understand," and the rest. But the heretics, following down the path of their initial choice ^C and bringing their own purpose and argument through the midst of chaos, leap also upon this oracle, and as is their habit, contradict it unreasonably, and attempt to bind and fasten impiety to impiety—I mean their second and third remarks to their previous ones—putting forward arguments that there is nothing marvelous or proper to the Godhead to be found in the Spirit on account of Paul saying: "Well did the Holy Spirit speak to your fathers through the prophet Isaiah, saying: Go to this people, and say to it thus and so." For they say that because the same things are often reported as spoken, sometimes from the person of God, sometimes from the person of the prophet or an angel; as when, ^D they say, John speaks of this passage: "These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory," and as the Savior said in Matthew: "Well did Isaiah prophesy, saying: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me," and as Paul said in another chapter: "As David speaks the blessing: Blessed are they whose iniquities have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered"—he did not say, they argue: "As God says through David." And in another place: "And God came to Balaam by night, and said to him: If these men have come to call you, arise and follow...

them: but the word whatever I shall speak to you, that you shall do" ; and after other words: "Arise, go with these men: but yet the word, whatever I shall tell you, that see that you do." They say: He did not say to him "what God said to you," but "whatever I shall tell you." Such are the things, and so far perverse, which they bring forward. But let them not flatter themselves as if they were victors. We, however, fearing lest we might appear to use, as they do, the irony—that is, the dissimulation ^B truly proper to sophists—let us be especially careful, while we refute them, from almost the first syllable, so to speak, to the last, so that we may always have the truth upon our lips. Therefore, that I may turn my speech to you, who are versed in the prophetic discourse and in the divine oracles that have been mentioned, you surely know that Isaiah, by the command of Him who sits upon the eternal throne, prophesied those things which he was ordered to say word for word by Him; for he who prophesies is a prophet of God, not of himself. Therefore, through Isaiah, or by Isaiah (for both amount to the same thing), the powerful voice of Him whom he himself beheld, and whom Paul declares to be the Holy Spirit, was announced at the time when Isaiah truly saw His glory; but he did not speak of this by his own authority, even if it is written somewhere, "Isaiah said," and not, "God the Father, or the Son, or His Spirit said through Isaiah." Nor indeed were the apostles mistaken, who from childhood ^C had been immediately nurtured in the Scriptures and entrusted with the preaching of the new grace, and who, because of the goodness of that Trinity which exists in unity, possessed things which not yet had any other man among mankind possessed. Indeed, that John also understood these things in this way, as having been spoken by the Son of God, and Paul likewise, as having been spoken by the Holy Spirit, is clear even to a blind man, as they say. For those blessed hypostases command, and the nature of angels and of all things obeys. For they preside in a kingly manner, and rule independently, by reason of the unchangeable divinity, in relation to the Father from whom they went forth, and all things are brought back to Him. It holds, therefore, in this; but it is another matter, who would be found fit, to whom these things could more harmoniously or more appropriately seem to be attributed, as having been said by the person of God the Father? And of what condemnation is he not worthy, who dares to corrupt the truth regarding the superior ^D essence, and who wishes to set aside John and Paul, who neither were ignorant, nor concealed, but clearly and plainly proclaimed to all the things concerning Him? And all Scripture has some meaning concerning the Holy Spirit of the great name. next page starts: μονότητος, ήτουν θεότητος, ἐξῃρημένον μὲν καὶ ἀσύντακτον παντελῶς τῶν ὅλων, συ…

^A of unity, or rather of deity, detached indeed and entirely uncoordinated from the totality of things, but co-arranged and consonant with the primal, and creative, and incomparable nature. For what good thing is not always through him, and from him, and furthermore also from the only-begotten Son by the good pleasure of God the Father? When, therefore, the Hymnologist says: "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me"; and the Apostle Paul says: "If ye received the Holy Spirit when ye believed," adding: "Unto what then were ye baptized?"—if not into the Holy Spirit ye were baptized? And the only-begotten God: "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, he will not come, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father"; and: "But ye shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you"; and God the Father in Haggai: "I am with you, says the Lord Almighty, and my Spirit has stood in the midst of you"—what shall we say they meant by stating this, if not that they were handing down that they have declared the divine nature, and participation in him, and sanctification, and creative power, which cleanses our life, and, as it were, illuminates it, and assists in all things? When, however, God the Father says again: "Woe, children! Ye have taken counsel, but not through me; and made covenants, but not through my Spirit," ^B does he not firmly rebuke the misery and wretchedness of the Arians, the Eunomians, and the Macedonians on account of their heresy? To these we would say that on this account it was written, "These things said Isaiah," and, "As David says," in order that the divine decree might appear, and through what holy one it was proclaimed. Regarding the angel in the case of Balaam, we shall say thus much: that the matters concerning him do not have a meaning similar to the things spoken authoritatively by Paul and John concerning the Holy Spirit or the Son. For the angel who was sent, what God promised he would make known in a future time to Balaam, he announced, but he was not understood to be God, just as the Son and the Holy Spirit were understood to be they who had spoken the things commanded to Isaiah by the one sitting upon the divine throne, and existing in ineffable light and incomparable glory. Hence, therefore, they attempt to show that our matters are trivial, ^C but theirs are solemn and worthy of greater diligence and faith. They work a certain mixture and concord of the divine with created things, and they debase, as they do not know, the divine conceptions of the one who is ever the same. The answer is this. The other is of this kind. Who else could have been seen by Isaiah, to whom these things, which were written by the prophet in the person of God the Father, might seem to be attributed more conveniently or more usefully, as if to him who said them? And with what condemnation shall we say he is worthy, who dares to adulterate the true doctrine concerning the deity, and wishes to defame John and Paul, who certainly neither were ignorant of it, nor concealed it, but on the contrary proclaimed to all, manifestly and evidently, the things that pertain to it? But all Scripture indicates to us the unity or deity of the illustrious Spirit, while it speaks of him in such a way that it separates and severs him from all things whatsoever, and places him in the same order with the primal, and creative, and incomparable nature, and makes him concordant with it. For what good is there that does not always exist through him and from him, just as from the only-begotten Son, with the complacency of God the Father? When, therefore, the hymnologist says: "Thy holy Spirit do not take from me"; and Paul: "If ye received the holy Spirit when ye believed," adding: "In what then were ye baptized?", if indeed ye were not baptized in the holy Spirit; and the only-begotten God: "It is expedient for you that I depart: for if I do not depart, he does not come, the Spirit," namely, "of truth, who proceeds from the Father"; and: "But ye shall receive power, the Holy Spirit ^D coming supernaturally upon you"; and God the Father in Haggai: "With you I am, saith the Lord Almighty: and my Spirit has stood in the midst of you." When, I say, the divine writers say these things, what else shall we say they wished to signify, unless, while they handed these things down, they celebrated the divine nature of the Holy Spirit, and the communication of the same Spirit, and the power of sanctifying, and the creative potency, which cleanses our life, and as it were illuminates it, and assists in all things? When, however, God the Father says again: "Woe, children! ye have made counsel, not through me, and covenants, not through my Spirit," does he not conveniently and aptly rebuke the misery and unhappiness of the Arians, and the Eunomians, and the Macedonians, on account of their heresy? To these things we say it is written: "These things said Isaiah," and, "As David says," that it may appear who is that holy one, through whom the divine oracle was proclaimed. But as to what pertains to the angel,

who at that time was sent, we reply that the things said of him are not similar to those which are properly said by Paul and John concerning the divine Spirit or the Son, but are of another nature. For that angel who was sent at that time announced to Balaam those things which God had promised He would announce in the time to come: but the sacred text nowhere indicates that that angel was God Himself. On the contrary, the Son and the Holy Spirit are said by Scripture to be those who spoke what He who is said to sit upon the divine throne and is in ineffable light and incomparable glory, then commanded to Isaiah. But regarding these matters also, they attempt to show that the things we say are of no value, while those things which they themselves state are more weighty, and deserve more attention and faith. They feign, namely, a certain commixtion and consensus of the divinity with creatures; and they do not understand that, if they apply to the divine Spirit—who ever behaves in the same way toward God the Father—the same marks and characters, they are also diminishing those same marks and characters of God the Father and His only-begotten Son; and they suggest—perhaps—that Isaiah is depicted sitting on the celestial throne and commanding himself: "Go to this people and say to it" those things which he was commanded to say. ^B We, however, are clearly astonished that they do not already perceive the absurdity and weakness of their own assumptions, and do not see how worthy of mockery they are when they think such things about God and pervert those things which are manifest, as if they were difficult to resolve. And we do not think we are in error when we feel this way: for the long-suffering God, showing to those who think as they do that there remains neither a pretext for contradicting nor an argument for defending themselves, said through Ezekiel: "If I am a father, where is my fear? And if I am a Lord, where is my glory?" But let these things be enough thus far.

But let our discourse return to where it diverted. Let us see what Paul says again, writing to the Philippians: "Beware of the concision: for we are the circumcision, who serve the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus." God, therefore, is the Holy Spirit, receiving every sacrifice offered up alongside the Father and the Son, for it is clear that worship is owed to God alone. ^C But the heretical crows, look how they have attempted to damage the divine words through the changing of a single letter! For some of them have made it: "Who serve in the spirit of God," so that the worship might not be shown to be of the Spirit of God, but offered only in spirit to God and the Father. Just as also when Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead dwell in you; He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that dwelleth in you," they changed it and made it: "Because of His Spirit dwelling in you," so that He might not be shown as the life-giver and creator. And when he wrote to the Romans: "His eternal power also and divinity," they made it: "divinity"; yet it is the same thing. But nonetheless, because of the narrowing of the [discussions] concerning the great-named Spirit...

^A proofs are provided, those that declare Him to be God through His being called Spirit. And as the prophet Amos says, speaking in the person of the Holy Spirit: “Behold, I am confirming the thunder.” They removed the “I,” so that the voice might not be shown to be of the Holy Spirit, but rather of the Father, or of the prophet. But it is not yet the Father and God, because it immediately contains: “Announcing His Christ to men,” and does not say: “My Christ,” as it says in the Psalm: “I have prepared a lamp for my Christ.” In many places they are seen having deliberately mangled [the text], and from this, they effectively extinguished the accurate discernment of the corrupted passages, as far as they were concerned. And this was not yet the [worst] evil, even though it was a very great evil, if it were not that books thus falsified by them had come even to those who believe correctly, who were unaware of such trickery. ^B

God, therefore, is the Holy Spirit, receiving every sacrifice offered by us, together with the Father and the Son. For it is manifest that service properly so called, or *latreia*, is owed to God alone. But see how the heretical crows have attempted to corrupt the divine words by the change of a single letter: for some of them have made [it]: “We who serve God in spirit,” so that the service, that is to say, the *latreia*, might not be indicated as offered to the Spirit of God, but in spirit to God and the Father alone. So also in the Epistle to the Corinthians, when Paul wrote: “But if ^C His Spirit, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, dwells in you; He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also vivify your mortal bodies through His Spirit dwelling in you,” they changed it, and made [it]: “on account of His Spirit dwelling in you,” so that, forsooth, the life-giving Spirit and Creator might not be denoted. And when he wrote the same to the Romans, “And His eternal power and divinity,” they made [it]: “deity.” It is, however, one and the same: yet they changed it in such a way that the force of the testimonies which are spoken concerning the renowned Spirit might be diminished—those, that is, which are truly circumcised in spirit. But in our manuscript codex, cited by me quite often, it is read: “This harmony of purpose also agrees: We are the circumcision, who serve the Spirit of God, and do not glory in the flesh. For who,” and the rest. ^D

Further, it must be noted that Didymus not rarely reads or interprets one and the same testimony of Scripture in different ways in different places of one and the same work; examples of which can be seen in these very books *On the Trinity*. There would be no reason, therefore, to wonder if in the book *On the Holy Spirit* he had followed one reading, but in these books, composed many years later, after having considered the matter more maturely, he had censured that very reading and followed another.

(2) *Sacrifice*. Hence it is gathered that *thusia* (sacrifice) and *latreia* (service) are the same for Didymus, since he designates both by the word “sacrifice.” See note 31, p. 67.

(3) *Corrupt*. Codex, *loimēsthai*. I read *lumēsthai*.

(4) They will perhaps wonder at this reading, which most at least of the Vulgate editions have, being censured by Didymus, as if it were a corruption by heretics. But it was permitted in Didymus’s age to think what one pleased about the matter. Ambrose, indeed, and Augustine later confirmed by their own suffrage the very thing that was dictated here by Didymus, and had perhaps been read by Ambrose; for both demonstrated the divinity of the Holy Spirit from this passage of Paul, and rejected as spurious that other reading, *pneumati theō* (in spirit God), that is, “in Spirit God.” Ambrose indeed in book 11 *On the Holy Spirit*, chap. 3, wrote these things: “And because he [Paul] knew the Creator Spirit, he teaches that He must be served: ‘Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision: For we are the circumcision, who serve the Spirit of God.’” But if anyone contends concerning the variety of Latin codices, some of which the perfidious have falsified, let him look at the Greek codices, and note that it is written there: *Hoi pneumati Theou latreuontes*, which the Latin translates: “We who serve the Spirit of God.” Therefore, when the same Apostle says that one must serve the Spirit, who asserts that one must serve not the creature, but the Creator; evidently he clearly also shows that the Spirit Himself is the Creator... After Ambrose, however, Augustine in the book to Boniface, chap. 7, num. 22, mentions this variety of readings without rejecting any of them. “For from which place (he says) he began to say these things, he began thus: ‘Beware of dogs... For we are the circumcision, who serve God in spirit; or, as some codices have, who serve the Spirit of God,’ or, ‘serve the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and do not rely on the flesh.’” But in chap. 7 of the book *On the Trinity*, some years earlier he had written these things, num. 13: “Similarly also testimonies have been collected concerning the Holy Spirit, which they who disputed these things more abundantly before us have used (does Augustine look to Didymus here too?), because He Himself is God, and not a creature...” But it is most clear from that place that the Holy Spirit is not a creature, where we are bid not to serve the creature, but the Creator: not in the way in which we are bid through charity to serve one another, which is in Greek *douleuein*, but in the way in which only God is served, which is in Greek *latreuein*... Furthermore, if to serve the creature with such service is forbidden..., then the Holy Spirit is certainly not a creature, to whom such service is offered by all the saints, the Apostle saying: “For we are the circumcision, serving the Spirit of God,” which is in Greek *latreuontes*. For many codices, even Latin ones, have thus: “We who serve the Spirit of God”: but all the Greeks, or almost all. In some Latin exemplars, however, we do not find “we serve the Spirit of God,” but “we serve God in spirit.” But they who err in this, and refuse to yield to more weighty authority, do they not also find that variation in the codices: “Do you not know that your bodies…,” and the rest. p. 180.

(5) *If*. Rom. 1, 20.

(6) *Eternal*. Rom. 1, 20.

