- A [the soul] leads it away from the fellowship of God, and inclines it downward to the earth, and, as I think, to earthly anxieties; and thus it attempts to command that which is by nature more excellent, and so much more excellent, as that which is immortal is more excellent than that which is mortal. Moreover, the desire of fulfilling its own will, or of acquiring knowledge, draws it thither, and tends toward it, so that it wishes to know certain things: but since it does not have a right and safe guide for the way, or uses the company of wicked men, it wanders, and remains in doubt, and at length, whatever opinion it happens to have arrived at, it inconsiderately embraces: and thus it becomes exceedingly miserable and wretched; for while it hunts for good knowledge, and thinks it has found it, it falls into wicked opinions and is depraved.
For that we are all so constituted by nature that we seek knowledge, is shown, as Aristotle says, even B by the desire of the senses, which draws us to itself without any urgent necessity. Thus we wish to see something, or to do something at times, even if it is not at all necessary, but rather what is seen or done is harmful. That the sacred Scriptures have openly affirmed that these things are so, is declared by the divine writers, who have spoken thus. James, a man of illustrious memory, says: « This wisdom is not that which descends from above, but is earthly, animal, diabolical. » And he adds: « For the wisdom that is from above is first indeed pure, peaceable, equitable, docile, full of mercy and the fruits of good works, C not judging, free from simulation. » And besides, he calls those men double-minded who are rude and common, and have neither clean knowledge nor a stable choice or purpose of soul, while he writes this: « Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you, cleanse your hands, O sinners, and purify your hearts, O double-minded. » D Nay, even to those who have a *misoponeron* (that is, a hater of evil) mind, and are victors in virtue, from whom not even one of the precious things escapes, he discourses in such a way that he may ward off intemperance from such men, and that they may communicate other goods, which they themselves have, to others, in these very words: « Brothers, if any of you has wandered from the truth, and someone converts him, let him know that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins. »
A Likewise, Peter also, instructing us regarding the reason why the soul, while impassible, sometimes becomes full of passions, and mentioning our ruin as a kind of digression, wrote: "Abstain from fleshly desires, which war against the soul." And Solomon, the son of David, says: "As the faces of men are not alike, so neither are the hearts of men alike." Furthermore, those things which the great and invincible athlete Paul wrote also come to my mind, which he promulgated in this way: "The animal man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him," and again: "But the spiritual man judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no one."
B But, as I was saying, this faculty of will and choice, and the body, are often prone to drag the soul down and incline it to passions; yet sometimes they convey no small quantity of good things to the soul itself: the body, the knowledge of things sensible and other service which it provides to the soul; and the choice of the soul, the blessedness which is derived from sound counsel and orthodoxy. And conversely, if the soul has lived rightly with the body, and keeps it obedient and subject to itself, and turns toward God and is filled with His thoughts, it bestows more numerous and more august things upon it. For as for the earthly part, it strives to render it as if devoid of passion, adorning it with sweat, and endurance, and all the labors which it sustains for the sake of virtue, and governing and moderating it, and through the experience of sorrows and pains which it undergoes, C rousing it toward a religious and pious life, and, as it were, lifting it upward. It keeps its own choice subject to itself, preserves an unblemished faith, and raises man above man, rendering him venerable by faith and doctrine, and inclining toward supplication of the Trinity, and making the help which it receives from these things its own food. For if we rightly estimate the soul, it can be adorned and nourished by nothing else but by doctrine and faith. For to man, both of these are food, the one from agriculture, the other from words and faith; but the one provides for the body both to be and to endure, while the other provides to souls to excel others, and through faith and words the whole of the rest of life is brought to maturity. D It is possible for one who investigates this with the mind to see that these things cannot be otherwise, as immediately upon such a one the Son, who has ascended above all things, shines and assists.
A The Word of God, who neglects no one, not even those who despise Him, has implanted the Word—the most precious of all things—in every soul into which, through his own breathing, He has invited the Holy Spirit to dwell. Therefore, it has also been wondrously said by those outside in the end of a certain verse: "Everywhere there is man, there also is the Word." B But these things are so. The heretics, however, breathing nothing but what is unclean, paying no heed to the sublime testimonies and the magnificent gifts and works brought forth concerning the Redeemer, God the Word, the Creator of all things, apply to His divinity those places of Scripture which were spoken concerning His supremely ineffable and supremely immutable, gracious Incarnation, and which seem to them humble and unbecoming. And, through these very things—by which they ought to perceive the glory of God and celebrate all the more His kindness toward men—they are found to be far removed from the truth, and they proceed to offer insults to their Benefactor and Savior. Nor do they endeavor to appease Him as a Judge, but on the contrary, they strive to show Him to be, as a created being, subject to judgment even now, after His ascent into heaven and His sitting at the right hand of His own Father, to be honored with equal honor. Furthermore, they frequently present—without examination, and as if they were against Him or pronounced by Him—things which were not spoken about the Son or by Him, or things that were written with a hidden and enigmatic meaning, and they make of them the most twisted and feeble interpretation. C They show themselves to be no different from irrational animals toward this most desirable Lord, who leads those who believe, without violence, into the one, indivisible kingdom of the Father, and Himself, and the Holy Spirit, and who, out of His indulgence toward us, exhorts us: "Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding." For the irrational animals, He says, whose soul is blood from matter, according to him who says in Genesis: "The blood of him is the soul of him," incline always toward the earth, serving only the belly, and they have not risen in body and mind like man, who perceives the things on earth, looks upon the things on high, and hastens toward the supernal, most serene, and most impassible state, D and who reckons that he is but a guest in the world, as in a public inn, preparing himself daily to depart wisely from this life; and therefore the wise man is simple in faith and intent. For it is clear to everyone that truth, which is born with simplicity, is always mightier than all artifice through words and in words. Technical arguments, however, in which those who are heretics in theological theory abound—as even the Greeks do—appear to disturb and be disturbed.
A For they call Him God, and Lord, and Son, but they no longer say that He is God and Lord uncreated, without beginning, possessed of independent power, and equal to God the Father; nor do they say that He is the only-begotten Son, [148 α] consubstantial with Him who begat Him. And these things, while they clarify and show forth the equal honor and equal power of the holy Trinity in His divine dogma concerning baptism, and in many other things, as has been said—yet, in a way, agreeing with the Greeks, they introduce and conceive of differences and lowerings of essence and glory, according to their own new ideas, regarding the three divine and consubstantial hypostases, concerning both the Son and the Holy Spirit of God.
These things even the wretched and abominable demons, who through the perversity of their own will have been revealed as useless and malice-loving creatures, shudder to hear, let alone to speak. B Indeed, the arguments containing the theology have been sufficiently worked out, there already being many thousands of other proofs, which have not been mentioned, so that those who encounter them might not be discouraged by their number, nor might the writer appear long-winded and talkative. For if “the word of truth is simple,” as the acclaimed among the Greeks say—and for this reason Truth could rightly be the name of the Divine alone—it is clear that the discourse concerning the Word of God must also be simple and devoid of any perverse complexity. But in order that the divine pronouncements may be easily surveyed for the sake of the heretical problems to be discussed now, come, let us weave together our discourse in a partial and summary recapitulation, even if we are bound to repeat the same things; nonetheless, this is for the sake of what is useful and so that, as far as possible, the things concerning them may be grasped by everyone from every side. [148 b] For those who intend to construct a building also first collect the suitable materials, laying them aside, and then place them near each place where work is to be done, so that each of those employed in the labor may have them before their eyes and ready to hand, and thus they begin the task. And having again entrusted the whole to God, who stills the waves and grants a calm voyage and succeeds in all things—by whose grace (which He is accustomed to grant even to the sinful and narrow-minded—my own self, I mean) I have come to this...
desire of mine, proceeding to what follows, believing that, before I speak, I shall receive grace together with the children whom He has given me, and the children of the children, for whom we live and labor, and furthermore together with all whom He knows. For it is His golden oracle: A "All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, ye shall receive," and, "Open thy mouth, and I will fill it," and, "It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of my Father which speaketh in you." Concerning whom, and from whom, even those outside B—having been deemed worthy of a sense of Him—say: "God, the fabricator of all things, also implants grace in the singer." For, in truth, the intelligence of man is not sufficient of itself to say anything concerning God, unless it has received divine aid and power; just as Diagoras the Melian somewhere also said: "God, before every mortal work, directs the mind over all things, guiding even the gifts that are appropriate for a guest."
[785] A A human work 18 moves the most sublime human intellect 19; but he who has learned by himself, with nature herself as a guide and without instruction, proceeds happily 20, creating, as it were, a secret passage—a shortcut 21. From there, indeed, I shall begin, where it is right to commence.
Chapter II.
A B I. If, therefore, Scripture cannot lie (and it is altogether incapable of lying), saying that God the Word is true God and true Son of God, as it is in many places, and as the Father says: "This is my beloved Son"; and as John writes: "And we are in the true Son of God, Jesus Christ; this is the true God and eternal life"; and as Jeremiah prophesies: "The gods who did not make the heaven and the earth, let them perish from the earth. The Lord, however, who made the heavens with C intelligence, he is the living and true God"—it is evident, of course, that He is by nature and properly uncreated God, and without beginning, and in all things unchangeable and identical to God the Father. For neither is a cause found for true God by nature, nor is true God said to be made, nor is true Son considered to be of a different substance. And the fact that it says: "This is my Son," and "This is the true God," excludes the possibility of seeking another genuine Son or true God. And further: If He is true God and Son, according to the generation above, He has a Father, but He has no God; D while according to the birth below, He has a God, though He does not have a Father...
[alt-version omitted]
A Thus, that he might not tread an impassable path—one which is in every way inaccessible to all creatures—and a path no different from that of a man, even the outsiders declared in this manner: "Rightly worship and revere God, but do not seek Him out." And again: "Immortal is God, ever-ageless, unshaken, Ineffable in hidden counsels, self-originated, Begetting himself, ever young, uncreated. He is the begetter of truth, himself wise and true."
And Pindar, too, calling God faith-worthy and true, spoke thus: "But the race of God is ever faithful."
For if He is the begetter of truth, He could not be grasped by the human mind unless it were filled by His truth, and ignited a light from it for itself as a guide in its investigations.
B II. If God is one, as Moses teaches, saying, "Hear, Israel: The Lord thy God is one Lord," and the Son is proclaimed as only-begotten God and one Lord Jesus Christ, it follows that He is in every way consubstantial and of the same dignity and majesty with God the Father; and while in substance they are one and another, in deity and concord they are one. For this is what the expression "One God" signifies. Indeed, we find that the Greeks, too, under an inscrutable necessity and unwillingly driven toward the truth, have used in this matter the same expressions as we ourselves, consenting to us and openly exclaiming in their own writings after this manner: "One God is He; He is the supreme King of all, And He is the primary begetter, and the root, and the beginning."
C III. If the name of God is always "Father," and that of the Son is "Son" and "Only-begotten," He is a natural and true Son, and eternal, and not a son as we are; for the Only-begotten to the Father has no
brother with whom He might have a common father; nor is he called a father who has not yet begotten. A
IV. If the Son is rightly called the Word of God, He therefore coexists with the One who begat Him, being proper to His nature, and begotten impassibly and without beginning. For the Father cannot be conceived of without His own subsisting Word; nor is the Word created, but begotten impassibly. Similarly, if the Son is justly inscribed in the Scriptures as the Word and Wisdom of God, and all things came to be through Him, then He was not created from the Word of God, but was begotten from His womb. For the Word of God is one; and in what other word could He have been created? These things even the select among the Greeks proclaim: For the generations of God beget ineffable things. And He is above every passion and nature. B
V. If the Son, as has been shown, is the very eternal life and true light, He did not begin to be and to live. And similarly, if the Father is also these same things, the Son does not differ from Him in any respect, not even in thought.
VI. If the Son is said to be the power and wisdom of God, He is coeternal with the One who begat Him; for there never was a time when the Father existed without these, nor is it fitting to say that, not having them, He subsequently acquired anything whatsoever. And those who have learned something from the wisdom of those outside, not seeing any second form or second time—if it is lawful to speak in this way—in the existence of the Godhead, spoke according to their own powers thus: God Himself, immortal, bears all things; He Himself C Is both His own begetter, and root, and end, and son.
VII. If He saves equally as the Father, inasmuch as He is Savior, and furthermore if He makes wise, declares the truth, justifies, sanctifies; and if all things whatsoever the Father does, these also the Son does in like manner, He does not appear dissimilar to Him.
VIII. If the Only-begotten is, as Paul writes to the Hebrews, the brightness of the glory and the character of the essence of the formless, invisible, and eternal God, and is His image; and if He Himself speaks the truth when He says, "He who has seen me has seen the Father," and, "I and the Father are one," He is surely consubstantial, and coeternal, and equal, and in all respects like to God the Father, and in nothing differing from Him. For light from light is not begotten as of a different essence, nor later; and the character of the essence denotes the identity and an unchangeable nature, and glory, and power; and the rational image signifies equality and likeness; and he who looks at a creature does not see the Uncreated. D For He said that the subsistences are in the Godhead, and in a unity of essence has distinguished them according to the persons.
A
IX. If God and Father is immutable, He did not beget later, nor with passion, but as light begets radiance impassibly and continuously; for He is incorporeal. The wise men of the heathens also, as far as their frailty allowed, believed this:
For not from labor of birth did the immortal God, nor from bosom Of the womb, see the light through a midwife; but by the mind’s Ineffable turning, revolving in Himself, self-born He becomes, being Himself from Himself both begetter and Son.
X. If every creature is mutable, and the Only-Begotten is immutable, He is therefore not a creature.
XI. If a creature does not know the Father, except through whatever things the Son has revealed to it, but the Son knows the Father without anyone revealing it to Him, the Son Himself is not created, but begotten. B
XII. If the Scriptures know the Son to be equal to the Father: for Paul writes, "Who, did not think it a robbery to be equal to God," and, "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead;" and the evangelist testifies that the Son "made Himself equal to God;" and if Jeremiah speaks of Him as "God, beside whom no other shall be reckoned;" and Isaiah as "God, mighty, ruler"—how do heretics think Him to be posterior or inferior, and not in all respects equal to the Father?
XIII. If Paul considers the saving preaching, by which Christ and the Holy Spirit are preached, to be more excellent than the old law because it contains perfection, as was shown in the thirtieth argument, it must be said absolutely and entirely that the Son and the Spirit are in no respect whatsoever less or inferior to God and the Father. C
XIV. If those who believe in the Son have no need to fear that they will be accused of worshipping a creature, and this passage is a guarantor that they escape this charge, then he even calls those who existed before this, apart from this, atheists. D
XV. If the Jews, who did not believe in Christ when he made himself equal to God and for that reason crucified him, were condemned, while Christians who have believed in him have been raised above them, then the Son is in no respect less than his own Father.
B XVI. If it is fitting for God alone in an eminent and excellent sense to be called and proclaimed "great God"—and Paul indeed cries out, "Of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ"—and David, "Who is like to thee among the gods, O Lord?"—then the Father is certainly not more excellent than the Son, nor is the Son incomparable in relation to him.
XVII. If the same Paul does not count him among the created gods, but equates and places him with the Father, writing to the Corinthians, "For even if there are so-called gods, many in heaven and on earth; yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things," then he is not to be placed among creatures, but is to be glorified with the Father.
XVIII. If the Son is the creator of all things, and of the ages themselves, as it is written, he existed before every operation; and he who existed before every operation was not created. For nothing pre-eternal, or prior to operation, is conceived of as created, but only the unbegotten Trinity in unity. And otherwise: If he is the creator of all things that exist, he is not created, as those things are; for in no way can or ought the Creator to be similar to creatures; C nor, moreover, can a creature, by creating, give existence, or make anyone a participant of reason.
XIX. If "in the beginning God was with God," he himself has no other beginning, being more ancient than every beginning. For otherwise it would be absolutely necessary to assign a beginning even to the Father. "For he was," he says, "in the beginning God with God." But there is no beginning to the one Godhead that exists in the beginning.
XX. If no mind can comprehend how a Virgin gave birth without emission, remaining a virgin again, how much more incomprehensible is it how the self-existent God and Father, from eternity, and without passion, from his whole self, begat the Son, wholy and perfectly equal to himself?
XXI. If the Son himself, having formed us, made us possessed of free will, having established judgment for good and bad deeds, how does he himself not have this, which he gave to us? He, I say, who according to the prophecy is God strong, a ruler.
XXII. If Peter is worthy of faith in the Acts, crying out:
A “To him all the prophets bear witness, that through his name every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins,” then this name, “God” and “only-begotten Son of God,” truly and properly belongs to him. For if such a name were attributed to him falsely and improperly, it could profit him nothing.
XXIII. If the God who is free from lies (who, as the holy Psalmist says, destroys those who speak lies) speaks the truth, when he says in the Theologian: “All that the Father has is mine,” and, “Mine are thine, and thine are mine,” then he is indeed an eternal God and Lord, whose kingdom has no end, and he is everything that the Father is, having received nothing new from him according to the divine nature, but only according to the form of a servant subsequently assumed. And now let us hear what even the Greeks have declared, both concerning the eternal truth that rules above, and concerning the lack of truth below:
The mind of the great God is free from lying; but among mortals B it brings hardships and misfortunes upon those who lie.
XXIV. If he has been established as heir of all things, he is not a servant, but a genuine Son. And if he is not a servant, but a Son, he is an eternal God. For in the first place, a son is begotten, not created; and in the second place, it is written concerning those things which are created and exist in time: “All things are thy servants” (or, they serve thee).
XXV. If Paul said of the Father as a great thing (for it is truly great and peculiar to God alone): “Who is over all, and through all, and in all,” and if the same Apostle wrote equal things of the Son—namely: “Of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed for ever. Amen” —and likewise the evangelist, when he says: “He who comes from above is above all,” then the Son differs in no respect from the Father, nor is he inferior to him. It is worth our while, then, to examine how piously the theologians of the Greeks hold these matters, who have heard many things, have read not a few, and have seen a very great number. For they say:
All things are full of God; he is the end and the beginning of all things: Bearing all things, and dissolving them, and from them again increasing them.
XXVI. If they say that Scripture says the creation is the Son’s own (for they say: “He came unto his own”); and again: “Mine C are... [the sheep listen to my voice,” and to Peter: “I will give you the keys of the king…
heaven,” but it does not belong to a creature to have any of God’s creations as its own, nor to confer the power of opening the heavens, or to say this without peril; he is joint-sovereign with his omnipotent Father. A
XXVII. If the immortal is not superior to God the Word, and if neither God nor inanimate flesh has need of food or sleep, then the ineffable Incarnation did not take place without a soul; nor, furthermore, should agony, the appetite for food, sleep, and the like be attributed to the Deity.
XXVIII. If, as the Scriptures testify, he sits at the right hand with the Father as true and equal God, and as his only-begotten Son; and he sits upon the same throne, possessing an indivisible and infinite kingdom, and receives equal adoration and glory with the Father, both he himself and the Spirit of God. For how would it be possible, when the Trinity is present on one throne, for [the Son] to be worshiped alone before the one eternal throne, while the ritual of worship [is performed] B toward the east, and glory is offered up? For that where the Father is, there also is his Spirit, present seated with him and worshiped together with him, as belonging to the nature that is mistress of all, is proclaimed by many [Scriptural] oracles, and especially by that which says: “In this we know that God is in us, by his Spirit, which the Son gave to us.” For our own spirit is not meant here; for having already possessed this, we received the holy Spirit of God. C
XXIX. If this is the will of the Father, that “all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father,” he possesses equal glory and the same property with the Father; and they act impiously who either alter the words of glorification or imagine that he is in any respect different from the Father.
XXX. If the Son is worshiped by the angels, how is he not also to be worshiped by men? But if he is worshiped, he is no creature. D
For it is divinely ordained not to worship gods, since they are creatures. A XXXI. If God the Father is in the Son, and the Son is likewise in the Father in equal measure, and the Spirit of God remains with him, as has been shown: the Trinity exists as equal and similar; and no one is able to have, to worship, or to glorify the Father, without equally having the Son and his Spirit, and equally worshiping and glorifying them.
XXXII. If the Son and the Holy Spirit set forth laws and liberate us from sins and from death: "For the law," he says, "of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death," as Paul cries out; these hypostases are of the first and one omnipotent and life-giving nature. For a creature cannot do these things of itself.
XXXIII. If the Son is rightly called Savior by Scripture, and the Holy Spirit is the bestower of salvation, he is immutable; and if immutable, then both the Son and the Spirit are uncreated. For he who is subject to change cannot save those who have gone astray, inasmuch as he is a creature and not impeccable. C XXXIV. If we creatures are adopted as sons by the Son, just as those who delivered the mysteries to us testify—Paul indeed saying: "Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father"; and John: "But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become children of God"—these hypostases are by no means absent from the true divinity. For how could the Son be adopted into sonship in himself, or through himself, or in his own Spirit?