(7) *Diminished*. These, if I am not mistaken, are Didymus’s thoughts: Catholics prove that the Holy Spirit is God from those places of Scripture in which He is Himself called “divine Spirit.” (See following 56 a and b). For in the same manner Paul calls even God the Father “divine,” when he names His “divinity,” Rom. 1, 20; for he speaks there of God the Father. The heretics, therefore, in order to weaken this reasoning of the Catholics, in this passage of Paul expunged the word *theiotēs* (divinity) and for it they wrote and read *theotēs*, that is, “deity.” Didymus himself, however, or certainly the copyist, p. 73, reads *theotēs*. It occurs to me furthermore that Didymus, perhaps, in Paul’s words “virtue,” intends the Son, who in 1 Cor. 1, 24 is called “virtue” of the Father; but by the word “divinity” [he intends] the “divine” Spirit.

that God is shown by the fact that He is called "divine Spirit" in the Scriptures. And since the prophet Amos (8) said in the person of the Holy Spirit, "Behold I (9) am He that strengthens the thunder," they cut off the word "I" (10), so that the words might not be seen to be those of the Holy Spirit, but of the Father or the prophet. But the Father and God is not introduced as speaking there; for it is added immediately: "Announcing his Christ among men;" and it is not, however, said, "my Christ;" just as it is read in the Psalm: "I have prepared (11) a lamp for my Christ." But that they ^B sinned deliberately in many things appears even from this, and that they corrupted the accurate and genuine interpretation of the adulterated passages, as much as lay within them. And this would not yet be grave, although it is of the utmost gravity, had not the books so adulterated by them come into the hands of orthodox men, who could not detect and divine such fraud.

CAP. XII.

But let what has been said thus far suffice, lest the discourse be led into too long a digression. Let us return again to the munificent deity of the Holy Spirit, the giver of great gifts. The Holy Spirit, therefore, renews us in baptism as God, together with the Father and the Son, and brings us from an unlovely state back up to our former beauty, and fills us with His own grace, so that we can no longer contain anything that is undesirable; and He frees us from sin and from death; and from things of the earth—that is, from earth and ashes—He makes us spiritual, and participants of divine glory, and children and heirs of God and the Father, and conformed to the image of the Son, and co-heirs with Him, and brothers to be glorified and to reign together with Him; and in place of the earth He gives back the heaven, and freely bestows paradise; and He makes us already more honorable than the angels. ^C

Cap. XII. Concerning the fact that the Holy Spirit renews us by baptism; and how He frees us as Master, and makes us partakers of divine glory, and children and heirs of the Father; and the rest. And concerning the fact that baptism is unavailing for those who do not believe that the Spirit is God; and that one is the glory of the sun, and another that of the moon, and another that of the stars.

But these things suffice to this extent, so that the discourse may not be thrown into confusion. Let us return again to the munificent deity of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, therefore, renews us in baptism, as God, together with the Father and the Son, and from an unlovely state raises us up to our former beauty, and fills us with His own grace, so that we can no longer contain anything of the undesirable; and He frees [us] from sin and death; and from earthly things, that is, from earth and ash, He makes [us] spiritual, and partakers of divine glory, and children and heirs of God and the Father, and conformed to the image of the Son, and His co-heirs, and brothers to be glorified and to reign together with Him; and instead of the earth, He again bestows the heaven, and freely grants [us] paradise; and already makes [us] more honorable than the angels; ^D into the life from the beginning, the [gift] of the Holy Spirit, the restoration into paradise; the ascent into the kingdom of heaven; the [return] into adoption of children.

^A And with the divine streams of the font, it quenches such an unquenchable flame of hell. For there are two births for men: one from our body, and the other from the divine Spirit. Concerning these, dogmatic men have written appropriately; I shall write down the name of each and the account itself. John: “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” As many, he says, as believed in Christ, received the power to become children of God, that is, [children] of the Holy Spirit, and to acquire a kinship with God, ^B of which the angels were not deemed worthy. For, showing that God who generates is the Holy Spirit, he brought forward from Christ: “Amen, amen, I say unto thee, unless one be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee: You must be born from above. The Spirit breathes where he wills; and you hear his voice, but you know not whence he comes, and whither he goes. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” By saying, “Unless one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” and, “You must be born from above,” he signaled that, even if they have believed in the name of the Father and the Son, and ^C furthermore [have been baptized] by them in this matter, he dissented from them in this place, and in his commentaries on the Psalms, on verse 8 of Psalm 16, where he speaks of the impious who are unwilling to repent: “The eternal fire shall consume them.” And, lest anyone be able to reply that the name of “flame” or “fire” is not taken by him properly, he himself calls that fire an element different from the earth. For he wrote this on the Psalm: “Sinners and the wicked shall then fail, not simply from the universe, but from the earth, so that they no longer dwell upon the earth, but shall be surrendered to another element different from the earth; for they shall be handed over entirely to the eternal fire.” ^D

^A If they have been baptized, yet have not believed equally and similarly in the very deity of the Holy Spirit, and have not been baptized into His name, they cannot attain the kingdom of heaven, inasmuch as they do not possess the perfection of baptism; and they have received the three immersions in vain, because, by changing the equality of the Trinity in the doxology after baptism, they have subverted it and transgressed their own professions. But since they have violated their own confessions, they hear from the saints those things which were spoken by the Prophet in Psalm LXXX: “The enemies of the Lord have lied to Him”; and by the Son, as it is read in Psalm XVII: “Strange children have lied unto me”; and in Psalm C: “I have hated them that work iniquities; a crooked heart hath not cleaved to me”; and by the Holy Spirit, as it was written to the Romans: “I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have rejected me.” The Spirit of God also makes Himself heard in Psalm LXV: “In the multitude of thy power, thy enemies shall lie unto thee.”

He said, “One must be born of water,” because the washing away of the filth of the body in baptism is a sign of those who are being recreated by the Holy Spirit. For visibly, our visible body is brought forth by the font, with ^B priests ministering; but spiritually, both body and soul are baptized by the Spirit of God—who is invisible to all intelligences—into Himself, with angels ministering. Consequently, to the statement, “Of water and the Spirit,” He added concerning Christ: “He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.” For if the earthen vessel of the human frame requires first the cleansing from water, then also the renewal of the Spirit, so that the body and soul alike may be regenerated by the invisible power of God, while the physical font and the human priests serve as the outward sign, then the Spirit of God, being invisible to all mental perception, ^C baptizes into Himself—and that is the true regeneration. For indeed, the Baptist was historical, and following the statement, “Of water and the Spirit,” he said concerning Christ, “He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.” For because the earthen vessel...

^A of man is, it needs first the purifying water, and then also the intelligible fire that makes it solid (for God is a consuming fire), and in this way, the Holy Spirit who makes it whole and renews it; since it knows that the spiritual fire also irrigates, and the water also refines. Proof of this is Paul writing to the Corinthians in the second epistle: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” And by saying, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” he taught in brief that the man who has not attained baptism is carnal, that is to say, deprived of heavenly light (for it is clear that flesh is understood as long as it lives with its own soul); but he who has been baptized is spiritual, that is, a participant in immortal life. And by saying, “The Spirit blows where it wishes,” he reveals His own free will and omnipotence. And by saying, ^B “And you hear His voice, but you do not know from where He comes and where He goes,” he signifies that He was not discoursing at that time to Nicodemus alone, but was also accusing Arius, Eunomius, and Macedonius, who hear the voice of the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures and do not know how He comes—proceeding without beginning from the Father, being always present everywhere—and goes to Him, as His Spirit, existing inseparable in deity; for He proceeded ineffably from Him by nature, and has turned back toward Him. And He has His procession from the Father, as proceeding from Him, but He has his only ^C progression into the Father, as existing as one and the same with Him; He turns back to the One who begat Him, having proceeded, as being of one and the same substance, and unable to exist outside of the co-existence of the Father. And by saying, “So is everyone who is born of the Spirit,” he teaches that the Spirit of God gives birth to the spiritual, and he is called spiritual from that state, just as one born of a man is called a man. The Psalmist surely exclaims to such a one: “Your youth shall be renewed like the eagle’s,” and, “Blessed are they whose iniquities ^D are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” And Paul, too, confirming that...

^A the Spirit regenerates those who are enlightened note: see facsimile for original-script column if applicable; however, following the provided instructions to bridge the PG layout:, and that they possess the name of God by nature, wrote to Titus, as was said above: “Having saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” And to the Romans: “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.” And to Timothy, in the second Epistle: “For God has not given us a spirit of bondage, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” That he is speaking about the Holy Spirit is evident also from his saying: “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you received the Spirit of adoption.” For since we already possessed our own spirit, we also received that of God. This is clear also from his adding, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit.” See then how ^B paradoxically he declares the Holy Spirit to be Lord. For he who is not a slave is free, and he who sets free is established as Lord; for no one gives to another what he does not himself possess. And He who leads to adoption and inheritance is God, having a communion of essence and dominion with Him, whose adoption and inheritance He deems us worthy. He writes of heirs—Christ, indeed, as Son by nature; but us, as those rendered worthy of the inheritance by His goodness; and joint-heirs with Christ, on account of His ineffable Incarnation. And He cries out in us, in our stead: “Abba,” which is “Father,” since we are neither genuine sons, as He is the genuine Spirit, nor are we otherwise bold enough to utter such a word. For who could come before the great God, Or could a mortal, by nature, utter any word

about those who have been baptized in the Epistle to the Galatians ^A he says: "No longer are you a slave, but a son; and if a son, then also an heir of God through Christ." And to the Corinthians he writes the same: "But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." Observe, therefore, from these words as well, that redemption, and sanctification, and justification are not provided without the name of the divine Spirit.

And again in the Acts, he asked, it is said, certain disciples, saying: "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And when they replied, "But we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit," he said: "Into what then were you baptized?"—as if it were of no profit to have obtained [baptism] without also believing and being baptized equally into the Holy Spirit, as they had believed into the Father and the Son. ^B Furthermore, the Acts report that baptism is unprofitable without the arrival and sanctification of the divine Spirit, in such terms as these: "Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, having come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For it had not yet fallen upon any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit." For the fact that they had "only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus," and the fact that they subsequently received the Spirit, indicates that it was not only that the knowledge of God concerning the Spirit was lacking to them, ^C but also that the Father and God is present, and is mentioned, and works together with the Son and with the Spirit, even if at times He is not specifically named; or, conversely, even if the Son or the Spirit is passed over in words—though not in faith—each person is present, is mentioned, and saves together with God and the Father.

And again: "And being assembled together, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from me: for John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." And again, from the person of Peter regarding those who were baptized in Caesarea: "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as upon us at the beginning; and I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said: John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized ^D with the Holy Spirit." Those, therefore, who are baptized in the naked name of the Holy Spirit, and not as in the name of God and the Spirit of God—the Spirit being by nature His—are baptized...

as if washing in mere water, and have a vain and useless hope. ^A For when we are immersed in the pool, by the good pleasure of God and the Father, we are stripped, by the grace of His Spirit, of our sins, putting off the old man, and by His kingly power we are regenerated and sealed. But when we ascend from it, we are clothed with the Saviour Christ as an incorruptible garment, and one worthy of equal honor as He who regenerated and sealed us, the Holy Spirit: "As many," says the Scripture, "as were baptized into Christ, did put on Christ," and we receive the image and likeness of God, which had been written and which we had received through the divine inbreathing, and had lost through sin. And again we are found, as we were in the first-fashioned man, without sin and possessed of our own proper power. ^B These things, as is fitting, harmonize with the Scripture of Paul concerning those who are baptized: "That..."

It may be said, in a Catholic sense, if I am not mistaken, that the image and likeness of God was lost by man through original sin. The truth or falsity of this statement depends, of course, upon the sense in which those words "image" and "likeness" are taken. For if anyone, for example, were to state that the notion of that image consisted in this, that the soul is immortal, and then were to add that man had lost the image of God through sin, he would without doubt be a heretic. But the matter would be otherwise if he thought it consisted in original justice, or sanctifying grace, or some other similar thing. ^C Hence it happens that other Fathers also have affirmed the very thing that Didymus has. Tertullian, in his book *De baptismo*, cap. 5, says: "Thus is man restored to God after His likeness, who had formerly been after the image of God. The image is considered in form, the likeness in eternity. For he receives that Spirit of God which he had then received from His inbreathing, but had later lost through sin." The author of the homily which has the title, "That man cast away the image of God through sin," thinks the same thing. The same is taught by those Fathers who wish the notion of His image to be situated in virtue. The same is held by Augustine in book vi of *De Genesi ad litteram*, chapters 27 and 28. Nor does he say in his *Retractationes*, cap. 24, that what he had written there was entirely false, and much less heretical. "In the sixth book," he says, "what I said, that 'Adam lost the image of God, according to which he was made, by sin,' is not to be understood as if none remained in him, but that it was so deformed that it needed reformation. Therefore, the image of God, which is to be called such, is not to be found in the retention, contemplation, or love of the faith, which will not always exist, but in that which will always exist." ^D Moreover, Jerome himself, in his *Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians*, book 1, cap. 2, page 582 (Verona ed.), taught the same things as Didymus does in this place. "He adapts it," he says, "to his own understanding, so that he says man was made according to the image and likeness of God, and was to receive after reconciliation the same form which the angels have now, and which he himself had lost." Rufinus reproaches Jerome with this passage in book 1 *against Jerome himself*, num. 39. Finally, St. Zeno, Bishop of Verona, in book 11, tract 19, speaks in almost the same way as Didymus. ...Marcion, cap. 5: "It was fitting," he says, "that the image and likeness of God be established in free will and its own power, in which this very thing, the image and likeness of God, might be reckoned—that is, the freedom and power of the will." But in what sense those things which Didymus teaches here are to be understood, those who [know] Augustine concerning...

the doctrine of grace and free will, recognize as confirmed by the judgment of the Catholic Church. The free will of Adam was indeed wounded by sin, but not destroyed, nor as it were dead; yet it remained alive in such a way that even in the baptized themselves it is still weak, and destitute of those "perfect powers," as Augustine himself speaks, which it had "in the protoplast," that is, in Adam, before sin. For to those already baptized (he says in *Opere imperfecto contra Julianum*, lib. I, cap. 8), "And to them who had already received the Holy Spirit, the Apostle said: 'The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.' Where are you, who deny that free will has lost its own powers by sinning, that is, by using itself ill?" and the rest that follows. We must therefore understand that by baptism we are made in such a way that we are freed from that servitude of which the Scriptures and the Fathers speak. For as Ambrose says (*Epist.* 42, no. 1): "He had reduced the human race into perpetual captivity of a shameful inheritance by a heavy debt, which the indebted author had transmitted to his descendants by a shackled succession." But that which Didymus says, that those who are baptized and sealed by the Holy Spirit become "devoid of sin," is certain. Yet this is employed in another sense, and after the death of Didymus was taught in a perverse sense by Pelagius. Refuting his opinion, Jerome (*lib. I contra Pelagianos*, no. 7) says: "I say that a man can be without fault (absque vitio), that is, I deny that he can be without sin (sine peccato)." And no. 8: "But what is written, 'And the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin,' is to be understood as much in the confession of baptism as in the clemency of repentance."

^A and this is what that image and likeness signifies: so that what Paul writes concerning ^B baptism fits here: "That you may be [67] according to the image of Him who created you"; and, "As [68] we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." And this same thing will be persuaded to us, besides, from that which the same Apostle writes; to the Romans indeed: "Whom He foreknew [69], and predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren"; but to the Ephesians: "And when [70] we were dead in sins, He made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up, and made us sit together in the heavenly places." Who, or when, granted these things? The Father, and at the same time we are renewed by His Holy Spirit: for just as at first we were created by the blessed Trinity, according to that, "Let us make [71] man," so in the second place we are saved by the same: that we may equally glorify the Trinity. But no one who was not regenerated by the Spirit of God in baptism, and sealed with sanctification, and made His temple, has attained heavenly goods, even if his remaining life were found blameless. But even those who obtained martyrdom before baptism, having been washed by their own blood [72], were thus made alive by the Holy Spirit of God. Therefore, joining exhortation with testimony, the holy writer cries out: "Approach [73] Him, and be enlightened [74], and your faces shall not be ashamed." For the true light, and the cause of sensory light, and the glory shining everywhere is the venerable Spirit, by which he also chants again: "For Your commands are light upon the earth." Concerning this he also teaches in the 28th Psalm: "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thundered; the Lord is upon many waters"; and ^C indeed, that which is written in the Psalm: "The voice of Thy thunder is in the wheel. Thy lightnings enlightened the world..."