XXXV. If Paul says that the Holy Spirit is the "Spirit of God," just as we have our own spirit, and if God likewise calls him "his Spirit," he is impious who does not call him God, coeternal and consubstantial with the Father. For there never was a time when God was without his Spirit, nor is it permissible to think that he came to him later, or from without, or that the Spirit of the Uncreated is a created spirit. But furthermore, he ascends with him above the cherubic throne, and is worshiped and glorified together with him, as was said before, inasmuch as he is a Spirit inseparable from him.
XXXVI. If a creature is capable of receiving holiness, wisdom, goodness, and every perfect virtue—for it is mutable—but the Holy Spirit is not D receptive of these, but rather the bestower of them (for he is immutable); therefore he is the Creator,
and not a creature in existence, according to the things aforementioned.
A XXXVII. If a creature possesses knowledge that it takes up and casts off, but the Spirit neither acquired knowledge from without, nor is he of a nature to cast it off, but rather reveals the things of the wisdom and knowledge of God, and exists according to essence as of the Father: the Spirit is therefore not a creature. Let us hear also the thoughts of the Greeks concerning this matter, which are as follows:
XXXVIII. If a servant does not know what his master does, but the Spirit knows the things of God, according to the Apostle—he is not distinguished from God himself by nature and harmony, but is confessedly God and Lord, having equal knowledge with God: a thing which it is impossible and inconceivable to be in the case of any creature.
B XXXIX. If the Scriptures know this to be one and only, as [they do] the only-begotten Son: it is not a creature, such as the multitude of spirits, but belongs to the unity of the divine essence. Wherefore it alone, properly and strictly, both is and is called Holy Spirit, and Spirit of the Father, and Spirit of God, and Spirit that is from God, and Spirit that proceeds from the Father; and from the fact that he is in all, as God is, we know that God is in us.
XL. If the Trinity is witnessed to in the Scriptures as equally truth, and goodness, and holy: it is in one deity, having nothing divided. For the divine truth, and goodness, and holiness is one and immutable. C For a creature both possesses these by participation, and is changed concerning them according to its own will, now speaking the truth, and at another time lying, and now becoming good, and at another time becoming evil. It is evident that the wise men of those outside have said the following concerning this:
For such is the mind of earthly men, As...
XLI. If, as it is written, the Holy Spirit renews us in baptism, and frees us from sin and death, and we are his temple, likewise [as] of God the Father: therefore, as Creator and co-worker with the Creator, he re-creates; and as Lord, he frees; and as God, he dwells within. But he who is these things cannot be a creature in the likeness of other creatures; nor is it lawful to say this, D or even to hear one who says this by remaining silent.
XLII. If, together with God the Father and his Son, the Holy Spirit through baptism re-forms us into our first image, and through participation in him is the cause for us of adoption as sons and of becoming gods; and—
how is he himself not the true God?
A XLIII. If none of the creatures is mentioned together with God the Father in the history of creation, or in glorification, or in baptism, but the Spirit is mentioned, he is therefore God, equal in honor and equal in power to the Father and the Only-Begotten.
XLIV. If it is testified in Scripture that he sent the prophets and apostles with his own authority, in the likeness of the Father and the Son, he has done these things as a God who is in all things in agreement with the Father, and as one who has foreknowledge and is the Lord of creation.
XLV. If what has been said in the Scriptures concerning the Father or the Son B is elsewhere written of the Holy Spirit, it is utterly impossible and inconceivable that he should not be of the same perfect divinity, will, and glory as the Father and the Son, without any discrepancy. For things that are equal to the same thing, as they say, are also equal to each other.
XLVI. If none of the heavenly powers can grant heavenly gifts, but the Spirit of God grants them by his own authority, which it belongs only to the divine nature to grant, then he is an all-sufficient God, and he is a sovereign, and he is the ruler over those in heaven, and he happens to be consubstantial with the Father and the Son.
XLVII. If no invisible or visible substance is called God or truth in simple Scripture, C except the Father, and his Holy Spirit, and the Only-Begotten, it is undoubted that he belongs to the unity of the divine and supersubstantial essence.
XLVIII. If the powers of the heavens, which are the greatest and most luminous of all creatures, are in the Spirit of God, it cannot be that he is a creature, but he is a fellow-worker of the Creator and works equally with him.
XLIX. If he fills the world and contains all things, as Wisdom says, he is indeed of the one supreme, august, and incomprehensible, and inaccessible, and intangible, and formless essence, and is Creator; and he is not circumscribed by place, but he himself D encompasses this whole universe.
L. If Scripture does not distinguish nature in the Trinity, nor is a first, second, and third nature distinguished within it, what argument can the heretics bring against those who believe the Trinity to be essentially one, but distinguished in the properties of the hypostases?
LI. If the book of Job shows the devil to be the first creature, the Spirit is not a creature, but belongs to the unity of the essence. For they would not say that the devil was created before him, and that he [the devil] had at some time attained a more excellent rank, while the divine Spirit held an inferior one.
LII. If, just as the Passover was celebrated from the beginning even by the Jews for the glory and worship of God...
...celebrated, and so too the Pentecost of the Holy Spirit: how is the God who is to be remembered with eternal praises not coeternal with Him? A
LIII. If the oracles of the Scriptures commemorate the signet imprinted by the Father and by the Son, in the same way they also commemorate the signet by which we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit: the Spirit is not to be numbered among creatures, but equal honor and thanksgiving are due to Him. For we do not receive the seal of a creature along with that of God, nor does God accept the seal of a creature along with His own, as if He were otherwise unable to save.
LIV. If every blasphemy is forgiven to men, but blasphemy against the Spirit of God is unforgivable, then the Spirit is not a lesser God. For it is blasphemy not to call Him God; indeed, that blasphemy redounds also upon the Almighty, whose breath He is.
LV. If heretics do not transgress but observe the commandment of the Father, who says, "This (88) is my beloved Son: hear him," as well as the tradition which the Son delivered concerning baptism, why do they not confess the Trinity to be inseparable in nature, and equally to be honored and equally powerful, and why do they not glorify it with equal honor? For there is one name—that is, the name of the one deity—but He taught three hypostases, having preserved for each the equality of honor.
CAP. III.
Atque hæc quidem ut a nobis demonstrata supponantur. The first and most B impious and absurd (89) objection of the heretics is drawn from that which is written in the Proverb (90) of Solomon: "The Lord (91) created me the beginning of his ways for his works; before the age he founded me; in the beginning before he made the earth, and before he made the abysses, before the fountains of waters came (92), before the mountains were settled (93): and before all the hills he begets me." C For by this problem they endeavor to demonstrate that He who is Creator and dispenser of benefits is a creature. But the genuine sense of this oracle is also superior and more probable than their interpretation and goal. For if all the chapters and arguments that were brought forward previously, and which were set down and enumerated in the first discourse, are true (as indeed they are) and such as to extort assent, having received the most manifest testimony from the divine oracles; how is it not among the most unholy and most impossible things to interpret in such a way the divine matters D that are revealed through concealment; is it not therefore manifest...
A that this is not spoken in Proverbs by Solomon concerning the Wisdom which is the cause of all things and the Creator—I mean the great God the Word, who is over all, and whom this text cannot indicate? For he was not so bold-hearted and arrogant against God—who even after such great sins forgave and sympathized with him, as he does always to all, and to him—that he would have been such. Indeed, if there is any sense B or perception, as surely there is, of those things which happen here, or which are spoken of by the heterodox, I believe that even before the appointed and everlasting day, he would contradict them, and accuse them, and stand against them, teaching that such a thought concerning Him had never entered his mind. For he says he knew Him, as one who sought wisdom above kingship, and attained it, and received the kingship as an addition; and, indeed, he had heard from his father David that the Lord, as vivifying and Life, did not begin to be in accordance with the generation from above; and as Life-giving and eternal Light, co-existing and consubstantial, shining forth from the paternal Light, He was not illuminated by another. But rather, he spoke the word concerning worldly wisdom—that in rhetoric, that in generalship, that in medicine, that in architecture, and simply that which is found in all wonder-working knowledge by all wise men. For, in truth, if one wishes with soberness and piety to examine C the things preceding and following, "The Lord created me," he shall quickly, and immediately, and directly find the strong refutation. For he set forth before: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; and good understanding to all who do it," and again: "By me kings reign, and rulers write justice; by me, the great are magnified, and tyrants by me rule the earth."
Didymus. He makes the listener attentive; for these are not the words of a private, or ordinary, person. For when teaching moral matters, he says "Proverbs of Solomon," but when delivering physical matters, he no longer says "of Solomon," but "of the Ecclesiastes." For it is not as Solomon simply, and as a man, but as a wise man and a minister of God, that he brings these forward. It is, therefore, possible to hear him saying: "My words have been spoken by God, just as those of the apostles and D prophets."
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"Appointed day" — the appointed day is the one designated for some certain thing, a day appointed.
BOOK THREE OF DE TRINITATE
If anyone should wish to consider prudently and piously what precedes and follows the text, "The Lord created me,” he will find quickly—or rather, immediately—in that same place many things by which heretics can be refuted. For Solomon had previously set forth these words: “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and good understanding belongs to all who perform it”; and again: “Through me kings reign, and sovereigns write justice; through me the great ones are magnified, and rulers by me govern the earth.”
A For without wisdom, he says—that is, without the prudence, counsel, and abundance of knowledge and teaching which is communicated to us from above—no one performs any duty in life correctly. For when a person lacks this wisdom, many things and excellent thoughts escape him; but the person who has attained it, both fears God as he should, does things pleasing to Him, and imposes laws upon man, and thus subjects him to himself, and acquires many things for himself. And he is not only delighted himself while he speaks and acts, but he also renders prudent those who hear him or learn his works.
In what follows, Solomon himself has set these things forth in a scattered manner: “The Lord made uninhabited regions, and the inhabited extremities of that which is under heaven. When He was preparing the heaven, I was present with Him; when He was setting apart His own throne upon the winds; when He was making the strong clouds above; and when He was securely placing the fountains under heaven, at the time He set for the sea its boundary.”