^D Assuredly, not even a baptized person can avoid all venial sins. That Didymus was not alien to this doctrine seems gathered from those things which he dictated on verse 17, chapter IV of Job (p. 233 of the *Catena* on Job, compiled by Nicetas), even though he does not speak of the baptized: "Do not say," he says, "that this renders you subject to no sin; since it is impossible for a man's life to demand the perfect norm of the Law." That is: For it happens through the infirmity of nature that we fall into sins sometimes voluntarily, but often even involuntarily. And on verse 15 of chapter X (p. 255 of the same *catena*): "For some sins happen from the liberty of our will; to which punishment accompanies: but others flow from parents, to which purgation is due."

^A of the earth. Concerning this matter, he teaches also in Psalm XXVII: "The Voice of the Lord (76) upon the waters, the God of glory (that is, of brightness) thundered: the Lord upon many waters;" and in the LXXVI Psalm: "The voice of thy thunder (77) is in the wheel. Thy lightnings shone (78) to the world: the earth saw and was moved." For by waters he signifies baptism, in which it is done by the priests—as the same Psalmist sings, "much operation" (79)—but by the thunder, he indicates the grace of baptism reaching everywhere (80) and being received with fear; by the wheel, indeed, a life that is unstable and wondrously varied; by the lightnings, the spiritual beauty (81) which those who are illuminated—that is, the baptized—possess before God; and finally, by the commotion of the earth, he declares the prompt movement of humanity into the knowledge of God. But when, after the incarnation, the Lord was baptized, when He was killing the dragon (82) existing in the waters (83), and catching the Jordan in its mouth, as Job narrates enigmatically; while He was washing away our filth and forgiving the old sin (84), and causing us to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy, and at the same time teaching everyone that rebirth is salvation for men—the Holy Spirit was present, as was the Father. For the one was testifying from the heavens ^B to the world: the earth was moved and became trembling, His lightnings to the world: He saw and was moved.

77. "Doing work in waters." For we ourselves, by transgression, brought this painful life upon ourselves.

...redemption were saved from the paternal... the heads of the dragons and [of the dragon] upon the water the Savior shattered. And further, "against which the dragons work, and their" as it is written, "exarch, ruling in the waters and dwelling in the sea."

^C ...Norisii pg. 823. Although I do not sufficiently see how the Catholic doctrine of original sin is reconciled with the doctrine of the pre-existence of souls and ancient falls admitted by Origen, who says that things passed in the heavens and ancient faults are loosed in baptism, as Jerome speaks of him at the end of the *Dialogues against the Pelagians*. But let us dismiss Origen. Our Didymus indicates this dogma quite often, as also a little before, and in segment ^D ... if he himself had been thought subject to that sin, to which all who derive their origin from Adam are subject by succession. I wonder, therefore, that Jacob Basnage ... wrote these things: "Didymus seems to have denied original sin in the book *Against the Manichæans*." But Basnage relies on no other reasoning than this: that indeed Didymus explains those words of Paul, "by nature children of wrath," in such a way that *physei*, or "by nature," is the same as "truly." But our theologian embraced that interpretation for no other reason than to oppose himself more validly to the Manichæans, who abused the text of Paul and maintained that nature "in itself" is evil, while he taught that no one is evil by nature, but that one becomes evil from the change of free will.

^A And over every enemy power to walk, and to trample upon all these things he was making us do; and while he was simultaneously teaching everyone, he was present to show that the regeneration was for men, the Holy Spirit being present as well as the Father: for He was testifying from the heavens to His own Son, and was bearing witness that He was the true and genuine Son; but the Holy Spirit, when the heavens were opened to Him as to a King, and as to One higher than the nature of angels, descending remained upon the Son of God. For the Scripture says: "Behold (86), the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove." ^B Consider, therefore, and understand what the Holy Spirit is, seeing that He causes us, His own temple, to sit with the most high God, and to be glorified with Them, and to reign with Them, even while He remains upon the Only-begotten God; and whether the heretics speak piously when they claim that he does not sit with Him, and is not worshipped with Him, and does not reign with the God and Father. But let not the Holy Spirit of God be thought to sit with, and be glorified with, and reign with God in the same way as we, the created, who, in such a void of good works, hope for such great things; but rather as His Spirit, and as God and King by nature, and as One eternally sitting with Him, and as existing full of unpolluted glory. For the created shall be deemed worthy of these things by grace after the resurrection, enjoying the goods of the kingdom, yet not being kings themselves. For the Scripture knows there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon and stars, and that there is a different glory of these again. "For star," it says, "differs from star in glory." And the eye of the body is more honorable than the other members; yet it is still a body. So we, having been renewed, enjoy the divine intimacy to the extent that the power of our nature allows, as some say: ^C How much the mortal race could be made equal to God.

And Peter, exalting baptism, as it is the Holy Spirit who recreates us, being God, proclaimed this catholic—that is to say, universal—preaching through his first Epistle, stating this: "Born again, not of corruptible seed..."

not from corruptible, but from incorruptible seed, by the word of the living and abiding God.” For he feared him who commanded in the Gospel according to Mark: “Go ^A into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” And what is that preaching? “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Which Paul also observing, wrote: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” This spiritual communion the Catholic Epistles had also previously named thus: “That you may become partakers of the divine nature.” But who are they who do not believe, and are for this reason condemned? Those who do not observe this equality of honor due to the holy Trinity. To whom again it was proclaimed through Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians: “There are some ^B who trouble you, and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But even if an angel from heaven should preach a gospel to you other than what you have received, let him be accursed. And again I say: If anyone preaches a gospel to you other than what you have received, let him be accursed.” While he forbids transgressing the tradition, he understands the divinely ordained commandment previously mentioned there, not the tradition of the Arians, and Eunomians, and Macedonians, who received these designations from those whose opinion they follow to such an extent that, despising divine preachings, they hold their garrulity and trifles as law, and refuse to hear others at all.

Whatever the counsels of the immortal God manifest, Do thou, being mortal, hold most securely; Nor, being deceived in mind by guileful men, Draw upon thyself the unrestrainable wrath of the immortal divinity.

CHAPTER XIII. Concerning those who, in order to debase the Spirit, bring forward the passage: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit.

These men, however, catching at mere words ^C and diminishing what is said concerning the Holy Spirit to their own destruction, say: Is water therefore equal [to the Holy Spirit]? For when he writes: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit,” then he declares the water to be equal [to the Spirit]. But you, being mortal, hold most securely that the counsels of the immortal God manifest, nor let your mind be deceived by guileful men, drawing upon yourself the uncontainable wrath of the immortal God.

^A For it is written: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit.” But to accuse this is to accuse themselves, as if they were taking issue with Christ, who spoke these things well, and to slander Him in a way that not even Momus could slander. Yet this is unbecoming of Christians. For the holy Trinity is not mentioned in a manner of ordering together with water; rather, as the discourse has rendered it, and as elsewhere mortal things are mentioned alongside the immortal God. For it is written: “I have sinned against heaven and before thee,” and again: “The people believed God and Moses his servant,” and again: “All the people feared God and Samuel,” and again: “And there was a sword for the Lord and for Gideon.” And the contemplation that is to be woven together with these is timely and worthy of the right faith. ^B For if, according to Paul, we are baptized into the death of Christ, and into Christ, then water is rightly joined with the Spirit. For from the side of the Savior water and blood flowed together, as the spear and the soldier know. In addition to this, if, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a following spiritual Rock; the Rock was Christ;” and again: “And all were made to drink of one Spirit.” To the Hebrews, however, it is said: “For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God”—(the Holy Spirit is here spoken of as the word of God the Father)—that Christ and the Holy Spirit should be firmly fixed in the water; and Christ and the Holy Spirit are never seen ^C in any man without the baptismal water. Where, therefore, the divine mystery is ordained as concerning the Son of God, so also concerning the divine Spirit, and both blessed and self-perfect hypostases have received equal testimony; how is it not an abundance that these are proofs of their consubstantiality? I therefore think that for this reason He changed water into wine, and into that which was better than wine, and provided joy for the marriage feast; as He wished to teach, in a manner not immediately manifest, that He also transformed water into the immortal use of baptism, and through baptism filled up what was lacking in faith for men, along with the divine Spirit, in harmony with God and Father. For the shadow of the divine... ^D

[...and] transferred water even to the immortal use of baptism, and supplied that which was lacking to the faith of men, through baptism together with the divine Spirit, and in concord with God and the Father. For the righteous, with great labor, scarcely attained the shadow of this divine baptism, which has been granted to us through the advent and manifestation of the Son, and of the Spirit of God, for the acknowledgment of these immortal hypostases. ^A For the pool is the workshop of the Trinity for the salvation of all faithful men; and it delivers those who are washed therein from the bite of the serpent, and becomes a mother to all through the Holy Spirit, remaining a virgin. For in it, as has been said, we receive all the gifts of distribution, and there the graces of paradise are sealed and subscribed; and He who made it takes our soul as a bride unto Himself, according to Paul, who writes: "I betrothed you to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ." But why should I not briefly say what is greater and more sublime in it? He whom the angels in heaven do not dare to call Father, we learn to call Father on earth without any trepidation. And this is that which is sung in the twenty-sixth Psalm: "My father and my mother have forsaken me" (for, he says, Adam and Eve did not remain immortal); "but the Lord has taken me up." And he says: "He gave me the pool as a mother, the Most High as a Father, and the Savior who was baptized for our sake as a brother." Now, therefore, I know that I am truly born and saved at the same time, when I no longer hear: "Weep for the dead, for the light has failed," ^B but rather the desirable voice: "Come, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," anointing, washing, and clothing each one entirely with myself, and nourishing [you] with my body and my blood.

CHAPTER XIV.

Now, truly, the time has come for the discourse, while I collect some of the testimonies of the Scripture which are proper to the divine Spirit and the immortal baptism, to write concerning them, as I am able, taking them also from the Old Testament. But I will begin a little further back. The indivisible and ineffable Trinity, foreseeing from eternity the instability and fragility of the human race, while it produced the humid substance from nothing, prepared for men a remedy and healing to be obtained through the waters. Therefore, it is manifest that the Holy Spirit, when He was borne over the waters, sanctified them ^D from that time, and rendered them life-giving. For it is evident to all, as also that which lies above the underlying, [is...]

^A tends to seize upon its quality. Whence, without distinction, in any water—and even in the sea, should a sudden necessity arise—baptism is performed, inasmuch as the nature of waters is one and the same, and all has been sanctified. But how the salt water of the sea is found to be of the same single genus of waters, another treatise, God helping, will demonstrate. It is sufficient, however, for the chapter now under consideration to mention the cosmographer Moses, who interprets it word for word thus: “And the Spirit of the Lord was borne over the waters,” and the spirit-bearer David, who sings: “The Lord is over many waters.” This is also clearly indicated by the fact that the Holy Spirit was present over the streams of the Jordan when the Lord was baptized, and remained upon Him ^B at that time in the form of a dove. For this creature is pure and free of bile. “Become,” he says, “pure as the doves.” And if, from the sum of the letters collected from the name of the bird mentioned, some support must be derived for this argument, it also indicates in some way the uncircumscribed nature of the Holy Spirit. ^{C D}

for the word περιστερά (which designates the dove) has the value of eight hundred and one ^A: which number is signified by alpha and omega; for these two elements are the beginning and the end of all elements. Furthermore, the flood, which purged the world of ancient iniquity ^B, mystically and occultly foreshadowed the cleansing of sins to be accomplished in a manner by the divine pool. And the ark itself, which saved those who were admitted into it, was an image of the venerable Church, and of the good hope that is ours from it. And the dove, which brought an olive branch into the ark and signaled the uncovering of the earth, signified the descent of the Holy Spirit and the reconciliation from above; for the olive is a symbol of peace. But the Red Sea also, having received the Israelites—who were neither hesitant ^C nor believed in uncertainty—and having delivered them from the evils that hung over them in Egypt from Pharaoh and his army, and the whole matter of their journey from Egypt, was a type of the salvation in baptism. For Egypt signified the world, in which, not living well, we do evil; the people signified those who are now enlightened; and the waters, mediating safety for the people, ^D [represented the baptism].

GOD RESPONDED WITH TWENTY-ONE VERSES, OF WHICH THIS IS THE BEGINNING:

^A Montfaucon deservedly calls this most distinguished codex by this name in his *Diarium Italicum*, saying that it was written in the sixth or seventh century: but in truth, were I not deterred by the authority of such a great man, I would judge it to have been written in the fifth century: for those punctuation marks which Isidore of Seville mentions do not appear there, but only a small stroke placed above, which the reader has observed in the specimen above. Since this is the case, who would be surprised that the scribe of the Passioneiani codex also fell into errors of this kind? Especially since one may conjecture that this work was transcribed by him from very ancient parchments, as I shall say in the notes to segment 139b.

^B The value of the word περιστερά: the first letter has the value of 80, the second 5, and so on: so that finally the sum is produced of eight hundred and one: which number coalesces from the two same elements, alpha and omega, taken together. Didymus, however, seems to have taken these things from Irenaeus, who, nevertheless, did not write them of his own accord, but from the opinion of the delirious heretics. In the first chapter of the first book: "Whom," he says, "when he came to baptism, the descent of the dove clearly showed, which is indeed omega and alpha. For its number is one and eight hundred (in Greek: ὀκτακόσια καὶ ἕν)." In the following chapter: "In the same way Christ is of seven letters... and by this reasoning he calls himself alpha and omega, so that he may indicate the dove (περιστεράν): for this bird has this number." And after Irenaeus, Tertullian in his book *De praescriptionibus haereticorum*, chapter 50: "A certain Marcus," he says, "and Colarbasus, composing a new heresy from the Greek alphabet... for this reason Christ said: 'I am alpha and omega.' Finally, that Jesus Christ descended, that is, that the dove came into Jesus, which in the Greek name is pronounced περιστερά, has the number 801." In a similar way Jerome in *Commentary on Zechariah*, chapter 8, writes: "But that we said the number of seven thousand pertains to the name of Christians, calculate in Greek ἑπτάκις χιλίους, and you will find the same number, and the sum, that is, one thousand nine hundred and forty-one."

^C Tertullian wrote things somewhat similar to these. "Then," he says, "that most holy Spirit, recognizing as it were his former seat above the waters of baptism, rests, having descended in the figure of a dove upon the Lord, so that the nature of the Holy Spirit might be declared through an animal of simplicity and innocence: for the dove also lacks bile corporally. And therefore," he says, "'Be simple, as doves.'" Cyprian also in his book *On the Unity of the Church* calls the dove "an animal not bitter with bile." And Rufinus has similar things on Psalm 67.

^D Didymus clearly shows that he does not set much store by this method: and rightly so: for it is cold enough, and seems to be derived from a muddy source, as I shall presently explain. "is of the sum of eight hundred and one."