B Now, He who made the earth out of nothing, and who skillfully fashioned the circular spheres of the heavens out of nothing, and the sun, which completes its swift courses and shines everywhere in heaven and on earth, and who simply brought all things into being by His Word, is the Only-begotten Son, the Word of God, who has been celebrated and called the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. And as such, He exists from His unoriginate and true Father, having no beginning, as John teaches when he says: “All things were made through Him.” And Paul, writing to the Hebrews, says concerning the Son: “Your throne, O God, is for the age of the age.” And among other things, he says: “And You, O Lord, at the beginning didst found the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands.”
C So this person who said all these things in Proverbs is someone other than that Wisdom—that is, the Son—who says, “The Lord created me,” and is not the same. He adds thereafter: “And waters shall not pass by His mouth.” Therefore, in as much as Wisdom was created, as He said, He explains it in such a way as to show that He is speaking about the intelligible mouth of the Creator, namely, the Word of God.
And again: “When He was making the strong foundations of the earth, I was with Him, fitting them in; I was the one in whom He delighted day by day; and I was rejoicing in His presence at every time; when He was rejoicing after having finished the habitable world, and was rejoicing in the sons of men.” For the Creator, the Son, the Word, who foreknew all things and has power over all things, long-suffering... D
even toward those who are wicked and think perversely, A and waiting for their repentance, having completed all things, rejoiced in the wisdom existing within His creatures, and was delighted in it, exulting in His own work; but it too was rejoicing before His face. Then, after other things, He says: “But my issues are in the ways of life, and a will is prepared by the Lord. But those who sin against me shall act impiously against their own souls; and those who hate me shall love death.”
And with good reason does He speak thus. For those who do not steer their own lives with Wisdom as their guide lie in wait for themselves, and B they find death, the reward appropriate to their own folly and lack of instruction. But that everyone—even the blind, as the saying goes—may see that our interpretation is correct and sound, and may not be able to doubt this matter, the created Wisdom says regarding Him of whom John said, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”: “Wisdom built herself a house, and set up seven pillars.” Regarding this house, the same Master said: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” But to show even more clearly that Solomon is not speaking of the Creator Wisdom, he proceeds in what follows to discourse thus: “My son, if you become wise, C you shall be wise for yourself and for your neighbors; but if you turn out evil, you alone shall drain the dregs of evils.” And again: “A disciplined son shall be wise, but he will use the foolish as a servant”; and again: “The wise in heart receives commandments”; and: “This man brings forth wisdom from his lips. Strike a foolish man with a rod: the wise will hide their perception”; and again: “Wisdom brings forth prudence for a man”; and again: “The mouth of the righteous distills wisdom”; and: “The tongues of the wise heal”; and: “He who walks with the wise shall be wise”; then next: “You shall seek wisdom among the wicked, and you shall not find it”; and after other things: “The wisdom D of the crafty will discern the ways; the fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom”; and again: “To the young, more choiceworthy than gold; and the nests of prudence are above...
silver.” If the creative Wisdom said these words, as those heretics desire, who endeavor to shake the very head of the Christian faith, or rather, as far as lies in their power, take away and overturn the whole faith: how shall we interpret them? Or whose offspring are we to think them to be of this Wisdom? And again: “He who is in need of mind does not have the use of wisdom”; and again: “The ornament of the young is wisdom”; and again: “The generation of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.” What kind of generation will they say the Creator has here, if He Himself spoke thus concerning Himself: “The Lord created me”? And in the following passages He says: “With wisdom a house is built, and with intelligence it is set upright.” Then: “A wise man is better than a strong one.” B
All these things, then, are said concerning the wisdom that is in the world. For when He makes mention, in these very same Proverbs, of the wisdom of God the Father, and of the only-begotten and true Son, the Word, being carried away beyond measure by admiration, and as if struck with astonishment, He speaks thus: “God has taught me wisdom, and I have known the knowledge of the holy ones; and I understand holy things. Who has ascended into heaven, and descended? Who has gathered the winds in His bosom? Who has wrapt up all the water in a garment? Who has held sway over all the extremities of the earth? What is His name? Or what is the name of His Son, that you might know?” And as for the possessing, “Before all the hills He begets me,” He speaks as of the created wisdom that is in us, because it has been generated creatively, and, so to speak, is brought forth together with every wise person with every wise person. For the Son of God was begotten, subsisting together with the Begetter, as the Word, and radiance, and the character of His substance; but He is not generated further. And not these things only, but the book is also named "Proverbs," not because it always signifies that which is apparent, but because it signifies one thing C through another matter or person, and because Solomon [159 a] is an utterer of proverbs, but not a prophet; D
Regarding this wisdom, I mean that which is in the creature, the most wise son of Sirach says: B "Prior to all things wisdom was created, and the understanding of prudence from eternity." And he adds to this: "With the faithful in the womb it was created together with them, and with men it built a foundation of eternity." The Apostle also wrote to the Corinthians in the first epistle in this manner: "For since," he says, "in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who believe." And, "God made foolish the wisdom of the world." Furthermore, Job also makes mention of it: "But wisdom, whence has it been found? And what is the place of prudence?" And elsewhere: "The wisdom of the poor man is held in contempt." And, "He is the corrector of wisdom." Some have deemed that the Creator spoke from the persona of the created wisdom the words, "The Lord created me," for the Founder and Savior of all, often assuming the persona of creatures, speaks; as when he says, from the persona of the Church once persecuted by Paul: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" and to those who had done good deeds: "I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink," and other things of this sort.
C For being brilliant with his own kindness, and being whole goodness, and, as the apostle Jude said, the only Master, he spares all, and claims for his own the sins which anyone has committed against the works of his hands. Yet we shall find other things said in a human manner concerning the incomprehensible God; as when it is written parabolically: "A certain man was a householder," and again: "A certain man was one having a vineyard," and as when he likens the heavenly kingdom to a grain of mustard seed or to seed. If it were even to be conceded that Solomon did not speak from the persona of the wisdom which is in us, still his words should be understood as having been spoken from the persona and respect of the wise and incomprehensible Incarnation, but in no way concerning the eternal and invisible nature of the only-begotten God. For he did not say without an addition, "he created me," but he added, "for his works," just as if he were saying: "He created me, D when I came to men, who are his works, or when I dwelt among them having become flesh." For he who is, and who pre-exists, and who, not for his own sake but for the sake of others, became [that which] he was, he is also the guide of wisdom, and the corrector of the wise.
A For can one understand how he [became] those for whom and by whom he was made? Since those, on the other hand, are found in a certain way to be that which he, having become for their sake, is according to them. Therefore, being in the form of God, he took the form of a servant; and we were made according to the image of him who created us, as Paul taught. Is it perhaps the case that he used the word “created” in this place instead of “appointed” or “ordered,” when he was at once upon the cherubim and in the manger, as he foretold, riddlingly declaring the things concerning his incarnation: “I, however, was appointed king by him upon Sion, his holy mountain”; or as the Hymn-writer psalms: “The Lord reigned; he clothed himself with majesty,” even though he pre-existed from eternity as King of kings, possessing an incomprehensible majesty. Moreover, he did not say, “in the beginning” or “before the beginning of his ways,” but “the beginning of his ways.” B Thus, again, the beginning of his incarnation is declared, and not the nature of his unoriginate divinity. For when men had lost the way that leads to God, he himself became for us, in the economy, a new and living way; and in the same way that, because of the economy in the flesh, he said, “I am the way,” and again, “No one comes to the Father except through me,” that is, through faith in my incarnation—for the sake of this he also said, “The Lord created me [as] the beginning of his ways.” For he was born from the hypostasis of the Father, without beginning, ineffably; but from the undefiled Virgin, insofar as he foreknew all things as God, and insofar as he predestined the economy before the ages (as Paul writes to the Colossians: “This mystery, which was hidden before the ages and from the generations, has now been manifested to his saints”; and Peter in his first Epistle concerning Christ: “Foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but manifested in the last times”), yet in the reality itself he was born when he appeared and shone from on high upon those who once sat in darkness and the shadow of death; C when he was called, parabolically, a stone; when he was made the beginning of ways and our foundation; to which foundation and stone the Scriptures bear witness thus: Paul indeed, writing to the Corinthians first, [says]: “For no one can lay any foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” And he received the beginning of this designation, that he be called Christ Jesus, in his incarnation. Wherefore in Luke the angel makes his D naming as if for the future, saying to the Virgin: “You shall have a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest”; and after other things: “Wherefore also the [child] being born
holy, shall be called the Son of God.” But Peter and Paul to the Romans write: “Behold I lay in Sion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal; and whoever believes in Him shall not be put to shame.” And the Acts of the Apostles: “This,” he says, “is the stone which was rejected by you the builders, which has become the head of the corner, and salvation is in no other.”
B Observe how, if there is not one Godhead and power of the Holy Trinity, there is no salvation even with the Father (may the Holy Trinity be propitious to us). And indeed, Daniel also saw a stone cut out of a mountain without hands (which is He who was born of Mary without seed and the working of a man), and breaking in pieces the image, that is, the world, on account of the grossness of the mind and the luxury in which it lived. But why do we marvel if the business of salvation was accomplished in a certain way, which can be reached neither by words nor by mind, by Divine foreknowledge before the ages, when the Apostle also, writing to the Ephesians, says that we too were created and saved by this ineffable foreknowledge and power before the ages: “He chose us for himself before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love, having predestined us unto the adoption of children”; and to Timothy: “According to the power of God, who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the times of the ages, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
For the omniscient and almighty Holy Spirit is wont to predict many things that are to happen as if they had already happened, and things that have happened as if they were still happening or to happen; most especially, however, He declared those things which pertain to the ineffable Incarnation as if they were past, before they came to pass: as when the Lord, not yet made flesh, says in the twenty-first Psalm: “They dug my hands and my feet”; and again: “They divided
cast lots for my vesture.” And in the cxvii: “The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: and it shall be A marvelous in our eyes.” And Isaiah: “To us a child is born.” He speaks of one not yet born. And again: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter”; and yet the Lamb was not yet born of Mary. And again: “We saw him, and he had no form nor comeliness.” And yet, after many generations, he was seen as such in his saving Passion. And elsewhere: “Your new moons, and your sabbaths, and your feasts, my soul hateth.” But he hated them long after, when he had been made man and had given us the New Testament. And things past are described as if they were present, as has been said, as when Scripture says: “Who maketh the Pleiades and Hesperus”; and, “Who maketh his angels spirits,” instead of, Who has made; and, “Who B foundeth the earth upon its stability,” that is, who has founded it.