^A Baptism was signified; but Pharaoh and his soldiers [signified] Satan and his ministers. Moses, however, making the bitter water useful with his staff, preached the universal salvation. For he himself bore the type of Christ; the staff, of the cross; the bitter water, of the blessed water of the pool. This [water], though it once appeared difficult to the unbelieving, was found by the faithful to be for all refreshment, [and as it were] "the dew of Hermon, which descends upon the mountains of Zion."

^B The Book of Kings also provides us with a clear testimony to this, itself hinting in secret at things similar to those set forth, in the phrase and subject matter recorded below: "Elisha," it says, "went with them; and they came to the Jordan, and were cutting wood. And behold, one, as he was felling a beam, the iron fell into the water; and he cried out, 'O lord,' and it was borrowed. And the man of God said, 'Where did it fall?' And he showed him the place. And he broke off a stick and cast it in there, and the iron floated; and he said, 'Lift it up to yourself.' And he stretched out his hand and took it." ^C For it was signified, through Elisha the man of God who questioned, "Where did the axe fall?" the God who became with men, who formerly said, "Adam, where art thou?" And through the one person, who cuts down the wood and shows the place where the axe fell, Adam was designated, who answered to the God from whom nothing is hidden: "I am naked, and I hid myself," and by such a word showed the place where he was hiding in shame. Furthermore, the plant which he had touched against commandment was also indicated; but by the iron which fell into the obscure depth, the power of human nature was denoted, which fell from the light because it had cast its hand upon the wood of life; but by saying that it was also borrowed, [it signified that] the first-created man had gained by the gift of God the power which he let go, [a power] which he also had to restore to Him who had given it, of such a kind as he had received it; through the wood which was taken and thrown toward the place which held the object of the search, the much-hymned cross [was signified]; ^D through the Jordan, the immortal baptism; for in the Jordan, He who made the Jordan deigned to be baptized for our sake. Through the floating of the iron upon the waters, and its coming to the one who had lost it, [is signified] the being raised up through illumination to the heavenly height, and receiving back the former grace, and recovering the ancient fatherland; through

^B the Jordan indeed, the immortal baptism; for in the Jordan, He who made the Jordan deigned to be baptized for our sake. The floating of the iron upon the waters, and its coming to him who had lost it, signified that we are raised up through baptism to heavenly sublimity, and receive again the former grace, and recover our ancient fatherland. The words, "take up for yourself," and these other ones, "He stretched out his hand and took it," signify that it is necessary for us to know that he who approaches baptism ought to believe, and to lift up—that is, to glorify—as it was written, and now to stretch out rightly toward God those hands which, in former times, by the common principle of natural union with Adam, he did not rightly stretch out toward the plant of life. But if anyone, refusing and disapproving of what we say, should deny that baptism is foretold in this place of Scripture, it is right to ask him what is the utility of such words and narratives that the holy writer looked to when he set them down. For indeed, the same prophet, having made the bitter and barren water of the fountain that was in Jericho pleasant and fruitful—putting salt and water into a new jar, and casting it into the fountain water, and saying, "Thus says the Lord: I heal these waters"—foretold by the renewal of the jar and the water, the new font of the New Covenant; by the salt, faith and the benefit we receive from it; and by the water, which, although it was devoid of quality, became fruitful and pleasant for all, he prophesied that those who approach baptism are stripped of the tunics of old sadness, and lay down their burdens, and are clothed with the gift of the new grace, and enjoy the participation and adoption of the saving Spirit. It seems to me, moreover, that the same prophet rightly appears to have taught beforehand the altogether ineffable riches and the propitiation of the Holy Spirit in the baptismal waters, and at the same time to have indicated that the universal providence of the Holy Spirit extends to all who are converted and to all human lives, so that no one who does not wish to be rejected is found to be so; since ^C he sent Naaman the Syrian, the leper, the foreigner, who had asked him to apply a cure for him, to be baptized seven times in the Jordan, so that by the voice of the Lord upon the waters, the disease might be dissolved from him, and he might return in his entirety to the pure and holy form of the soul. He said to be baptized seven times, either so that the foreigner might know that on the seventh day God ceased from His works and blessed what He had made in the six (whence the seven-wicked lampstand in the assembly where it is one of the treasures), and that the number seven is a filling and perfect number; or rather, that he might hint at the divine Spirit. For Isaiah, having observed with his mind, through faith, the completeness and the unchanging nature of the Son toward the Father, saw seven significations concerning him ^D sent, new. Propitiation. Itinerant, itinerant.

^A commanded, and bade him immerse himself seven times: so that by the word of the Lord, which is above the waters (49), his disease might entirely vanish, and he himself might receive the clean and holy (50) likeness of a soul in its entirety. And He bade him wash seven times (51), either so that that foreigner might understand that God rested from His works on the seventh day, and ceased (52), and blessed those things which He had made in six days (whence the lampstand, having seven lamps, was one of the treasures of the synagogue); and that he might know that the number seven possesses fullness and is perfect (53): or rather because the divine Spirit was enigmatically (54) indicated. For Isaiah ^B ...that it has been accustomed to be taken in a good sense, so as to denote not a "circulator," but a "physician who goes about," that is, visiting the sick; and that this "visitation" is called *periodia* by the Alexandrians. For from 4 Kings 5:10, 11, it is evident that Naaman wished Elisha to visit him. And indeed that word in Athanasius, who himself was also an Alexandrian, signifies "a curing": for he speaks thus in his homily on the man blind from birth: *ton periodoúsanta to hēmeteron teknon*, that is, "him who cured our child." And a little before: *tēn men aitian tēs periodias legō*, that is, "I declare the cause of the cure." ^C ...Gregory of Nyssa also, in his oration on the Baptism of Christ, tom. III, p. 378, understands these things concerning the waters of baptism... becomes a worshiper... Naaman, as is evident from 4 Kings 5:15. ...disputed, Jerome reviews Didymus in his *Epistle to Pammachius*. "Now I must enumerate," he says (no. 19), "who among ecclesiastical writers have disputed concerning the odd number: Clement, Hippolytus, Origen, Dionysius, Eusebius, Didymus, and of our own, Tertullian, Cyprian, Victorinus, Lactantius, Hilary: concerning whose number seven, that is, the odd number, Cyprian argues—how much and what great things he has said in his *Testimonia ad Fortunatum*." But I do not think it can be gathered from these words that a book was published by Didymus which was inscribed *Peri tou perittou arithmou*, that is, "Of the odd number": otherwise the same would have to be said of the others whom Jerome names. Therefore, since that epistle of Jerome was written in the year 395, and thus a few years before the death of Didymus, or after this work was published, it is not improbable that this passage of Didymus is looked back upon by Jerome; for the number seven is treated here at length, from section 123 b up to section 125 a. ^D ...for all learned men have handed it down with one voice, that by the Hebrew word (shabbat) rest and cessation are designated, and our theologian has followed this. But a certain impious writer, whose work has recently come to light from the shadows, inscribed thus: *Recherches sur l'origine du despotisme oriental*, thinks that the genuine meaning of this word has remained unknown until now. He wishes by the name *shabbat* to be denoted not "rest," not "cessation," but "renovation." And if he had attempted to support this fabrication with any reason, we might perhaps be able to refute it with little effort; but now, since he brings forward none, and since not only the primitive root *shabat*, but also the words derived from it, *nishbat, mishbatim, shabbaton, ishbit*, never even once in the divine Scriptures have the meaning of "renewing," his interpretation is to be mocked... ^A ...who unless he were wholly ignorant of the Hebrew language, would not have appended this caution on page 57: "*Ce mot (théocratie) signifie la même chose, si on le dérive soit de l'hébreu, soit du grec, la ville, la cité de Dieu.*" Would you not be foolish to such a degree, if you knew anything, Boulanger? For I will address you by that name by which your eulogist Voltaire addresses you, who calls your book worthy of Montesquieu. But even more absurd are the things which we read on page 75: "*David, dont les véritables racines sont Aved, Avaddon, et Aveddach, perte, et destruction, signifie l'exterminateur.*" O famous interpreter of the Hebrew language! Was this discovery reserved for our age? Was this worthy of Montesquieu? Is this how you refute them, Boulanger, who, deriving the name David from another root or name, interpret it as "Beloved"? That person would be truly more tolerable who might derive the name "asinus" (if we may say so without offense) from the word "sapiens." He could at least count four letters common to either word. I wish indeed that the architect of such worthless inquiries, or rather ravings and futile arguments, would finally learn to distinguish the letter *daleth* from the letter *aleph*, and the letter *beth* from the letter *vau*, and to discern them; for then he himself will see how far distant the name (David) is from the root (abhad), which shares with that same name only the last letter, and from the words *abhaddon* and *abheddah*. ^B ...perfect. The number seven is called perfect not considered in itself, but with respect to those things which are defined by this number in Scripture. Other Fathers everywhere hold similar things concerning numbers viewed, as I have said, in this way. Indeed, Epiphanius wrote a book *On the Mysteries of Numbers*. Ethnic writers, on the contrary, have argued more concerning the perfection of numbers considered in themselves, which in their age were perhaps tolerable, but now certainly can hardly be read without contempt. Thus Julian the Apostate in his 24th epistle to Sarapion babbles I know not what concerning the centenary number, which he seriously contends to be more excellent than other numbers, and to possess their perfection in itself: not to mention others, especially the Pythagoreans, who handed down trifles concerning numbers. ^D ...of the first chapter of Job in the Chain of Greek Fathers, "Who," says Didymus, "does not know the seventh numbering, that it signifies the assembly of the seven gifts, just as also the third pronunciation, to look toward the more perfect and more divine? So that we might learn faith in the Trinity, to be the creator of the seventh (perhaps it should be read, 'hebdomadal') grace," that is: "For who does not know that the number seven is an index of the seven gifts? Just as the naming of the three is wont to be referred to that which is more perfect and more divine? Assuredly so that we might know that the faith of the Trinity is the maker of the seven gifts."

^A Observing, as much as he could, the identity of the Holy Spirit and his faith with the Son, he recounts the seven signs while speaking of him, in these words: “There shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise from it; and the Spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon him, the Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of the fear of God.” Rightly, then, would someone apply here also those things which are hidden in the sense of Zechariah, where it is written: “For behold, I bring my servant the Orient; for the stone which I have given before the face of Jesus, upon one stone, there are seven eyes.” These things God said to Jesus the high priest. “I bring,” he says, “my servant Zorobabel into the power of the kingdom,” on account of which he will be illustrious and splendid, like the Orient. He calls him by that name, naturally taken from the thing itself. Then, continuing the discourse without interruption, he calls Zorobabel the stone, upon whom the face of Jesus had been established—offering him help through prayers, and in turn receiving from him the peace which the kingdom provides. Moreover, after he subjoined: “I dig a trench, says the Lord Almighty, and I will touch all the iniquity of that land in one day; and everyone shall call his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree,” that is, I inflict death upon the enemies through the expedition of Zorobabel, so that all, having been delivered from every trouble and living in great abundance of things, may be able to invite one another to feasts. And after he also mentioned the golden lampstand, that is, the purest faith, which indeed begins with us ^B but is raised up even to those things which are above us (for by gold that which is clean and precious is understood; since gold is so constituted by nature that it does not contract rust); and after he said that there is a small lamp upon it, that is, divine grace, which illuminates all things from above, and seven lamps, namely the abundance and perfection of spiritual grace; and besides these, seven infundibula from above—which are understood as either priesthood and kingdom, or two peoples, or houses of God, that of the Israelites of old and that of the Christians—and having roused the prophet, and having prepared him to be awake and more attentive for a more accurate understanding of the things to be shown, he again adds: “Not by great power, nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. Who are you, O great mountain, before the face of Zorobabel, to accomplish and bring forth the stone of the inheritance, the equality of grace?” By "mountain" he here calls the enemy, with whom he converses; for he says that such great spiritual grace shall clothe the stone of the inheritance, Zorobabel, against whom you rush as an opponent and adversary, accomplishing the battles, that he seems actually to be grace itself. And after a little, still confirming these things, he prophesies thus: “On that day, says the Lord Almighty...”

^A And “they shall rejoice, and shall see the tin stone in the hand of Zorobabel. These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which look upon all the earth.” Therefore the seven eyes which survey all creation are the aforementioned wondrous utterances of the Holy Spirit. He called it a “tin” stone because in tin, vessels that have suffered damage, whether iron or bronze, are repaired and made whole; and tin is a unifying element. Some say that with skill it also distinguishes, in the smelting furnace, the genuine from the counterfeit in gold, silver, or copper. I think that just as that which was spoken similarly by Solomon in secret, “Wisdom has built herself a house, and has set up seven pillars,” it aims to declare what was promised to the Virgin by Gabriel: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you,” which also indicates that the angels minister to Him; and as He is the sustainer of all things, the divine Spirit, along with the Father and the Son, illuminates lives with ineffable light, with an inexpressible union and agreement. The Apostle, teaching us that those who are illuminated are counted worthy of Him, wrote these words to the Galatians: “This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” David also does not pass over these things in silence. For, connecting plainly the nature and unanimity of the Son, who was begotten as light from Light, and of the Holy Spirit, who proceeds as Truth from Truth, he sings in Psalm 42: “Send forth your light and your truth,” and in Psalm 147: “He shall send forth his Word, and shall melt them; his Spirit shall blow, and waters shall flow.” Following this is the Pauline saying: “We were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

^B ...that is, inextinguishable and perennial, which flows; and the two olives; which are thus understood to signify ^C either the priesthood and the kingdom, or two peoples, or the houses of God—that is, the ancient people of the Israelites and our own, the Christians. And after he exhorted the prophet, and disposed him in a certain way to be more vigilant and to strive accurately ^D to consider those things which he was about to show, after, I say, he said all these things, he again adds: “Not by great power, nor by might, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. Who are you, O great mountain, before the face of Zorobabel, that it should prosper for you, and you bring forth the stone of inheritance, the equality of grace?” Here he calls the mountain an enemy, whom he addresses, because, he says, the stone of inheritance, Zorobabel, against whom you come forth, resisting him to his face, and acting as an adversary, so much spiritual grace will surround him, fighting prosperously, that he will seem to be entirely grace itself. And a little later, again confirming these things, he prophesies thus: “And they shall rejoice, and shall see the tin stone in the hand of Zorobabel: these seven are the eyes of the Lord, which look upon the whole earth.” Therefore the seven eyes, which look upon every creature, are those admirable titles of the Holy Spirit, which we mentioned before. He called it a tin stone because vessels that have suffered damage, whether iron or bronze, are restored and embellished by tin, and tin has the power of binding. Some say, indeed, that by a certain art employed in the smelting pot, gold, silver, or copper is also purified by tin, so that the pure is separated from the impure. For it is said that the nature of tin is so constituted that it is easily combined with lead, copper, or mercury; but not with gold, or silver, or iron. For none of the metals are purged by tin in a vessel, but silver and gold by lead; but from copper and tin is made that statuary bronze, which is commonly called “bronzo.” Shall we suspect, therefore, that the white lead, which is tin, was taken by Didymus in place of black lead? Furthermore, Jerome, in his commentaries on Zechariah (which he confesses were written by him in such a way that he first read Didymus’s five books of Explanations on the same prophet, and mingled them with the tropology of the history of the Hebrews, of which Didymus was one), wrote these things in Book 1, p. 812, ed. Veron. vol. VI: “Just as tin protects other metals from fire, and since it is by nature a very hard bronze and iron, if it were without tin, it would be burned and consumed; so, etc... But this stone, that is, the mass which is written as *Abdil* among the Hebrews, that is, *tin*, that is, *separating* and *distinguishing*, as tin dissociates metals that are mixed and adulterated among themselves through fire; so the Lord, the true test, distinguishes the copper from the gold and silver of good works, and separates the lead, so that the pure gold remains, and the silver... Moreover, the seven eyes... we explained above to be seven spirits: namely, the seven graces of the Holy Spirit.”