Since these things are so, it is necessary to refer the adduced Proverb, if not to the wisdom that exists in our disciplines, then at least to the Lord’s sinless Incarnation; but by no means to the Word, the Son of the ineffable divine nature, by whom, and from whom, and in whom all things were created and adorned. For when he says, “The Lord created me,” and adds, “But before all the hills he begets me,” it is the same as if he were to say: “Since I was from him, and subsisted at the same time with him, he created me C afterwards, in so far as by his will I possessed a nature common with men, without change, however, and without sin, as I said a little before.” But before all the hills, the Father begat him impassibly, and without beginning, and ineffably; because the deity is above all things incorporeal. For that word “before,” especially when it is said of him, is indefinite; furthermore, the particle “but” also proves this. For if he created, how did he beget? And if he begat, how did he create? For one might call a creature the progeny of the Creator, as we have been called sons of the Highest; but that which is truly begotten or progeny will never be called D a creature of the begetter; for we do not know that this has been said by anyone up to this day. Whichever way we turn, therefore, we find that it is the wisdom residing in the best disciplines that he has called “created by the Lord,” so that it is even a violent interpretation to think that he who became conformed to humanity said this, because by the determination of divine foreknowledge he was made such before all creation. But he calls humanity “creature” in a secondary sense, just as he also calls the wisdom in the world, by which Paul says: “Be subject to every human creature for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as by him sent.”
A And indeed, if someone says, “He (whoever it may be) founded this, or has made a bishop, or the clergy, or an army,” he does not signify that some substance has been produced out of nothing, although he may use the ambiguous word “founded” or “made”; but he designates those who already existed, or that the preexisting matter was brought into a certain order or a certain condition. The Hymnodist also, regarding the heart which he already possessed, prayed as if it were still to be given to him, crying out: “Create a clean heart in me, O God.” And the most holy Paul, agreeing with this, writes things that are manifest: “If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; behold, old things have passed away, all things have become new,” not in the sense of having been recently created, but in the sense of having shone forth from that point onward. And elsewhere: “That he might create the two into one new man,” instead of “might gather together.”
B Furthermore, the statement “Such and such a person, perhaps, founded this,” C when it refers to an appointment or an arrangement, does not imply that something was created out of nothing, nor does even the word “creature” imply substance, but rather it speaks of that which was done, or of the ordering and condition of those who already exist. See then, if this can also assist us in what is said to those who are being renewed in baptism: “Put on the new man, who according to God is created,” and whatever other such oracles one might find if he searches. It is also written metaphorically concerning those who beget: “He made sons and daughters”; and, “I have gotten,” he says, “a man through God.” And yet it is spoken in a generative sense, not a creative one. But if by indulgence it is conceded that one may take the text, “The Lord created me,” as referring to God who is from God, let it be remembered again, and let it be said and believed by us again, that for this reason he added, “Before all the hills he begets me,” so as to remove the “created me.” For subsequent expressions in decrees, as being better and more certain, everywhere supersede the preceding ones. Striving, therefore, against these, and nothing... D therefore no word can be properly adapted to Him, nor can it signify His substance: but everything that we speak is, as it were, abusive, and this is true of all incorporeal things, and especially when we speak of the Trinity.
A John, furthermore, who received the gift of theology from that most beloved and long-suffering Savior, whose earth is full of mercy, and—contending against these heretics who produce nothing probable or worthy of faith, nothing true, or who have nothing stored away, but use a certain foreign, imported, extraneous, and troublesome doctrine—he teaches us what we ought to think about the Son Himself, and proclaimed a common dogma and made it known to all men: "In the beginning was the Word" (52), that is, He was without beginning, or eternal, which is to say, unbegotten. The word "was" is superlative, B allowing no non-existence to be conceived beyond Him, as has been said in the first book. "And the Word was with God": instead of "He was according to the Father," meaning He was incomparable, unbegotten, and existed looking toward the interior of His own inaccessible divinity. For the phrase "was with Him" is understood not merely as "was after Him," but also comparatively "was according to Him." "And the Word was God": that is, He is without cause; for the cause of God, there is nothing impossible, nothing inconceivable. For the Father is the cause; all things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being signifies that He Himself is unbegotten; for once for all, every created thing, as being from an uncreated Creator, was declared to have been produced through Him.
C Beyond these undeniable points, there is also another objection, and one concerning which no one will be able to say anything to the contrary, not even by way of conjecture [165a]. For Aquila, one of the interpreters, translated this Scripture passage—which in Hebrew is "Adonai canani"—as follows: "The Lord acquired me," not even he himself using the word properly; for it is translated according to the exact meaning: "The Lord nested me," that is, He gave birth. For the term "nested" or "flew out" is used properly of those things which come forth from an egg, and not of those which are created. D But besides these, there is another point that is opposed, against which no one will be able to devise anything, not even to the extent of a conjecture, for the purpose of argument. For Aquila, one of the interpreters, translated this Scripture which reads in Hebrew "Adonai canani," thus: "The Lord gained me," though he himself did not use it properly; for it is translated accurately: "The Lord nested me," that is, He begat. For the term "nested," or "flew out," and "nested" is used properly for those which spring from an egg, not for those which are created. Note: The Hebrew does not have it so. Hence Aquila says: "The Lord acquired me..." But neither did Aquila translate the force... In the Hebrew it says "Adonai," which is called "Lord kanani," which can be said both "nested me" and "acquired me." The most accurate, however, is said: "Nested me," and what sort of fledgling, etc. It is used properly in this case... "Went out."
and he springs forth;” and that which springs forth possesses no different substance from that from which it springs. Thus, whether one considers the etymology of the word or the sense of the entire discourse, what the heretics say is alien to the truth. Some, however, have rightly understood the passage, “The Lord created me the beginning of his ways,” as spoken of the Church, in which the way of truth and wisdom is proclaimed, which the Apostle also called the body of Christ, writing thus to the Colossians: “And I fulfill the A deficiencies of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh for the sake of his body, which is the Church, of which I became a minister according to the dispensation of God, which was given to me.” And to the Corinthians in the first Epistle: “Our members are members of Christ: shall I then make the members of Christ the members of a harlot? God forbid!” And again: “But all the members of the one body, though they are many, are one body; so also is Christ.” B Although, therefore, when the venerable and tremendous Incarnation of the Son is viewed, Scripture does in a certain way call the Church his body, and us fellow-creatures his brethren, nevertheless, insofar as he is the Only-Begotten and true Son of the most high God, he is in no way comprehended within the multitude and number of created things. Nor does Scripture have such a term in any other place when the discourse is about the Son. Rather, it is full of these formulas that he is the true God and truly the only-begotten Son. But I have been carried away here as if by a flowing stream. C Therefore, the discourse must be turned to the other chapter.
CHAPTER IV
Secondly, because the heretics who object with intolerable arguments and embrace a depraved opinion without consideration, try to show that the right faith from the Scriptures is absurd, interpreting them against the theological sense, while they endeavor to demonstrate their own faith as more weighty through the same. For they say that it is clear from what Paul wrote to the Colossians about him, “The firstborn of every creature,” that the Son is a creature and that the name of the Only-Begotten Son and of God is as if painted over him like a cosmetic and is adulterated. For if he is the first-born, he is certainly not the only-begotten, but is the first-born with respect to others who were created after him; but if he is the only-begotten Son, how is he the first-born? We, therefore, say in the first place that the depth of this oracle also surpasses their understanding, and that Paul was speaking those things which he knew not, and was believing what he spoke, because it was a suggestion of the true Wisdom, and he made all these things manifest,
A We shall write down this entire passage, and thus proceed to its interpretation, not needing any conjectures, and explaining things that are clearer than light by means of likenesses; rather, we shall state whatever they themselves, whether willingly or unwillingly, overlooked, but which we see can serve to support the argument. The Epistle runs as follows: “Giving thanks to God and the Father, who has called us into the portion of the lot of the saints, who delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated [us] into the kingdom of the love of His Son, in whom we have redemption, the remission of sins; who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for in Him were created all things, those in the heavens and those on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things have been created through Him and unto Him, and He is before all, and all things consist in Him; and He is the head of the body of the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might be preeminent in all things: for it pleased [God] that all the fullness should dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross, whether things on earth or things in the heavens.” B Observe then, with prudence, how the Scripture has prepared itself to refute the heretics, and has every word casting forth rays, as it were, of understanding concerning the Incarnation of God; and that it previously called Him Son and image of God, and thus firstborn and head of the body of the Church, and firstborn from the dead, having made peace by the blood of His cross concerning things visible and invisible, and having obtained all the fullness of that Godhead which is above incorporeal, colorless, and uncircumscribed [realities]; C so that in whatever way possible we might worthily understand His incomparable nature from God the Father and towards Him, and His perfect and unified incarnation and ensoulment from the Virgin. For what else could you understand, in the midst of the set-forth texts, and that all things consist through Him and unto Him, and are reconciled and made peaceful, if not that through His impassible and sinless incarnation for our sake and on our behalf, we are turned back to the knowledge of His uncreated Godhead? The Only-Begotten is therefore preached, D inasmuch as He has not, according to His transcendent and pure generation, another beside Himself of the same nature…
but He is indeed the Primogenitus (that is, the First-born) of every creature, not because He was created before it—otherwise He would have been called *protoclistus* (that is, first-created)—but because, by His foreknowledge, as was mentioned in the immediately preceding chapter, He was born of the holy Virgin before every creature; and because the same Person is, in an ineffable manner according to the divine text, both the First-born and the Only-Begotten of every creature. B In similar fashion He is also called the "First-born from the dead," not because He died before them, but because, since He first arose from the dead, He provided the certainty of resurrection generally for us, who by His grace and gift have been deemed worthy to be children of God the Father and brothers of Christ Himself. For He says: "I Am the life and the resurrection." And Paul also pointed out that same time in which, on account of His goodness, the Savior proposed to repair our old ruin and to render us worthy to enjoy forever the participation of the heavenly serene light, when he became the First-born of every creature, as Paul demonstrated when he said: "The old things have passed away: behold, all things have been made new." Furthermore, the remaining words of Paul, in the first place, explode this heretical opinion—which offers injury through its cavils both to Paul himself, for having written such things, and to the Creator and Lord of all things, of whom such things were preached—a thing which is grievous even to invent, much less to hear. In the second place, they openly prove that "First-born of every creature" was said instead of "First-born of all humanity." For, as I said in the preceding chapter, he designates humanity by the term "creature" in these very words: "Be subject to every human creature for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as preeminent, or to governors, as though sent by him."