^A Why, then, should I not show something else, harmonious and brilliant, under the interpreter Zechariah, the last of the prophets, so that we may marvel even more? I shall remind you of his own words, which are as follows: “In those days living water shall go out from Jerusalem.” And this “living water,” ^B flowing from the heavenly Jerusalem, surely also begets the living. We might also find—in addition to those things already mentioned—the pool in Jerusalem which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, which is agreed to be an image of baptism, though not the truth itself; for an image is for a time, but the truth is judged to be for eternity. Hence, the water in it was moved only once a year by an angel, and it healed only the one who first descended, and only a bodily ailment, not also a ^C spiritual one. For true baptism, after the manifestation of the Son and the Holy Spirit, heals every day—or rather, every hour—and, more truly, it unceasingly sets all who descend into it eternally free from every sin; and the cure for the many, diverse, irregular, and difficult internal and external spiritual and bodily dispositions is found to be one, and no old pain follows anymore from within or without. Furthermore, it reveals all to be brothers, first-born and new-born through grace, ^D even the aged and the young; and for these very people, to whom by human law earthly wealth is not entrusted on account of the insecurity of years—whether few or many—the entire divine treasure is found to be safely deposited, so that, rejoicing, they chant: “The Lord shepherds me, and I shall lack nothing; in a place of green pasture, there He has made me dwell; He has nourished me by the water of rest”; and, “You have prepared a table before me in the presence of those who afflict me; You have anointed my head with oil, and Your cup makes me drunk.”

^A (90) existing, but not the truth itself; for it is considered an image, which is for a time, whereas truth is that which remains forever. Therefore, the water ^B that was in it, when stirred by the angel, healed the sickness of the body—and that only once a year, and only for the one person who happened to descend into it first—but not the sickness of the soul. For the authentic ^C baptism, after the appearance or manifest advent of the Son and the Holy Spirit, cleanses everyone who descends into the pool, whether daily, or rather hourly, or, to speak more truly, continuously ^D, of every sin forever; and the healing of many and diverse and extraordinary bodily and spiritual afflictions, which are difficult to cure, is found to be singular; and truly no evil from among the ancient ills, nor any sin, whether interior or exterior, accompanies those who are baptized. Moreover, this baptism renders all people brothers by grace, and newborn 95, not even excluding those who are younger 96 in birth or advanced in age. And among those same people, to whose faith, according to worldly law 97, earthly wealth 98 is not entrusted 99—because it is not considered safe to do so on account of a number of years that is either too small or too great—the entire divine treasure is found to be deposited with security; so that they sing joyfully: "The Lord 1 pastures me, and I shall want nothing; in a place of pasture (or, green grass), there He has settled me (or, has provided me a dwelling): He has nurtured me by the water of rest"; and: "You have prepared..."

^A in my presence a table against those who afflict me. You have anointed my head with oil, and your cup which inebriates me is most excellent."

Now, that very angel who was troubling the water was the forerunner of the Holy Spirit; in the likeness of which angel, John was called the angel of the Lord, and became the forerunner of the Master, and baptized in water. And the chrism, moreover, with which both Aaron was anointed by Moses, and furthermore all who were anointed from the priestly horn, and who were named *christi*—that is, anointed—from the chrism, bore a type of the sanctified chrism which we receive. For even if this flows corporeally, yet it profits spiritually. For as soon as faith in the thrice-blessed Trinity comes into our heart, and spiritual speech into the mouth, and the seal of Christ upon the forehead—just as soon as baptism is received, and the chrism has confirmed us—immediately, I say, the Trinity, who is by nature the giver of good things, is found to be propitious; immediately it comes to us; at the very same moment, unclean spirits depart from the clean, worldly ^B matters straightaway vanish, and bodily passions of every kind are removed from our path; all transgressions are forgiven, our names are inscribed in indelible books, heavenly good things are dispensed to us: to such an extent that the Trinity itself, because it is ineffably ready and provident, and because it desires to be preeminent among all good things, even anticipates this very intention of ours, or takes the initiative. And, to say it in a word, it preserves the sign upon the forehead.

^A And this image of baptism was illuminating all those of the Israelites of that time, and saving them, and showing that the salvation provided is common to the consubstantial Trinity, as Paul, who was learned in the law, wrote in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they were drinking from a spiritual rock following them, and the rock was Christ.” And as they prophesied—Ezekiel indeed: “Thus says the Lord, I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your sins. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” And David: “You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; you shall wash me, and I shall be whitened more than snow.” For he calls the sprinkling of hyssop the Jewish purification, which is accustomed to be performed among them even to this day; but by “more than snow” ^B he means the illumination of Christians, which is baptism. And Isaiah: “All shall be called holy who are written for life in Jerusalem; for the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and the daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst.” ^C [alt-version omitted] ^D

in the Spirit of judgment and in the Spirit of burning. ^A And in order that Peter might show in his first Epistle how, if the baptism which once existed in shadow brought salvation, much more does that which is performed in truth render us immortal and deify us, he wrote as follows: ^B “Which also, as an antitype, now saves you—baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience towards God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him.” ^C By “interrogation towards God,” he means the confession of conscience which we set forth, consenting to be baptized into the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, according to the word of the Lord. Isaiah, therefore, cries out again to those who do not believe in the Holy Spirit, and for this reason do not have the coming inheritance: “There is,” he says, “an inheritance for those who worship the Lord, and you shall be righteous, says the Lord. You who thirst, go to the water, and as many of you as have no silver, go, buy, and eat without silver and price, wine and fat.” The Holy Spirit called water, and its streams the pool; by wine and fat, he signified at that time the matters of the Jewish proposition, but now he signifies the immortal communion of the body and blood of the Master, which, together with renewal, we buy—laying out faith and not silver—and at the same time receive as a gift. ^D That the Holy Spirit is water, and likewise the spirit of his baptism, John also testifies, speaking from the person of the Savior, saying: “He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” And he immediately added to the word: “This, he said, he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those who believe in him were about to receive.” That we are also justified freely, though being unworthy, on account of the surpassing goodness of the Trinity, the discourse of Paul to the Romans demonstrated: “For all,” he says, “have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” As he calls blessed those who are deemed worthy of this gift, the Lord Himself, in Luke, was saying to the disciples: “Blessed are the eyes which see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see, ^A

you see, and did not see; and to hear, and did not hear. But we who are made spiritual ^A do not only see and hear, but are also freely illuminated by the Holy Spirit and enjoy Him, partaking of the body of Christ and tasting of the immortal fountain.

CHAPTER XV.

In many passages, moreover, and most especially in holy baptism, it is evident that Scripture, on account of the identity of essence and operation with the Father and the Son, makes mention of the Holy Spirit alone and of His saving mark (or seal), by which we are sealed and reformed into the first image. For a sheep that is not marked can easily be caught by wolves, since it is destitute of that aid which is provided by the sealing, nor is it recognized ^B by our good Shepherd like the others, because it does not even know the Shepherd of all. Proofs of these things are when the Savior says: "When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth;" and again: "You shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit." And as when Paul writes to the Corinthians: "All were baptized in one body into one Spirit, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free; and all were given to drink of one Spirit;" and to the Ephesians: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption;" and again: "In whom, having believed, you ^C were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise," which David prophesied when he sang: "The light of your countenance, O Lord, was marked upon us"—calling the Holy Spirit the light of the divine face. ^D

If therefore we are marked and baptized equally in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, it follows that the Trinity is in one divinity and kingdom. For we do not receive these things in the name of creatures, nor does God appropriate the name of a creature to His own, or for the sign, as if He alone were unable to save. Those, therefore, who pass over to orthodoxy, even if they happen to have been baptized, are baptized 46 (for we do not say "rebaptized" 47, since they do not possess the true baptism); the Eunomians, indeed, because they perform one immersion, saying they are baptized only into the death of the Lord 48; the Phrygians, 49 however, because they do not baptize into the three holy hypostases, but believe the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be the same. But they are anointed 50 who from any—

^B In the 22nd Greek codex of the Venetian library of St. Mark, these things are read on page 80: "Didymus. The discourse regarding the visible creatures... Observe, moreover, that he did not say: 'That they may fear God,' but, 'His countenance.' For the countenance of the Lord is against those who do evil. But the countenance of God is primarily the Son, according to the words: 'Show your countenance, and we shall be saved.'" This is from Didymus. The discourse here is about visible creatures... Observe, moreover, that Ecclesiastes did not say: "That they may fear God," but "His countenance." For the countenance of the Lord is over those who do evil. But the countenance of God is primarily the Son, according to that saying: "Show your countenance, and we shall be saved." Since, moreover, the Holy Spirit also proceeds from the Son, He is deservedly called by Didymus the light of the countenance of God.

45 *In the name*, etc. Didymus brings forward this same argument in his book *On the Holy Spirit*, no. 24; and he teaches that whoever might teach that one of the three names can be omitted, or ever could have been, acts as a legislator contrary to Christ, or (as St. Thomas reads it, alleging this place of Didymus in the catena on cap. XXVIII of Matthew) contrary to Christ the legislator.

46 *Are baptized*, etc. From the fact that baptism conferred by heretics is held as valid by Didymus, I conclude: 1, because he makes an exception only of the baptism of the Eunomians and Phrygians: but an exception confirms the rule; 2, because he says the baptism of these is invalid for the reason that they did not use the formula prescribed by Christ in the conferring of baptism; 3, because he indicates the matter to be otherwise in the anointing than in baptism, subjoining: "But they are anointed who come from any heresy." Yet Didymus speaks much more cautiously, or at least more clearly, than Cyril in his *Procatechesis*, who says: "For only heretics are rebaptized, because the former was not baptism," that is: "For only heretics are rebaptized; if that first baptism was not baptism."

47 *Nor... do we say, rebaptized*. In the same way Cyprian had spoken in epistle 71 given to Quintus, yet erring in that, not only concerning some, as Didymus, but he rejected the baptism of all heretics. "But we say," he says, "that those who come from there are not rebaptized by us, but baptized: for they receive nothing there where there is nothing."

48 *Into the death of the Lord*. Didymus perhaps intends the seventh canon of the second ecumenical council, held a little before he dictated these things; if, however, that canon was truly established by that council. There, moreover, the baptism of both the Eunomians and the Montanists is declared invalid. But as regards the Eunomians, this very thing which Didymus affirms of them is asserted by Socrates, lib. V, cap. 24, Sozomen, lib. VI, cap. 26, Theodoret, lib. I of *Heretical Fables*, cap. 3, Philostorgius himself, although a Eunomian, lib. X, num. 4, and Anastasius Bibliothecarius in *Ecclesiastical History*, page 35. It suffices to record the words of Socrates. "I will say this one thing," he says, "they have adulterated holy baptism; for they do not baptize in the Trinity, but in the death of Christ." St. Epiphanius against heresies LXXVI, page 992, affirms that the disciples of Aetius with their successor Eunomius rebaptize in the name of the uncreated God, and in the name of the created Son, and in the name of the sanctifying Spirit, and proceeding from the created Son. But Epiphanius speaks of baptism again, having compared those who had been baptized by Catholics, or even by Arians, while Didymus and others speak of baptism given for the first time. But as for the Montanists, the council of Laodicea had rejected their baptism in canon 8, and according to some copies, the Nicene also in canon 19.

49 *Phrygians*. Phrygians, that is, Montanists, "baptize into the Father, and the Son, and Montanus, or Priscilla," says Basil in epistle 188, which is the first canonical, page 269, vol. III, Paris edition of the year 1730. But our Didymus says that the same heretics do not baptize into the three holy hypostases. But just as some, like the Maurist monk, the editor of Basil's works, think that from Basil's own words it should not be gathered that the Montanists did not use the formula prescribed by Christ while baptizing; so there will not be lacking those who will think it cannot be gathered even from the words of Didymus: for they will contend that these things are to be taken in such a way that they are said not to baptize into the three holy hypostases because they did not admit the distinction of the divine persons, and therefore they corrupted the baptismal formula in mind, sense, and interpretation, yet pronounced the same words as the Catholics. But if the matter is so, why does Didymus, out of so many heretical sects not yet extinct in his age, mention only the Eunomians and the Montanists here? Does he not seem to separate their baptism from the baptism of any other heresy? Perhaps because there were no other heretics then in the Alexandrian diocese who had changed the baptismal formula. However, I do not wish these things to be said of Montanus himself, who seems to have held correctly concerning the Trinity, even if Didymus thinks otherwise below 215 b; nor of those Montanists who were called according to Proclus; but of other worse Montanists, who (by the testimony of Didymus, and Theodoret in lib. II of *Heretical Fables*, cap. 2) denied the distinction of the divine persons, namely of those who were called according to Aeschines.

50 *Anointed*. Whether it was a sacrament, or an ecclesiastical ceremony, which was conferred upon those outside the Catholic church who were rightly baptized and confirmed, and subsequently came to the Catholic church itself, is something theologians dispute. But what Didymus thought concerning this matter does not indeed seem to be able to be certainly gathered from this place; yet I infer that he speaks of the sacrament rather than of a mere ceremony from these words: "Because they do not have the holy anointing."

those who come from every heresy, since they do not have the holy anointing, or chrism. But the Bishop alone performs the chrism by the grace from above. ^A

CAP. XVI.

CHAPTER XVII.

Spirit; but let us know that nothing is firm for men, unless the Trinity—which is closest to all and provides aid to all—gives its help (for "False," says the Psalmist, "is the horse for safety; but the Lord is near to those who fear Him, and the giant shall not be saved in the multitude of his strength"): the Scripture declares that He is always present with the Father, and works together with Him, and helps us in every matter, and implants strength in us, and that His manifestation is of equal dignity and excellence with the advent and doctrine of the Son, and that His teaching is in agreement with that of the Son.

Indeed, God the Father, promising to Zorobabel His indivisible, and only stable, and invincible aid—and that of His Word and His Spirit—and declaring most clearly that the divine hypostases do not differ nor stand apart from one another, said through the prophet Haggai: "And now be strong, O Zorobabel, says the Lord, and be strong, O Jesus, son of Josedec, the high priest, and let all the people of the land be strong; for I am with you, says the Lord Almighty, and My Spirit stands in your midst." ^B Through Isaiah, He gently rebukes those who did not walk in His name and the name of His Spirit, saying thus: "Woe, children! You have taken counsel, but not through Me; and made covenants, but not through My Spirit." And again, Isaiah says concerning those who had offended against the divine power of the Spirit: "They disobeyed, and provoked the Holy Spirit, and He turned to them into enmity." For the Holy Spirit is far removed from wrath and enmity and all such things, nor is He shaken or moved, being a Spirit of meekness, and good, and of a supreme, impassible, and omnipotent nature; rather, He Himself heals those who are angry and provoke to anger, and removes the heat of anger from every creature, and in its place introduces peace, as is manifest to those who understand, for everyone who has been persuaded by His words has lived in meekness.

And as it has been written in many places: "They provoked God and the Father, and He was angry with them," and as it says in the 105th Psalm: "But they provoked Him in their counsel," ^C so now, in the same way, the prophet prophesies concerning His Spirit, because of the unchanging nature of the godhead, and the authority, and the power. And Micah likewise laments over Israel, as having offended God, saying: "O...

house of Jacob provoked the Spirit of the Lord." And ^A the Spirit-bearing David, by confessing that the Spirit possesses the same honor and equal power as the Father, and that without the Holy Spirit no good thing exists for any creature, prayed thus: "Thy good Spirit shall lead me in the straight land," and, "With a leading Spirit confirm me," meaning: "strengthen me with Thy sovereign Spirit, which possesses authority, that I may thus be able to be cleansed from sin and not fall from prophecy." And in the Gospel, the Lord, teaching the apostles that the coming of the Holy Spirit would not be inferior to His own manifestation, ^B or less excellent, and that the salvation of creatures which was to result from it would not be different—but that both are equal and the same, because of the unity of deity and operation—says: "It is profitable for you that I go away. For if I do not go, ^C He will not come to you, the Holy Spirit." And showing his own teaching to be in harmony with that of the Holy Spirit, He said: "When the Holy Spirit comes, He will teach you and remind you of all things that I have said to you"; and, "It is not you who are speaking, but the Spirit of the Father who speaks in you." But if the Spirit of the Father is equal in honor to the Father, as has been demonstrated, and is also equal in honor to the Son, as is confessed, it is evident that the divine hypostases have an equal relation toward each other. For things equal to the same thing are ^D necessarily equal to each other; and the Son is equal to the Father, and the Spirit is equal to the Son; it is evident that He is likewise equal to the Father. Since He Himself therefore said that the divine Spirit speaks in the apostles, Paul, because of the identity of nature and teaching which varies in nothing, asserts that Christ speaks in him, writing: "If you seek proof of the Christ who speaks in me." Note that all these things authentically show that there has been an epiphany of the Spirit; and in Luke, as was mentioned before, He foretold to them: "But you, sit in the city until you be clothed with power from on high." And this was the power of the divine Spirit.

CHAPTER XVIII.

With what strength, having been clothed, they were no longer easily terrified, as it is written, that the doors were shut, with the disciples hiding themselves because of the fear of the Jews, and that Peter the foremost

^A of the apostles, threatened by a girl, had sworn that he did not know the Lord, the one who had made him the gatekeeper of heaven. But the twelve alone, and they not even assembled together, stood against almost the whole world, shouting aloud to all the people: “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” But they also set themselves against all diabolical error, and cast out the worship of created things, and dispelled the so-called mist from the soul of mankind, which was previously present, as they say, in order that they might truly know both God and man.

For by the imposition of hands they freed men from various diseases; ^B so that even Peter’s very shadow falling upon the earth from his body, and indeed Paul’s handkerchiefs brought from his body, effected the healing of the sick. And Paul indeed wrote to the Romans: “In believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.” But Peter was boldly defeating the devil, and was declaring the divine essence of the Holy Spirit, saying to Ananias: “Why has Satan tempted your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” For who is he who has been lied to? He said, continuing: “You have not lied to men, but to God.” For there was no one among them who was cowed by someone who was enslaved to money, or breathing injustice, or not looking upon the wise, or not sincerely disposed toward the consubstantial Trinity, even if he happened to have ascended to the first worldly seats ^C and held the highest prefectures in his hands; they even despised the imperial purple itself, and were superior to riches, possessing the inexhaustible treasure of the Holy Spirit. ^D

and other tongues, as He says, the Spirit gave them to speak; and the Galileans understood the speech of the Parthians, Medes, Persians, and other diverse-tongued peoples; nay, more, even the Greek and Ausonian ^A language. They became many-voiced and were displayed as we are to be in the world to come, when we shall have been freed from the bonds of this present world, according to the word of Paul: "Where there is no Greek, nor Jew, nor barbarian, nor Scythian; but Christ is all and in all." It is evident that it was because of the consubstantiality of the Trinity that he said: "Christ is all and in all"; for otherwise, where would we seek ^B to determine whether the Father might be thought to have become incarnate? He made mention of the Holy Spirit at once obscurely and clearly, so that, their eyes being in part illuminated for the understanding of divine oracles and, as Paul says, "from glory to glory" ^C advancing, they might be able to learn of the three self-complete hypostases. And this is what is signified in the 17th Psalm: "The people whom I did not know served me; in the hearing of the ear they obeyed me." Indeed, David, knowing that at that time the Father alone was known locally, was singing: "God is known in Judea; and in ^D [Israel..."

CAP. XIX.

^A great is his name." But when God the Word was manifested and believed, the New Testament began to proclaim him too as God, while also providing, part by part, according to the capacity of those receiving it, the knowledge concerning the Holy Spirit, quietly and gradually. For to those just called to the knowledge of the truth, and not having a mind practiced in its contemplations, such a most perfect faith seemed in a way inaccessible. And what need is there to be in doubt about this matter, when I can bring forward as proof the example of those who are inclined downward toward the abyss, and who to this very day do not believe even in the divinity of the Only-Begotten? Nor did Paul wish these things to be left without testimony, writing to the Corinthians first: "And I, brothers, could ^B not speak to you as spiritual, but as carnal: as infants in Christ, I fed you milk, and not meat; for you were not yet able; nor even yet are you able; for you are still carnal." And to the Hebrews: "For when you ought to be teachers for the time, you have need again to be taught what are the first elements of the oracles of God; and you have become having need of milk, not of solid food. For everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of justice; for he is an infant: but solid food is for the perfect, for those who by habit have their senses exercised for the discrimination of good and evil." The Father, therefore, is sufficient, saying that the Spirit is his own, that is, the Spirit of the Father. The Son is also sufficient, who, by one name, but by three equally ^C to-be-honored hypostases, commanded the whole world to be gathered into the unity of faith. For if the name of the Father is God, it is clearly evident that that which the Father is (that is, God), that same thing both the Son and the Holy Spirit of God are. This the Seraphim also reveal, saying three times, "Holy," and once, "Lord." And elsewhere, teaching nothing other than this same thing, the Son said, concerning himself to those who did not believe in him as true God: "I have come in the name of my Father" (that is, God, such as he is, so is he), "and you do not receive me" (instead of: you do not believe me); "if another should come in his own name, him you will receive," intimating the Antichrist. Regarding the Holy ^D

^A Spirit he says: "The Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name." And in the way that, by introducing the union and the bond of the supreme and uncircumscribed divine peace, he said: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," and, "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me," and, "The Father who abides in me," and, "The Spirit," he says, "descended from heaven and remained upon Christ," so it is that in this place he manifested one name, having said that he himself came in the name of the Father, but the Holy Spirit in the name of his own self, that is, of the Son; and when he commanded to baptize "into the name," and not "into the names," since one is the name for the Trinity, "God," and one the essence and glory. And he who does not have the Spirit does not have the Son either; and he who does not have the Son does not have the Father either; and such a one is altogether godless, just as he who is the opposite is most blessed. For they say: ^B "Blessed is he, who has enjoyed the assistance of divine wisdom, Himself bearing the immovable God in his own breast."

This one name, therefore, the Old Testament also indicated, when God deigned to struggle with Jacob. For it says: "Why do you ask my name? And this is marvelous." Which David celebrates in hymns, singing: "O Lord, our Lord, how marvelous is thy name in all the earth!" and again: "Thou hast magnified thy holy name above all," omitting to say: "In Israel alone." For there is no ^C other way by which the Son comes in the appellation of the Father, if one says: "I have come in the name of my Father"; for it belongs only to the Son to come in the name of the Father, saving the property of the Son in relation to the Father, and of the Father in relation to the Son; thus, conversely, no other comes in the name of the Father, but, for example, in the name of the Lord or of God or of the Almighty... How, then, do servants, who come in the name of the Lord, by this very fact, that they are subject and serve, indicate the Lord, referring to his property (for they are indeed servants of the Lord)? Thus also the Son, who comes in the name of the Father, bears the property of the Father and the name; and through these the only-begotten Son of God is approved. Because, therefore, the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father in the name of the Son, having the property of the Son, according to what he is God, though not in such a way that he is his son: it shows that he is joined to the Son by unity. ^D

^A Nor does he say: "In Israel alone"; for there is no other name given under heaven in which it is necessary for you to be saved." Zacharias, however, speaks thus: "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth in that day. The Lord shall be one, and his name one, surrounding all the earth and the desert." And again the Psalmist: "Let them be ashamed and confounded forever, and let them know that thy name is the Lord; thou alone art the Most High over all the earth." For if anyone refers "God," and "Lord," and "Only Most High" to one hypostasis alone, he excludes the other. But from the natural movement of our mind and from custom, we are accustomed to insist on this, namely, that when we name God as one person, we do not exclude the other two. For when we pray, whether we say, "Lord, have mercy," or "God, help me," or both together, we do not wander from the goal; for in mind and intelligence we comprehend together the holy Trinity existing in one deity. Either, therefore, let those who attempt to weaken the sublime and unambiguous testimonies of the Scriptures concerning the Spirit of God, which have been brought forward, ^B by perverse opinions not derived from Scripture, be silenced; or let them also say how they themselves call the Son God and good, in the same way we do, when the Scriptures say: "God is one," and "No one is good except one, God." Or why do they call the Father holy and Lord, hearing: "One is holy, one is Lord, Jesus Christ," and again: "The Lord is the Spirit."

CHAPTER XX

^C Furthermore, the Apostle, to whom the preaching of the Incarnation is entrusted, distinguishes and separates us, calling some spiritual, others animal, and others carnal, or earthly; to each, to be sure, he applies these designations based on what is greater and predominant. ^D

τοιάσδε προσηγορίας ἁρμόσας. ^A Καὶ γὰρ ψυχὴν μὲν, ἣν καὶ πνεῦμά φαμεν, ἔτι δὲ καὶ τὸ διὰ τοῦ στόματος ἀναπνεόμενον ἀνύπαρκτον πνεῦμα, ὃ καὶ ἆσθμα καλοῦμεν, πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ἔχει· τὸ δὲ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐ πᾶς ὁστισοῦν καταπεπλούτηκεν. Πνευματικοὺς τοίνυν προσαγορεύει τοὺς ἐμπρεπέσιν ἐνθυμήσεσιν καὶ πράξεσιν οἱονείπως ἀναθρώσκοντας, καὶ τῆς ἑαυτῶν φύσεως ἀνωτέρω χωροῦντας, καὶ τὰς μὲν αἱρετικὰς θεοστυγεῖς νοήσεις ἀποσκευαζομένους, τὸ δὲ ἀνυμνεῖν τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα Θεὸν περιπτυσσομένους, καὶ ἑαυτοὺς διὰ τούτων ἀξίους τῆς ἐπιφοιτήσεως αὐτοῦ ἀποφαίνοντας. Οὗτοι γὰρ μόνοι ἔχουσίν τε αὐτὸ καταμένον παρ' αὐτοῖς, ἅμα τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ τῷ Υἱῷ, καὶ τῷ θείῳ αὐτοῦ φωτὶ καταλάμπονται, καὶ πνευματικοὶ ἀποτελοῦνται, ἐξομοιούμενοι κατὰ δύναμιν οἱ φωτιζόμενοι τῷ φωτίζοντι, ^B καὶ μεταλαμβάνοντες ὡς τοῦ φωτὸς, οὕτω καὶ τοῦ ὀνόματος, καὶ εἰσδεχόμενοι ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ῥέουσαν ἀνεμποδίστως τῆς θείας χάριτος τὴν μετάδοσιν· εἶτα λοιπὸν καὶ τῷ πτερῷ αὐτοῦ, τῷ κατελθόντι σωματικῷ εἴδει περιστερᾶς ἀνίπτανται τὴν καρδίαν, καὶ τὴν διαβολικὴν ἐκφεύγοντες παγίδα, ἐῤῥῶσθαί τε πρὸς τὰ ἄστατα καὶ ἀδέβαια τοῦ βίου φράζοντες, τὴν μὲν μεγαλοπρέπειαν αὐτοῦ θεωροῦσιν ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐπηρμένην, καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἄνω δυνάμεων δοξαζομένην καὶ προσκυνουμένην σὺν τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ τῷ Υἱῷ· καὶ ὅσῳπερ ἂν ἀγόμενοι πρὸς τὸν ἐκείνου πόθον, ἐγγυτέρω αὐτοῦ τῇ προθέσει γίνονται, τόσῳ δὴ μᾶλλον αὐτοῦ τὸ ἀκατάληπτον τῆς θεότητος νοοῦσιν, ὡς ἅπαξ τῆς ἔνδοθεν ὄψεως τὸ ὄμμα καθαρὸν κεκτημένοι ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἐπιπροσθούντων· καὶ ἂν ἰδεῖν οὕτως, ὡς ἔστιν, καὶ χωρῆσαι ὅλον, διὰ τὴν τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν πολλὴν ὕφεσιν, οὐ δύνανται, τοῦτον, ὡς ἐγχωρεῖ, ὁρῶσιν καὶ ὑποδέχονται διὰ τὴν ἔφεσιν.

Κατανοοῦντες τέως, οἷα δ' ἄν τις μεγάλα εἴπῃ περὶ αὐτοῦ, τῆς ἀκριβοῦς ἀληθείας ἀφέστηκεν, οὐχ ὅσον οὐρανός ἐστιν ἀπὸ γῆς μόνον, ἀλλ' ἔτι πολλῷ πλέον, ^C κράζουσιν μετὰ τοῦ Ἱεροψάλτου· « Ἐγὼ εἶπα ἐν τῇ ἐκστάσει μου· Πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ψεύστης, » οὐχὶ τῷ φεύγειν τὴν Θεῷ φίλην ἀλήθειαν, ἀλλὰ τῷ μηδὲν ἄξιον δύνασθαι νοῆσαι, ἢ φράσαι περὶ τῆς θεότητος τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος· οὐ περὶ μεγέθους, ἢ φωτός· πάντα γὰρ ἔχει ὑφ' ἑαυτὸ, καὶ φωτίζει, καὶ ἔστιν ἐν πᾶσιν· οὐ περὶ δυνάμεως· πάντα γὰρ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἐστήρικται καὶ ζωογονεῖται· οὐ περὶ σχήματος, ἢ ποιότητος· ἀόρατος γὰρ καὶ ἀκατάληπτος, ὡς πνοὴ Παντοκράτορος (εἰ γὰρ ^D ὁ

ὁ ^A παντοκράτωρ Πατὴρ ἀσχημάτιστος καὶ ἀόρατος, καθὸ καὶ ὑπερασώματος καὶ ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν νόησιν ἀναβεβηκώς, δῆλον, ὅτι καὶ τὸ ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐκπορευόμενον ζωογόνον Πνεῦμα, οὐ περὶ ἀγαθότητος, ἢ ἀϊδιότητος, ἢ δόξης θεϊκῆς [ἐλαττοῦται]· Πνεῦμα γάρ ἐστιν ἅγιον, ἐξ ἁγίου Θεοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκφανθέν. ^B Διαλέγεται οὖν πρὸς τοὺς πνευματικοὺς οὐτωσεί· «Οὐκ ἐστὲ ἐν σαρκί, ἀλλ' ἐν Πνεύματι, εἴπερ Πνεῦμα Θεοῦ οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν·» καὶ πάλιν· «Ἀδελφοί, ἐὰν καὶ προληφθῇ ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ὑμῶν ἔν τινι παραπτώματι, ὑμεῖς οἱ πνευματικοὶ καταρτίζετε τὸν τοιοῦτον ἐν πνεύματι πραότητος.» Ἐγράφη δὲ καὶ περὶ τοῦ Δανιήλ, ὅτι «Πνεῦμα περισσὸν ἦν ἐν αὐτῷ»· αἰνιγματωδῶς δὲ τὸ ἅγιον ἐδηλοῦτο Πνεῦμα.