The evangelist also aids us regarding the designations of "First-born" and "Only-Begotten," narrating that Mary remained a virgin "until she brought forth her son, the First-born." For neither did she—that most honorable of all and most glorious Virgin—ever marry anyone, nor did she ever become the mother of another; but even after the childbirth she remained always and for all time an immaculate virgin, D and yet He was rightly called her First-born, He who created her and all others, not unreasonably. And towards the words, "First-born," the evangelist aids us in recounting that she remained a virgin, "until she brought forth her son, the First-born." For Mary, who is more honorable and more glorious than all, was neither married to anyone, nor did she ever become the mother of anyone else; but even after the gestation she remained forever and at all times a blameless virgin, and yet [165 b] He who created her and all things was not unreasonably called her First-born.
A
The fact that the title "First-born from the dead" B is applied to Him, is supported by what the Apostle Paul himself taught the Corinthians in his first epistle: "Christ 86 has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep 87; for since by a man came death, and by a man came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive; but each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ’s at His coming; then the end." 88
But this disputed passage can also be interpreted in another way; for in matters so sublime, one ought not to look for just one certain meaning, nor embrace that which is less excellent, but rather that which is higher and better; for when it concerns things divine, the truth is found in the loftier explanation. It may therefore be said that Christ is called the First-born of all creation, both on account of those who, in divine baptism, are generated from God by the adoption of the Holy Spirit, C and because whatever we are and possess, we have received from Him, as the same Apostle teaches us, saying: "And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it 90, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" 89
Moreover, even some of the Greeks, or their students, neglecting other things contrary to this, have expressed similar sentiments: "All of these are the supreme gifts of the immortal God, But that which is greatest for men is the utility of truth." 91
But if one should also boldly wish to explain the words in question regarding the incomprehensible divinity of Christ, they should be understood in roughly this way: that He is called the First-born of all creation either because He was begotten before any created generation; or because He is the first and only Son, the Word, who, out of nothing, produced and, as it were, fashioned every creature prior to any creature, and is the cause of all things; or even because He is the foundation, D "bearing all things by the word of His power," 92 according to the Psalmist who says: "In wisdom You have made all things;" 93 and according to the Proverb of Solomon which says: "God by wisdom 94 founded the earth; He prepared the heavens in understanding."
And this very fact is confirmed by the aforementioned part of the Epistle, which says: "The First-born of all creation, because in Him all things were created," and "All things were created through Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist."
A And for this sole reason does he say, "the first-born of all creation," (that is, "because in Him all things were created"), if the word *hoti* is understood in a healthy sense as "because" or "since," for the universe of things would not exist, nor would it remain unharmed, if it did not have as its base and foundation the creative Word of God, and were not supported by Him. Therefore, He did not say "first-created," but "first-born," nor did He say, "He was made before all things," but, "He is before all things"—that is, from eternity. For in the ineffable nature, all time is instantaneous and present, and there is nothing past or future in it; but those things which are eternal dwell, in a sense, in one time; just as Plato says in the *Timaeus*: B "Therefore, we do not even speak correctly when we talk about the ineffable nature in terms of time. For we say, 'it was,' 'it is,' and 'it will be.' But in accordance with the truth, only 'it is' is suitable; while 'it was' and 'it will be' are appropriate to relate only to the time that is in nature, for it is motion. But that which is always in the same state immovably—it is appropriate that it neither becomes older nor younger due to time, nor has it 'been' [in the past], nor will it 'be' [in the future]." And that, as we said, all things appeared in God and from God—as if they had shone forth—the Greeks also bear witness, writing these things:
God, the immortal, leads Himself: but all things are from Him, and have been revealed in the mind of the great God.
Nor must it entirely be said that He who is first-born is not the only-begotten; but sometimes one and the same is called both first-born and only-begotten. C Indeed, He who is the only-begotten is also straightway the first-born, even if He has no second-born or third-born after Him, inasmuch as He is the only One begotten, and has acquired the name from the fact itself. Certainly, also in Jeremiah, the Holy Spirit says, "And Ephraim is my first-born." Yet Ephraim was not the first-born even to his own father. Since, therefore, He Himself is the Truth, and the creative and untaught Wisdom, it is proper to hold the untruthless meaning of what is written about Him, in a sense worthy of God. Let Him, therefore, be both only-begotten and first-born; but the word D "first-born" is more suitable to Him with respect to the Incarnation. For if, through ineffable love for mankind, the Holy Spirit had not regenerated us, and God and Father had not adopted us as sons, and He of whom the discourse treats—the only-begotten God—had not become, without change or flux and as He alone knows, for the sake of the salvation of men, the Son of Man, He would certainly not have been called "first-born amongst many brethren," nor would we, who are sons of men, have been called gods and sons of God; for no one is by nature a brother of the only-begotten Son. But the Creator and Steward of all, and the only compassionate One, is a brother...
A and is named the firstborn. For when He Himself, from infinite height, emptied Himself for the sake of His own servants, and renewed all things, and provided the beginning of a better life through His own appearance, and for this reason was called firstborn, He did not in any way suffer harm to His divine glory. For the power of terms, which have been uttered in an improper sense on account of the ineffable dispensation, is not able in any way to diminish Him or to depress Him to the measure of one who is inferior. But we, from great abjection and darkness, have been lifted up into infinite glory and light, having received faith in Him. For no thing, aside from what it is by nature, can either leap up and be exalted, or indeed descend and sink down, as it were, from its own inherent quality by the weight or humbleness of a term.
Not a few things, moreover, are revealed alongside those explained by us, but that which suffices even by itself alone to aid us is the fact that the incomprehensible God deigned to speak in the Psalm: B "I have found David My servant; with My holy oil I have anointed him. For My hand shall help him, and My arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not profit in him, and the son of iniquity shall not add to afflict him. And I will cut off his enemies from his face, and I will put to flight those who hate him. And My truth and My mercy shall be with him, and in My name shall his horn be exalted. And I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall call upon Me: 'You are my Father, my God, and the helper of my salvation.' And I will make him firstborn, high among the kings of the earth." For whether we allow this to be spoken concerning the radiance co-existing with the glory of the Father, which blossomed forth in the last times from the root of Jesse, or concerning David, the "firstborn" cannot be understood according to the suspicion of custom. For how C would He make him firstborn—either the one who was already man (for God says, "I have found David My servant"), or the one who had brothers older than himself? But that it is sometimes customary for Scripture to proclaim individuals who already exist in their being to become somehow what they were not, Paul, filled with Christ and the Holy Spirit, testifies somewhere: "You are no longer a slave, but a son." For the "no longer" signifies for those already existing a certain other state and condition for the future. And again: "Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers." This means: God, who foreknew descendants D and sees all things, both past and future, as subsisting and present—with whom all ages are one measure, and nothing is divided, as was said a little while ago—foreknew and transparently promised that men would be conformed to Him who is eternally in His form, the incomprehensible One.
even unto all ages, to whom at last nothing is indivisible, as was said a little before, He foresaw, and clearly promised that men would be made conformable to Him, Who from eternity was in the form of His Only-Begotten Son, after this Only-Begotten, A humbling Himself for our sake into a servile form, said by His own grace: “I no longer call you servants, but friends and brethren,” as Scripture hath it. For just as we creatures have been called sons of God by grace, not by nature; in the same way the Only-Begotten of God, when He mingled earthly things with heavenly, and a new salvation was wrought for us unto the end, was called our brother and first-born, not according to the nature which He has from the Father, but according to the economy, by which He took upon Himself flesh from the Virgin, similar to the flesh of the Virgin herself. It would therefore be fitting to say to the heretics what has been well said by those outside: “Hate lies, that truth may draw near to you.”
CAP. V.
What they propose in the third place is a prophecy, in which, in the person of the Lord, who gives subsistence to all things, it is said: “I am the beginning and the end.” B For from this they gather that His existence, which is free from time and transcends the understanding of creatures, is temporal, by inventing foolish interpretations: and they strive therein, that their own wickedness might be deemed virtue. But those who do not deviate from the knowledge of this Only-Begotten God in the Word, as these do, see that they themselves are unable to attain even the sublime meaning of this saying, by which His very divinity is indicated. For the word "beginning" denotes Him, as being devoid of a beginning, to be the cause of the constitution of all things, just as God the Father is. For he who is the beginning has no one existing before him, just as the last has no one after him. For "beginning," as Aristotle says in the fifth book of his Metaphysics, is said in many ways. C For "beginning" is said, for instance, in the sense of sovereignty or command; it is said also locally, as the beginning of a race-course or the barrier; it is said also temporally, as the beginning of the year or this very day; it is said also naturally, as the seed is the beginning of the infant; and it is said also according to causality, as the sculptor is the beginning of the statue. Thus, therefore, we speak of Him... Dthe beginning, as cause and Creator; but the end as that which is in Him, A as One who is uncircumscribed and alone possesses immortality, that the boundaries of all things are fixed in Him, and after the completion of this whole universe, He Himself remains forever and infinitely. Therefore, the infinite cannot have a beginning of generation; for while He is unable, He is Himself unbegotten, even though He is begotten in a natural way from the substance of God the Father; but things that are generated have been generated by Him in a creative manner. Following these things, what Paul announced to the Colossians should also be understood in this way: "And He is before all things"—not as a creature (far be it!), but as begotten. For if He were not truly and consubstantially begotten before all things without beginning, we would not have been generated as consubstantial with Him who begat us, according to His image; and if the Maker and Provider did not pre-exist in an uncreated manner, the things made and provided for would not exist in a creative manner.
CAP. VI.