Ψυχικοὺς δὲ ὀνομάζει Ἕλληνας, Ἰουδαίους, καὶ αἱρετικούς, ἐπειδὴ συλλογισμοῖς καὶ διαλογισμοῖς στρεβλοῖς ἐναβρυνόμενοι γνωσιμαχοῦσι, καὶ οὐχ ὁμολογοῦσι Θεὸν τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἐπιστέλλει δὲ καὶ πρὸς αὐτοὺς οὕτω που· «Ψυχικοὶ Πνεῦμα μὴ ἔχοντες.» καὶ αὖθις· «Ψυχικὸς δὲ ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ Θεοῦ· μωρία γὰρ αὐτῷ ἐστιν, καὶ οὐ δύναται γνῶναι. Ὁ δὲ πνευματικὸς ἀνακρίνει μὲν πάντας, αὐτὸς δὲ ὑπ' οὐδενὸς ἀνακρίνεται.» Καὶ πάλιν, τὸ πρὸς τὴν μόνην ἡμερωτάτην φύσιν ἐπίκοινον τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος δηλῶν, ἔφη· «Εἴ τις κοινωνία Πνεύματος.»

Σαρκικοὺς δὲ, ἢ χοϊκοὺς καλεῖ τοὺς τῇ γῇ κατανενευκότας· ἐπειδὴ ἀκρασίαν λυττῶντες, καὶ τὰ διαβεβλημένα τοῖς τιμίοις παραμετροῦντες, καὶ τοῖς ὑλικοῖς ὑποκαθήμενοι πάθεσιν, καὶ ὡσανεὶ βορβόρω ταῖς αἰσχραῖς ἀεὶ ἐγκυλινδούμενοι πράξεσιν, καὶ αὐτοὶ παράλληλοί πως τοῖς ψυχικοῖς καθεστᾶσιν. ὡς γὰρ ὑπό τινος λήμης τὸ διορατικὸν τῆς ψυχῆς ἄμφω ἐπισκεπόμενοι, οὐ δύναται καταλάμπεσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀειζώου καὶ ἀπόνου φωτὸς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος· ἀλλ' ἐν ἀποπτώσει γίνονται, καὶ ἐσπάμπαν ἀπόλλυνται, ὡς μύρον βορβόρω συμπλακέν· οὐδὲ συνιέντες τάχα, ὡς τοῦ ἑνὸς καὶ μόνου στεροῦνται ἀγαθοῦ. Πηλίκη γὰρ ἡ ἐντεῦθεν ζημία, μᾶλλον δὲ παντελὴς ἀπώλεια, οὐδεὶς λόγῳ παραστῆσαι δύναται, κἂν πάσῃ χρήσαιτο τῆς διανοίας ὑπερβολῇ. Διαγορεύει δὲ καὶ περὶ τούτων ὁ μὲν Θεὸς ἐν τῇ Γενέσει τοιῶσδε· «Οὐ μὴ καταμείνῃ τὸ Πνεῦμά μου ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τούτοις εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, διὰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτοὺς σάρκας»· ὁ δὲ Παῦλος· «Οἷος ὁ χοϊκὸς ἄνθρωπος, τοιοῦτοι καὶ οἱ χοϊκοί· καὶ οἷος ὁ ἐπουράνιος, τοιοῦτοι καὶ οἱ ἐπουράνιοι»· ἡ δὲ Σοφία· «Σκολιοὶ γὰρ λογισμοὶ χωρίζουσιν ἀπὸ Θεοῦ· δοκιμαζομένη δὲ ἡ δύναμις ἐλέγχει τοὺς ἄφρονας.»

for wisdom shall not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body that is subject to sin.

CHAPTER XXI

CHAPTER XXIII

glorified ^A as King and Lord of hosts, the Apostle shows to be the Holy Spirit; and as when the same [Apostle] writes in an Epistle, declaring that the communion with the Spirit is with the Father and the Son, it is manifest that it is a communion of divinity, and of kingdom, and of glory, as has been said before and will be said again. Thus, in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, he writes: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit." And elsewhere he says: "If there be any communion of the Spirit." And to the Ephesians he writes: "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Consider how he said "unity" on account of the union of nature with the Father. And again to the Corinthians: "Or do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. Glorify God in your bodies," that is, the Holy Spirit. ^B And again, having previously proclaimed: "Now the Lord is the Spirit," he adds: "But we all with open face beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Lord the Spirit." And again: "But if the ministration of death, written in letters on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which is to be done away; how shall not rather the ministration of the Spirit be glorious?" These things are similar to those which are said by John: "We saw his glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." And the wise Zorobabel says: "All the earth calls upon truth, and the heaven blesses it, and all works are shaken and tremble." But by truth he means the Holy Spirit, as has been testified above. And the Spirit of God Himself says through the Psalmist: ^C "Those who glorify me, I will glorify, and those who despise me shall be despised." And that He is also worshipped together with the Father and the Son, the patriarch taught when at the oak of Mambre he received and worshipped ^D the holy Trinity with equal honor as

worthy and having worshipped the Trinity, as has been stated in the first ^A discourse. Paul also wrote, as was demonstrated above in the theological sections regarding the Spirit, that "Falling on his face he will worship." But the heretics, by legislating in opposition to the Lord’s precept concerning baptism and to the Apostle, and by taking great care lest they be caught having laid aside their hatred against the Son and the Holy Spirit, offer and render to God a doxology—that is, a glorification—according to their own particular composition.

CHAPTER XXIV

The Savior, teaching in the Gospel according to Mark that those who oppose these things and replace the commandment of God with their own traditions hope in vain to attain His kingdom, says to the Pharisees who held opinions similar to the heretics: "Why ^B do you break the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition? For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death.' But you say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, Corban, that is to say, any gift from me by which you might have been profited,' and you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother, making void the word of God by your tradition." What He means is of this character: the law of God, who loves souls, forbids that parents be despised or spoken evil of, as is written in the preceding words; just as it commands, in turn, that children be loved by them and not provoked to anger. Now the custom ^C of the Israelites required that each one of the people, consecrating himself to the temple, should bring manifestly to the temple for its support those things which were called Corban—which is interpreted "gift"—as being dedicated to God; and it became profit for the priests. When, therefore, those who were particularly obligated to provide the necessities to their parents were reluctant to bring this gift, and rightly said that it is not lawful for one who is in debt not to pay, especially to those who have brought him into being, the priests, introducing new doctrines, taught that parents should rather be neglected or disregarded than the offering of the gift—and instructed them to say to their progenitors: "That which we possess ^D is a gift, and whatever you might receive from us, this you take away from that which is already promised, or dedicated, as it were, to God; for we are constrained," they say, "by the law concerning a vow, which commands that one who has vowed must pay." Therefore, God the Word coming, who does not wish to be honored out of the destitution of parents, nor for fathers to be less honored than sons, nor the latter less than the former, and finding the aforementioned impious tradition of the priests,

which is contrary to His holy commandment, He reproaches the Pharisees for the things that have been recounted.

CHAPTER XXV. Epilogus, or Repetition

^B Since it is proved by the testimony of sublime and divine texts that the Holy Spirit shone forth co-eternally from the one and supreme divine nature, and that He is, according to essence and power, equal to the Father and the Son, without any discrepancy, infinite and incorruptible, and endowed with His own power, and good, and holy, and possessing all the things that have been said before, so that from Him we know that God dwells in us; and since the Father, while declaring Him to be His own Spirit, also testifies manifestly that He is consubstantial with Him, and is uncreated God; and since the Son Himself did not disdain, on account of the communion which He has with Him in deity, and kingdom, and glory, both to be anointed in Him, and to have Him remaining with Him, and to announce His advent through Himself, and to attribute to Him an equality of honor, which the Apostle also maintained, who likewise commemorated the communion and unity of the Spirit; and since in like manner all other Scriptures show that there is one divine nature, and say that there is one name for the most highly honored Trinity, and either place Him together with the Son in such and so great gifts, or even mention Him separately when speaking of divine works and virtues, and call Him by excellence the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, and existing from God, and proceeding from the Father, and one Spirit, and Spirit of truth, and divine Spirit, and Breath of the Almighty, things which alone are sufficient in themselves against all heretical perversities; and since the same Scriptures testify that He makes us sons of God, and deifies, and liberates, and recreates, and deems us worthy of the remission of sins, and provides us with wisdom and knowledge, and sanctifies everything that has been made, and fills the world, and holds all things together, and He Himself strengthened and confirmed the powers of the heavens, and the heavens were opened to Him as He descended, and from the foundation of the world He was borne upon the waters and sanctified them, and He breathed into the prophets and apostles and sent them as Lord, and works together with the Father and the Son, and alone knows the things of God, just as the Only-Begotten does, and breathes where He wills, and bestows divine gifts as He wills, and the faithful man is His temple just as he is the Father's; and just as the holy Passover is celebrated from the beginning to the honor and glory of the deity of the Only-Begotten, so also the feast of Pentecost ^C has been celebrated to the honor and glory of the Spirit, and Gabriel ministers to Him as to the almighty God the Father: how, according to the opinion of heretics, is He who deifies us not God? How is He who grants us liberty not Lord? How is He not King and glorified, He who is commanded to praise God together with the creatures, and who has made us worthy that through baptism we should reign and be glorified together with Christ? For there is in all these things nothing

what has been said previously regarding the divine Spirit, it is found that it is a property of creatures, and never was this honor accorded to the heavenly virtues, that they should be mentioned simultaneously with God the Father and with the Son when the subject is divine grace, or operation, or glorification. But those things which are not properties of creatures, it is clear that they are solely the properties of God: yet God is not created. But those who call Him a creature or a servant (for the two are the same), and who do not say that He is God, nor glorify Him, they are cast out, subject to the servitude of Hagar, and condemned by the servitude of Cham, hearing said of themselves that which is written: "Cursed be Cham; he shall serve his brothers." And they are placed and reckoned with Simon Magus, who thought that the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is by no means for sale, could be bought with money; and in the book of the Acts of the Apostles they hear said to them: "For you have no part or lot in this matter." ^B

CAP. XXVI. That God has definitely threatened those who do not recognize His Son and the Holy Spirit.

For truly, since there is no communion of light with darkness, nor for those who are deprived of divine knowledge with those who have been illuminated by it, it is deservedly written concerning heretics who think perversely: "They did not know the Spirit, neither did they understand; they walk in darkness." Deservedly also do the writers speak of them; John indeed: "In the last ^C time there shall come scoffers, walking according to their own desires in impieties. These are they who separate, animal, not having the Spirit." But Paul to Timothy: "Now the Spirit expressly says that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, in the hypocrisy of those who speak lies, having their own conscience seared." And to the Hebrews: "One who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses; how much worse punishment do you suppose he will be thought worthy of, who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has considered the blood of the Covenant to be common, by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" And to the Ephesians: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption." And the Lord Himself in Matthew, toward him who has been caught in blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, as having sinned without excuse, extends the punishment, not only for the present age, but also for the future; so that we may strongly guard ourselves against committing such a sin even through ignorance, saying: "Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven to them."

^A What other speech, then, is there against the Holy Spirit, or what other blasphemy concerning Him is understood, if not that which consists in not confessing Him to be God, consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father and the Son? For especially when the discourse is about God, the word "blaspheming" is used. He defined, indeed, that the blasphemy against the Son of Man is forgiven, but that which is against the Holy Spirit is not. By these words He signifies that it is not forgiven to him who, even late or at length, has not believed that He proceeded consubstantially from God the Father; for to him who has known this, it is forgiven. For He says: "As for the Son, they have at least a pretext, even if it be not a reasonable one, namely those humble and abject things which are said concerning Him, and which must be understood of the ineffable Incarnation. But as for the Holy Spirit, they have no excuse." Therefore, Wisdom also, declaring the divine Spirit to be God, and threatening in His name those who blaspheme Him, says: ^B "For the Spirit of wisdom is benign, and will not deliver the blasphemer from his lips; for God is the witness of his reins, and the true inspector of his heart, and the hearer of his tongue; for the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world, and that which containeth all things hath knowledge of the voice." For those who do not believe in His divinity, as the Apostle writes to Timothy in the first Epistle, having become like Hymenæus and Alexander, "have made shipwreck concerning the faith, and have been delivered to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme." And with good reason: for they did not wish for the Holy Spirit to breathe favorably upon them, and they spurned His illumination, which is firmer than any anchor, and they rejected the perfect direction of Him and of Christ, depriving themselves of that hymn of glorification which is fitting for God and preserves the equality of the persons. For as it is said in the first book of Kings by Heli: ^C "If a man shall sin against a man, they shall pray for him to the Lord; but if he shall sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him?" But "the Lord is the Spirit," as Paul wrote.

^D ...humanity, however, as Him, he calls the Son of Man. But Didymus, both here and in the book *On the Holy Spirit*, understands the third person of the Trinity by the name of the Holy Spirit.

It is given not only in all the present age, but also in the future. For the Savior says, "To him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit there is no remission, neither in this age, nor in the future." Whence it is necessary to consider more and more what the account of the Scriptures is concerning Him, lest in anyone—or, as our codex says, "lest anyone"—the error of blasphemy should creep in, at least through ignorance. He inculcates the same thing also at the end of the same book, in the last number.

(this is the first page of the chain)

CHAPTER XXVII

^A Audiendi vero etiam sunt (nihil enim inde molestiae erit, sed potius utilitas) eorum versus, qui mediocriter apud Graecos Filii Verbi et Spiritus qualitatem cum Deo Patre persenserunt, atque haec nomina congrua ac vera esse viderunt: juxta quos etiam omnipotens Spiritus sanctus nec natura, nec potentia, nec gloria a Deo Patre segregatur, sicut ne Unigenitus quidem; quin et procedit ex ipso, ita ut non sit minor, et apud eum manet, omnia implens suprema, et copiosa sua cum gratia, tum potentia, secundum Patris et Filii communem cum ipso bonam voluntatem. Hi autem sunt oraculi versus: ^B

Spiritus quidem ab immortali Deo Patre procedens, Ibidem unde venit, manens firmus, et nequaquam separabilis, Sed sub divino Verbi Dei sinu manens, Omnia perficit, utpote divinus, quae vult primigenia mens. Creaturis autem omnibus fert gratiam, sub qua omnia Ne moveas terram; immobilis enim melior est. Soli Chaldaei sapientiam sortiti sunt, et Hebraei, Per se exsistentem regem colentes Deum ipsum. ^{C D}

^A The works of God live, and receive eternal aid. And again: That the Trinity may contain all things, which metes out all things. Orpheus, who among the Greeks is the first theologian: 301 For all things under the great aid of immortal God, men accomplish, under the wise impulse of the Spirit. ^B Plato the Comedian, who gracefully in the iambics subjoined below, speaks of the Divinity extending uniquely into a Trinity, from which all things have been made and are preserved: For God is one, the supreme Father, who strengthened all things most wisely by the Word and by the Spirit, and [is] calling them back from the abyss of error into light from long-standing confusion. ^C From the three discourses of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius. When someone was questioning the good daimon concerning the thrice-holy Spirit, he uttered such an oracle: "Unless there were a providence of the Lord of all, such that he should reveal this discourse to me, neither would you be able to understand it." Therefore, although the grammarians are accustomed to omit the iota which is now called "subscript," here he nevertheless wrote it as he found it written in an older copy, namely ᾗ, instead of ᾗ. And in the same way, a little later, he correctly wrote σοφῆι, instead of σοφῇ and ὁρμῆι. ^D

ὁρμῆι. ^A this love had taken hold, that you should seek concerning this. Now, however, hear the rest of the discourse. Of this Spirit, of whom I have often spoken, all things stand in need. For it sustains all things, and according to merit it vivifies and nourishes all things; and it depends from the holy fountain, always bringing aid to spirits and to living beings, for it is one and generative. »

And again, subjecting many people with a nobler and more excellent judgment—those who are not accurate regarding the knowledge concerning the immaculate, immeasurable, ineffable, and ever-same-existing self-complete Trinity, regarding which no man is so great-minded nor so high-minded that he is able to contemplate anything worthy of such surpassing excellence—he speaks thus: ^B

« For it is not possible that such mysteries should be presented to the uninitiated; but hear with the mind: There was but one intellectual light before the intellectual light; and it is always the mind of the mind, which is luminous; and there was nothing else but its unity. Always existing in it, always [140 a]

(22) He might reveal to me, for *me*, and erroneously, for *to me*, in place of *to reveal*. In Cyril also it is read *for me*, in place of *me*. But if you read *me*, it must be translated: *so that I might reveal this discourse*. (23) *Ne vos quidem*, etc. In the Patricius edition it is read: οὐδέ ὑμᾶς νῦν ἔρως τοιοῦτος κατεῖχεν, that is, *Neither would such love have taken hold of you now*. (24) *Cum portet*. The Ferrar. edition erroneously omits *portet*, and in place of *all things*, *all things* is read in Cyril. (25) *Omnia vivificat*. The Ferrar. edition omits *vivificat* here, and *and all things* are read in Cyril. (26) *Spiritibus et animantibus*. In Cyril it is read: Πνεύματι καὶ ζωῆς. Didymus, or rather the Passioneianus, the transcriber of this work, has: πνεύμασι καὶ ζωῆς. Both readings seem to be rejected; it should be read as Patricius edited: πνεύματι καὶ ζωῆς. (27) *Cum unus*, etc. In the Ferrariensis edition the fragment ends with the word *ὑπάρχον*; then another fragment follows. Thus the words *γόνιμον ἓν ὄν* are missing there. They are, however, read in Cyril. (28) *Subjiciens*. In the Greek, *καθυποτάττων*. This word is missing in common lexicons. Clement of Alexandria uses it in the fifth book of the Stromata, page 680. *[He says]*, that is, *subjecting the mind to passions*. (29) *Excelsissima mente præditus*. The codex is erroneous, *ὑψηλοπουστότατος*. I read, *ὑψηλονούστατος*. (30) *Nam fieri*. In the Ferrariensis Patricii edition existing in the same place before the above, namely in book xx, page 50, under this title: *Ἑρμοῦ τοῦ Τρισμεγίστου ἐκ τοῦ γ' πρὸς Ἀσκληπιόν*, that is, *of Hermes Trismegistus, from the third [book] to Asclepius*. And in a similar manner Cyril cites these in the place I mentioned. Augustinus Steuchus brings forward these and the following words with some variety of readings in his book *On Perennial Philosophy*, chap. 10. (31) *Mente*. The Ferrariensis edition and Cyril read, *with the mind*, *for the mind*. (32) *Mens mentis*. In the Ferrariensis edition the word *νοός* is missing.

^A whatsoever was, that is its unity. Always ^B existing in itself, always with its own mind, and light, and Spirit, it embraces and contains all things. And with other things interjected, he subjoins:

"Outside this, there is no God, no angel, no demon, no other substance whatsoever; for he is the Lord and Father of all, and God, and source, and life, and power, and light, and mind, and Spirit, and all things are in him and under him."

He designates the Mind from the Mind, and the intellectual light from the intellectual light, and furthermore the Spirit, by which he comprehends all things—naming the God Father, and the Only-Begotten, and his one holy Spirit: just as Wisdom says, "The Spirit of the Lord has filled the round world." Angelic beings, however, and demons, and those who are indeed called gods by the Greeks but are not truly gods, and every nature, he declares to be under this indivisible authority, the one creative principle of all things. And Porphyry, though he is not at all sound regarding the truly divine, but, so to speak, is full of resentment—nonetheless, setting forth the opinion of Plato, and perhaps compelled in some way by the truth, or perhaps also out of reverence for Plato, he intended to say these things:

"For Plato said that the essence of the Divine proceeded as far as three hypostases; that there is, indeed, the most high God—the Good—and after him, a second, namely the Creator, and a third also, namely the soul of the world; for to the soul the divinity proceeded." ^C

Execrable, moreover, and accursed Porphyry, as one whose inner sight was clouded and damaged. ^D

and who was ^A unable to arrive at the most perfect theology, since it is not consonant with the concupiscent and venereal appetite—for he directs his present explanation to this—obscurely indicated the one saving and holy Spirit of God, calling him "soul," yet not the soul of man, but the soul that pervades the whole world. You see, therefore, that even the sages of the outsiders bear witness that the three blessed hypostases appeared in one deity, and not one at one time and another at another; but when the first appeared, then together with it and from it, at the same time, the other and the second existed co-eternally, just as splendor is coeval with fire. Let us also adduce something from our own store, deduced from natural reason, which confirms the eternal procession of the one divine Spirit and his consubstantiality with the only-begotten Word of God. It is of this kind: Speech ^B is not generated or uttered unless the Spirit at the same time issues and proceeds with it. Many other such arguments and teachings—and these not to be rejected, but rather more natural and specific than those written here—will, if it pleases God, be brought forth by us further on. For I and mine, as those who have shared with me in these daily assemblies know—those who seek the memory of the blessed Trinity that is without beginning and always the same and in the same state, which always gives good things, never takes them away, nor reproaches—

On the Trinity, Book II

^B ...that Didymus was dictating these things. For the Emperor Theodosius the Great had ordered his writings to be destroyed by fire. ^C ...in the third book, ch. et seqq. ...deduced from natural reason, which confirms the eternal procession of the one divine Spirit and his consubstantiality with the only-begotten God the Word. And it is of this kind: Speech is not generated, nor brought forth, unless the Spirit exits and proceeds simultaneously with it. Many other such arguments and doctrines, and these not to be rejected, but rather much more pertinent to the matter, and more appropriate than those which have been written down here, will again, if it seems good to God, be brought forth by us from Greek books (45). For as those who have had common assemblies with me in these alternate days (46) (47) ^D know, the sacred Scriptures are collected, and the doctors interpret them; and all things are done that pertain to the synaxis, except for the celebration of the mysteries. And this custom of the Alexandrian Church is ancient. For it is agreed that Origen taught in the church on most of these days. One should also read Sozomen, Book VII, Hist. eccl., ch. 19, and Nicephorus Callistus, Book XII, ch. 34. That this custom nevertheless persisted in monasteries in the eighth and ninth centuries is evident from the epistle of Theodore the Studite to Nicolaus (apud Sirmondum, tom. V, p. 198); for thus the holy prelate encourages Nicolaus himself: "Take care by all means that you hold a catechesis every week towards evening; for this has been handed down by the Fathers, and it is salutary." But on the contrary, in the Caesarean Church, for example, in the age of Didymus, synaxes were held even on the Sabbath, and on the fourth and sixth days the Eucharist was distributed. "We therefore communicate four times in each week," says Basil (epist. 289), "the Lord's Day, the fourth day, on Preparation day [Friday], and on the Sabbath." In the Roman Church, however, what custom prevailed at that time, at least in the time of Lent, is indicated even by St. Leo in his fourth sermon on Lent, speaking thus: "Let us fast, therefore, on the second, and fourth, and sixth day; but on the Sabbath let us celebrate vigils at the church of the blessed Apostle Peter." Although Quesnel has opined that these words should be expunged there, since they exist in very ancient copies, they seem to retainable.

(45) ...point to the author as both an Alexandrian and as a catechist and teacher of the Alexandrian Church. For these gatherings, or ecclesiastical conventions, were held at Alexandria on alternate days, namely the fourth day, the sixth day, and the Lord's Day; but on the Sabbath they were not held. This custom Epiphanius, dwelling at Salamis in Cyprus, not far from the city of the Alexandrians, derives from apostolic times, when in his *Exposition of the Faith*, no. 22, vol. I, p. 1104, he writes: "The synaxes which are performed are appointed by the apostles, on the fourth day, and the day before the Sabbath, and the Lord's Day." Petavius translates this thus: "Sacred conventions, moreover, and synaxes were instituted by the apostles on these days in particular, the fourth, the sixth day, and the Lord's Day." But I would prefer to translate it thus: "For the celebrating of synaxes on the fourth day, the sixth day, and the Lord's Day, they have been assigned from the time of the apostles." Furthermore, the Alexandrian catechists were accustomed to hold catecheses on these very days: and this custom was ancient in the Alexandrian Church, inasmuch as it had been preserved from Origen, the predecessor of Didymus. All these things are to be confirmed by the testimony of Socrates, which, for the sake of brevity, I shall only bring forward in Latin. He therefore, in *Hist. eccl.*, lib. V, ch. 22, after he has exposed the various rites of the Churches, as far as pertains to fasting, adds these things: "As for what concerns synaxes, the variety is no less. For while all the Churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries every week on the Sabbath day, the Alexandrians, however, and the Romans, following a certain ancient tradition, refuse to do this. But the Egyptians who are neighbors to the Alexandrians, and those who inhabit the Thebaid, do indeed celebrate synaxes on the Sabbath; they do not, however, as is the custom of Christians, receive the sacred mysteries. For after they have feasted and been satisfied with every kind of food, towards evening, having made the oblation, they communicate." Moreover, at Alexandria on the fourth day, and that which is called Preparation day [Friday]...

(47) In these... assemblies. This expression, *in these*, that is, *in them*, indicates that Didymus recited these books on the Trinity, or some part of them, in the assemblies which I have just mentioned, while he was performing the office of catechist. But as for the word *synaxis*, Didymus perhaps uses this expression, or rather that of *synousia*, because in the Alexandrian Church the sacred mysteries were not performed on the fourth and sixth days, or because those conventions, over which neither a bishop nor a priest presided, but a master not initiated into any sacred orders, of which sort was Didymus, would more properly be called *synousiai* [meetings] than *synaxes*.

^A ...and at no time has there been a moment when I ceased, or—in the name of the most holy Trinity, in which all things may be said, and done, and quietly deliberated—when I failed to provide for myself and for those belonging to me that which is complete (for this [Trinity], being the cause of all things, requires nothing except our own benefit), worshipping and glorifying and, according to the power that is in me, praising it. Have I not often said that they do themselves a great injury who are not diligent either to learn or to teach something wise concerning it? And now, believing as I am accustomed to, that those things alone are stable and firm which this Trinity precedes, lifting up the eyes of my mind together with my body, I beseech [God] for myself, and for those who have sprung from me, and for those born and yet to be born of them, and furthermore for all people, obeying the Savior Christ who commanded us to pray for one another, and saying ^B that which he who prays in the Psalm says: "In thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me not be confounded for ever; in thy justice deliver me, and rescue me. Incline thy ear unto me, and save me. Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of strength, that thou mayest save me: for thou art my firmament and my refuge. O my God, deliver me out of the hand of the sinner, and out of the hand of him that acteth against the law, and of the unjust man. For thou art my patience, O Lord, O Lord, my hope from my youth. In thee have I been confirmed from the womb, from my mother's womb thou art my protector. In thee is my praise always. I am become as a wonder unto many: and thou, O Lord, art my strong helper. Let my mouth be filled with praise, ^C that I may sing thy glory, thy greatness all the day long. Cast me not off in the time of old age; when my strength shall fail, do not thou forsake me." For thus, because of thee, O most good and most almighty Trinity, who hast nothing that opposes thee, as thou hast willed to have mercy even on us sinners—[the Trinity] from whom and through whom is all good, and in whom the whole hope of all men always resides, and after whom there is absolutely nothing—may we be delivered from those things...

^A in which we have sinned, whether in soul or body, in knowledge or ignorance, in word or in deed, both here and whenever you prevail in judging the hidden things of men, and from the heavy burdens in this world, and from the demon who always envies the good and stands as an adversary, and from every evil and unclean spirit, and from the hater-of-good, Antichrist, whose time—full of terrible struggle, as the facts attest—has already drawn near; so that none, neither of those now living nor of those found then, may perish. Thus may every evil be cast out of the way, and may things ^B both public and private be managed well and peacefully, according to your bountiful and soul-loving will; and may the life of piety and individual activity in every city, aye, and in the country, become henceforth a choice and desirable dwelling for all; and may there exist for everyone, as for the holy fathers and those before them, the power to sail, to travel, to stay at home, to farm, and to attend to religious festivals as one loves and wishes, to speak gracious and gentle words, and, greater than these, to remember you without distraction and with a sober mind, and to make you the beginning and the end of every action, and to share according to one’s ability with those in need, beginning with kin and family, and to expect from you the loan for the future, and as a bonus, eternal life. “For fasting,” it says, “and prayer deliver from death; but almsgiving is above both.” For as those outside also say: ^C There is nothing more excellent for mortals than piety. Thus, in addition to these, may you grant us that we may not fall into the disease of pride and arrogance, nor that there be any glory-seeking man of ostentation; since by ^D these unavoidable passions, the most hateful Satan [seeks to draw us away from the light above...]

[alt-version omitted]

and the society of the good angels, and slipped down into the darkest recesses of Tartarus. But that Pharisee, ^B educated under the Law, although he fasted, tithed his own goods, and brought help to those asking for it, nevertheless, because of his own pride, had in this world a vain hope from these works, as it is read in the Holy Scriptures. Grant this, moreover, that we be far from contention and strife; that we may live with books, and keeping a pure conscience, never be separated from the ecclesiastical synaxes, ^C in which, in a more special way, thou art proposed to all. Thus it shall be, that it may no longer be shameful or worthy of contempt, but, as of old and from of yore, the consensus and symmetry of Christians—which was from the beginning the teacher of virtue and of all discipline—may be worthy of praise. And the subsequent way of life may appear more temperate than the ancient one, in as much as it is subdued by the Christian ordinance, which has done all things well. And may a sweet and bright light arise; and may good governance and peace, in every way and reason, be deep over all the earth and sea; and may the channel of the Nile ^D be full, and there be the greatest abundance; and may there be, on the contrary, a great—nay, an utterly universal—pennilessness of ambitious men: nor let one man any longer provide another with occasion for lamentation; and let me be able to observe the law that I have set for myself with decency, and grace, and gravity of life and speech; and from every side for us, for all our children, and for all our houses, and for all our families, and in general for all, may things turn out better than our prayers and better than they were before. And all these things, yes, yes, yes, shall be accomplished and will be accomplished, so that it may always work out that consoling and healing word of yours in Isaiah, which contains as follows: "I am he that speaks; I am here as an hour upon the mountains, as one bringing glad tidings of good things, that I may perform your salvation, saying: O Zion, your God shall reign." And may we obtain...