Fourthly, they bring forward, as those endowed with a perverse tongue, what was said by Peter in the Acts: "Let all the house of Israel know B that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you have crucified." But Scripture does not say this of the divine and incomprehensible essence of God the Word, who was in the beginning, and was with God, and did not think it robbery to be equal to God, but of Him who was born of Mary, having a common form of humiliation with us. For the mention of the cross, and the coupling of the word "made" with the phrases, "whom you have crucified," shows that the discourse is about Him of whom Scripture makes mention in many places: as when the same Peter says in the Acts: "The C God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers hath glorified His servant Jesus, whom you indeed delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had judged him to be released; but you denied the Holy and the Righteous One, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, but you killed the Author of life." And Zechariah says: "I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and mercy; and they shall look upon Me, whom they pierced,
A and they shall lament for him with a lamentation as for an only begotten, and they shall be in pain for him as for a first-born." Remembering this prophecy after the saving cross, John said: "They shall look on him whom they pierced." Concerning this, the angel also, congratulating men, said: "There is born to us today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." But he who is born today could by no means be considered the One who is before the ages. We must attend, therefore, to this miracle of the Scripture, that angels and men were celebrating a feast of one new knowledge of God (that is, the acknowledgment of God), in equal affection, sounding forth together and agreeing with one another. We speak thus, signifying by a certain mode of thought His ineffable dispensation, and turning aside the blasphemy which tends toward His Godhead; not, however, that we believe there is one Son who is from the Father, and another who became flesh and was crucified: since the Godhead is not of such a nature as to be separated from B itself, nor to be changed. For not even the Apostle would have conceived of two, when he said: "Christ therefore having suffered while in the flesh." For the sacred Psalmist also, both concealing in a way and clearly revealing this ineffable mystery of the dispensation—and concealing it rather than not knowing it, and not knowing it rather than concealing it—prophesies in Psalm 107 in the same manner as the aforementioned saying of Peter: "And let them know that this is Thy hand; and Thou, O Lord, hast made it." By calling God the Word the hand of the Father, because He essentially co-exists with the Father and all things were made by Him; but by saying that He was made by Him [the Father], whose hand He is, because He became flesh immutably, as He knew and willed. And the word "made" is not always to be understood as "created," C
A but is also understood according to relation. Just as he who is already a teacher by nature—when does one make him the teacher of his children? When the teacher begins to instruct the children. And just as when does one make a boy a soldier, or a rhetorician? When the boy enters into military service or begins to practice the art of rhetoric. For with this understanding, it was said of God and the Father: "He became an adjutor and protector to me for salvation" [Cf. Ex. xv, 2]; and Isaiah: "You have become a helper to every humble city" [Cf. Isa. xxv, 4]; and the sacred Psalmist in the twenty-ninth [thirtieth] Psalm: "The Lord became my helper" [Ps. xxix, 11]; and in the thirtieth [thirty-first in Hebrew/LXX]: "Be to me a God to protect me, and a house of refuge, to save me" [Ps. xxx, 3]; and Abraham to Sarah his spouse: "She became also my wife" [Gen. xx, 12]; and Paul: "Let God be true, but every man a liar" [Rom. iii, 4]. B Consistently with this, that which is written is also understood: "But I have been constituted King by Him upon Sion His holy mountain" [Ps. ii, 6]. For it is not with the intention of saying anything about such and such, that He defines His essence. Therefore, He did not simply say, "I have been constituted," but added, "upon Mount Sion." For since He was King of all from eternity and unto eternity (for he says, "The Lord is King unto eternity, and beyond" [Ps. ix, 8]; and, "Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all ages" [Ps. cxliv, 13]), it seemed that He was not yet reigning over those who did not recognize Him, but that He became King even over them in the Incarnation, for the sake of which David himself prayed in the ninth [tenth] Psalm: "Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them; let the nations know that they are men" [Ps. ix, 21]. And Micah also prophesied: "And the Lord reigns from now and unto eternity" [Mic. iv, 7]. C And regarding this, those outside [the Church] also declared such things: "For King God is a name immortal, never- ending, Never perishing, nor ceasing."
Similar to this [word of Scripture] is also that: "Receive the high priest of your confession, being faithful to Him who made Him" [Heb. iii, 1-2]. For again, it speaks of Him who became of our nature and conformed to us, and it exhorts us to receive Him, D
A who indeed is God from eternity, and the true Son of God, but then became Pontiff for our sake; since He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him, recoiling from His uncreated divinity.
Consequently, the voice of Paul to the Corinthians is also viewed: "But from Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption; so that, as it is written, Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord" [1 Cor. i, 30-31]. For, they say, according to God, men are both good and wise; and the opposites of these: "For excessive, senseless bodies Fall by heavy calamities inflicted by God," as the prophet says.
B Just as when He was appointed to be a light to the nations, He did not then become light in essence, but the light by which those who know Him are illumined ("For He was," he says, "the true light, which illumines every man coming into the world" [John i, 9]), so too He was established as King, and "became Lord"—being naturally and from eternity Lord—when the disciples, as it is written, became His servants; when the Apostle wrote: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ" [Rom. i, 1]; and when we all, acknowledging His lordship and anointment [Christoteta], were called Christians, having become participants, as servants, of the master's name; even as it says in Isaiah: "But to those who serve me a new name shall be called, which shall be blessed upon the earth" [Isa. lxv, 15-16].
In my judgment, however, it specifically foretells our race of the orthodox, of whom the same [prophet] said: "These are a seed blessed by God" [Isa. lxv, 23], and, "Everlasting joy upon their head" [Isa. xxxv, 10]. Such also is what is written in the Canticles: "Chosen from among myriads"—that is, selected; not that He is one out of many sons, but because David, or the Theotokos, from whom Christ according to the flesh [was born], was chosen before all others in the Incarnation; and deservedly He both delighted in Him, and said: "Who will be compared to the Lord among the sons of God?" [Ps. lxxxviii, 7]; or also He is called chosen as the Only-begotten, out of all, sinless in the Incarnation.
ON THE TRINITY, BOOK THREE.
CAP. VII.
A Accumulating blasphemy upon blasphemy, immediately after the passages they had put forward, they allege what was said by Paul theologically: "Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." And abusing it with their own reasonings, they drag it to the meaning they please; for they wish to signify that Christ was created by the power and wisdom of God. But the phrasing itself, and the thought, indicate his Incarnation; for "in it," he says, Christ was named, according to the similarity of those before him who were called christs. But if the statement must also be accepted regarding his divinity, it denotes therein nothing else but that he is in every respect consubstantial with the Father; for it declares that all the power and wisdom of the Father resides in him, as in the creative Word and his true Son.
CHAPTER VIII.
In this too the heretics err, in that they argue thus: The Scripture has likened Christ to a vine, men to branches, and the Father to a husbandman. But the vine has the same nature as the branches, not with the husbandman. Therefore, they say, the divine oracles declare that the Son has a nature common with men, not with God and the Father. But we, responding to their argument, say that according to his divinity, he is indeed the fruit of the husbandman’s substance, but according to the flesh, we are his branches. And we attend no less to Paul, who dogmatically asserts: "For we are the body of Christ, and members individually." And again: "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" From this apostolic phrasing, C these heretics are cast out, as are those who judge the flesh of the Lord to be from heaven, D and not human.
CAP. IX.
A And they have diverged from the truth in other divine oracles as well, and still diverge. For example, regarding that passage of the prophecy of Isaiah where the Father says: "It is a great thing for you to be called my child"; and also regarding that which was written by Paul: "Who was defined B as the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness." For these too they attribute to his divinity, though they were spoken concerning the servile form which he assumed from Mary, concerning which the angel said to her: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; therefore also the holy thing that is born shall be called the Son of God."Moreover, they diverge also regarding the text: "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory," attributing everything to his divinity. But here he speaks of the Father, of the one who is not seen; but of God, of the one who is seen. C Concerning whom the same angel appeared a little earlier at the appropriate time, and having evangelized with the new names that have been mentioned, said: "You shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High." Furthermore, they diverge (for their thoughts and expressions are corrupt) even in regard to this saying of the Master that says: "Go to my brethren, and say to them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, my God and your God." Here, too, he calls him Father—of himself by nature, but of us by grace—and God—of himself because of D his recent form, but of us in truth—so that both that which is eternal and that which is recent might be signified. For the Master, having condescended in all things to his servants, made him who is his own Father our God, and also made him our Father out of his goodness, since we are not sons by nature; but he called him God—his own God—because of his incarnation, which he had more clearly announced beforehand, saying: "From my mother's womb, you are my God."
For how could he be God to his only-begotten Son, the true and great God? Just as, therefore, he is truly the God of us men, and not our Father, so to him alone is he truly Father by way of essence, and not God by way of his generation from above; and we, having become partakers of Christ, are deemed worthy to invoke the heavenly God: "Our Father who art in heaven." So too the beloved Son, [172 b] having a share, according to Paul [Heb…].
[The text continues discussing the errors of Apollinaris, noting that others, particularly Epiphanius in his *Heresies* LXVII, have written against the Apollinarists, who claimed Christ brought his body down from heaven. Didymus, however, does not name Apollinaris in this work.]
in the heavens: so too the beloved Son, B having partaken, according to Paul writing to the Hebrews, in like manner to children of blood and flesh, calls God Father. In addition to which, by not saying it mixedly, "Our Father and our God," but separately, "My Father and your Father, my God and your God," He demonstrated the aforementioned difference between Himself and us. For He is not found to have spoken of Himself and men communally, saying "Our Father." But also in the Gospel according to John, concerning those who with boldness and freedom of speech confess Him before men to be God and the only-begotten Son of God—which is to be consubstantial—He promises: "And I," He says, "will confess him before my Father," not "our Father." What greater thing could there be, in terms of good things, than to be confessed by Him? And what could be more shameful, in terms of base things, than to be denied the knowledge that comes from God, as those who have chosen a lie instead of the truth? And the, "I ascend," to the Father, He spoke on account of the dispensation, bringing good tidings to the disciples, whom, loving them, He called brothers, when the first-fruits from us is being raised up, as He who always is ascends to Him who truly is, His Father; for He says Himself: "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, He who is in heaven." By such words He signifies mystically and at the same time clearly that He is of the Godhead.
Cap. X.
When Paul had written to the Philippians concerning the incomparable and providential emptying of the Word of God for our sake: "Let this indeed be reckoned in you," which— C D and for in base things, in most base things, in shameful things. I have ascended, I am born, I am anxious, I have escaped, I have ascended, I went up. And he touched heaven, but stood upon the earth, he stood, he was walking, he has stood, he is walking. You have bestridden in heaven, to be, there being signified a certain pre-eminence befitting God by the name of heaven, etc., let this be understood.A in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man; he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father.
Those words, indeed, by which it is said that Christ, when he was in the form of God and equal to God, emptied himself, not compelled by another but freely, while he thus took the form of a servant and came to the abjection of men, so that he might at the same time also despoil principalities and powers, those heretics neglect; but they stick immovably to these words: "Wherefore God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above every name." And although the word "wherefore" signifies that Christ, because he similarly to children shared in flesh and blood, was then—and not at another time—exalted above the servile condition, and was given a name that is above every name and the most excellent of all, it does not mean that the Only-Begotten (whom the son of thunder, they say, affirms to be true God and true Son of God; and Paul, that he was before the emptying in the form and equality of God the Father) acquired these things as bestowed upon him. B For many highly absurd things would be inferred from this. First, if the Son were distinguished from creatures by the nude and sole appellation of "God," he would excel them but little, or indeed not at all. Second, a gift of this kind would be reduced to nothing if one considers what could happen or come into our mind; for what has been given is not entirely stable and permanent, but is of such a kind that it might easily be lost. Third, if we conceive that the Son received the divine name according to his Godhead when he appeared in the world, it follows that he did not have what he later received beforehand, but that he obtained it as a kind of gift or reward for his coming to us. C But he himself, from an infinite height, for our sake, assuming flesh similar to ours, emptied himself; and because he is naturally Son and Word, and in the form of God, and equal to God, and God in the beginning existing with God, and did not have that singular and incomparable name added from the outside, D nor was he later decorated with it as though it were adulterated, he returned again to the most eminent height in which he always was and in the beginning, and to his natural honor and glory, and to his own proper session at the right hand of his Father.
A But how did God also exalt him, and gift him with a name that is above every name? I answer that Scripture speaks thus because, even to him who bore the image of a servant, the Father said: «This is my beloved Son,» and he willed that he should be called God even then, so that in the name of Jesus every knee might bow, as has been said before. For before the epiphany of the Son in the world, the heavenly beings alone [174 a] bent the knee to him and glorified him, knowing the co-equal glory of the holy Trinity; just as the seraphim cry out thrice, «Holy,» and once, «Lord,» so that to each hypostasis they might offer the hymn in like manner and proclaim that there is one dominion for them. But the earthly and the subterranean beings did not know him thus, as they came to know him in the Economy. From that time, therefore, they too began to bend the knee to him, to glorify him, and to call him God; and in sudden crises, being anticipated by the speed of events, they learned not to use long prayer, nor to babble in the customary manner, but to invoke him, crying out: «Christ, help!» since this name is for the salvation of all. Now, as to the statement, «Being found in the likeness and shape of men,» it does not suggest a phantom of his incarnation, as some have suspected; on the contrary, it denotes that the likeness and habit of men were truly borne by God the Word. But it may also be understood in another way: by one’s appearance B and bearing and manner of life, each person is shown to be what he is and what he intends to do. For even if he does not go around shouting this, the very nature of the thing bears witness to it, even if he does not speak. Therefore, the Savior, wishing to save us through the unchanging incarnation, and having taken all that is ours save for sin, was necessarily thought by men to be not free from that sin which, through will and works, is present in us. For the most long-suffering Job cried out on behalf of us all: «No one is without sin, not even if his life be but one hour long. For what is man, that you have magnified him, or that you give heed to him in your mind, or make an accounting of his life [174 b] until morning, and judge him in his rest?» But he himself, that is to say the Master, «did no sin,» as has been said before, «neither was guile found in his mouth.»
is innocent, and above man. For this reason that is written, "In the likeness and habit of men," A has been applied.
CAP. XI.
Not even that which is read in John, "I live because of the Father," can in any way assist the cause of the heretics. For the Savior speaks thus either because of the aforementioned manner of the Incarnation, or because He Himself is begotten as life from lifegiving Father, and light from light, and God from God. Therefore, we heard this also from Him in the same John: "I am the life and the light"; and again, "The Son gives life to whom He wills." If, therefore, the Father is also life and true light, he who is life of life and light of light differs nothing from Him; for life and light is one and the same; and that heretical formula, "There was when He was not," does not possess even a proximity of plausibility if it be spoken of Him who is the very creative life and unfailing light. One may also answer otherwise. He who lives because of another can never Himself be eternal life, just as even he who is holy by participation in God cannot be holy by himself; but He [Christ], however, by His own power, sanctifies others both through Himself and through others. B
CAP. XII.
Those words also, "I have descended from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me," are to be understood as if He said: Not that I might do the will of human nature in the Incarnation, but the will of the Divinity. For the will of the beloved Son is not separated from the will of God and the Father; for one and the same will exists in the Trinity. Furthermore, this truly miraculous obedience of His, by which He obeyed for us—that is, in our stead—abolished our ancient disobedience; and in the same way as He descended and suffered in the likeness of men, as He Himself knew and willed, so also, making us conformed to Him, He translated us into impassibility. C Wherefore, "I have descended," He says: meaning, I have come of my own spontaneous will, not as a minister and servant. Just as in another place He similarly says: "I am the bread which descended from heaven"; that is, not sent.
CHAPTER XIII.
In the same sense is to be understood that of the Psalmist: "Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows"; and what is read in the Gospel according to John: "Him whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into D
is in the world. For he who is holy, and resting in the saints, “one holy, one Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father. Amen,” was not anointed and sanctified at another time, but only when, not laying aside what he was, he became without confusion also what he was not, that he might make us partakers of himself and might sanctify us, as he himself says: “For their sake I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
CAP. XIV.
Consonant with these things which have been said, one must also understand that which is read in the Psalm: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption;” and that which is written in many places, that God in fact raised Christ Jesus from the dead. For he did not receive resurrection as a grace; rather, he himself gave grace to us, when he granted to us that we should rise again according to the likeness of his own resurrection. For, teaching that in this matter also he possesses equality of majesty and power with the Father, he says in Matthew and Luke: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up;” and: “I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again.”
[alt-version omitted]
It is therefore probable that Didymus brought these things forward from the sacred Liturgy, or rather from the angelic hymn, "Glory in the highest," as it was recited by Christians in the early centuries even in the morning; for which reason, in book VII of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter 47, it is called "Morning Prayer." I confess that in the Apostolic Constitutions, in place of the words, "in the glory of God the Father. Amen," I have sometimes read another, longer clause; but it could easily happen that the ending of the same hymn was not everywhere or always the same. And indeed, in a manuscript parchment codex of the eleventh century, which the Nani library in Venice preserves, after the Psalms and Canticles, this hymn is read much fuller than among the Latins; for after the words, "glory of God the Father. Amen," many other things are added, namely "and the rest," that is, "every day I will bless thee." If Didymus were referring to this hymn, it would scarcely be credible that it was composed by Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, as not a few have written, as the Maurist monks warn in the preface to Hilary's Works, page 7, volume 1. I would more easily believe that the same hymn was merely translated into Latin by St. Hilary, and, when he returned from exile, brought into the Latin Church, unless it had been introduced earlier by Pope Telesphorus.
[alt-version omitted]
CAP. XV.
A Of the same kind is the response which was given to the lawyer. For when he, tempting Him, had said to the Lord as if to a man, “Good Master,” Christ answered, “Why callest thou me good? None is good, save one, God.” That saying, “None is good,” refers to the human race; and the saying, “save one, God,” points to the consubstantiality of the divine persons. As if He were to say: If you know me to be good, confess me to be God, equal and like to the Father, existing as such in regard to His essence just as in regard to His goodness. For humanity possesses goodness by participation; but the Godhead is the apex of goodness, and is life, and light, and truth, and peace, and love. And He adds: “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever followeth me may not abide in darkness.” And wishing to persuade the lawyer that these things are so, He says: “Sell all that thou hast, and come, follow me.” Which the lawyer did not do, yielding to his own will, which did not possess goodness by nature. B Indeed, His goodness was testified to in the first discourse. But what greater proof could be brought forward to demonstrate His goodness than that which shows Him to be good by nature more by works than by words, according to Him who says: “Jesus began both to do and to teach”? To “do” indeed, in that He emptied Himself, and took the form of a servant for the sake of His servants, and healed every disease and every infirmity, and cast out demons, and made the sea passable for men, and fed famishing crowds in the desert, and washed the feet of servants, and because of the figment of His own hands, suffered injuries inflicted upon Himself by the hands of the figment itself, and bestowed a hundredfold of goods upon those who do well, and added eternal life. But to “teach,” in that He says: “Sell all that C thou hast, and give to the poor, and come, follow me”; and, “What thou hatest, do not to another”; and, “Render not evil for evil”; and, “Whosoever shall do it to one of these least, he did it to me”; and, “Give to every one that asketh thee”; and, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy D soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” And what they do not wish to happen to themselves, they should not do to others.of your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself; and: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." And how then, O heretic, is A he not good, equal to his own Father, when he spares you even as you say these things?
CAP. XVI. Regarding the text: "Now unto the King eternal, incorruptible, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."
Since they are determined to fight for their heresy by all means, they also wrongly receive the pronouncement of Paul writing to Timothy, which stands thus: "Now unto the King eternal, incorruptible, B invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen"; and this other: "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto"; and that which is in the Gospel: "That they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent"; and the prophet's words: "I alone stretched forth the heaven." They do not interpret these as they ought, alleging that the term "only" and the phrase "true God" do not admit of a second or third hypostasis, but have reference solely to the Father. But the term "only" and "one," whenever it is stated in the Scriptures concerning the Trinity, is spoken of the one, because it exists in the unity of the Godhead, and is said to possess a "monarchy." C Whence the identity of "only" commemorates either that one, or two, or all three of the immaculate hypostases together, or separately. Moreover, it was spoken in this way for the sake of contradicting the so-called false gods, just as it always casts out the demonic polyarchy, having heard: "Ye are gods," so that we might no longer be enslaved by wretched, and multiform, and changeable, and heterodox elements, dissipating our thoughts upon this fornication, according to him who says: "The first fornication is the devising of idols." Furthermore, it does not befit a creature, strictly and absolutely, to be called "only" or "one," for it is common to all or many, because all have many things that are consubstantial and of the same form, as was found in the fourteenth chapter of the first discourse. But the voice, "Who only hath immortality," and, "To the D only wise God," was written because not even a creature has anything from itself, and for all there is the immortal, and invisible, and wise; but—
since it has received these things from the Son who created it—he who exists uniquely with the Father and the Spirit—it possesses immortality and invisibility. Thus Paul writes to the Corinthians in the first epistle: "What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" And for this reason, these words do not belong properly to a created thing. For it is mortal by potentiality, not having immortality from itself, but also being able, if the Creator should happen to will it, to be extinguished, just as it is said in the Gospel: "But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." B
Since these things are so, nothing prevents us, for the sake of greater clarity of doctrine, from examining each sentence separately. Paul, therefore, wrote, "To the King of ages, incorruptible, invisible, to the only wise God," after he had narrated many worldly things before in the Epistle; and looking back at all those things he narrated, he added those words, as will be manifest to anyone attending to the sense of the Epistle. But that other statement, "Who alone has immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable," he wrote with reference to the creature, as has been said; for eternal life and incorruptibility is immortality. And the terms "truth" and "wisdom" are equivalent to the expressions "true" and "wise"; but these belong absolutely and simply to God alone; yet the Scriptures testify that the Son and the Holy Spirit are these things—namely, wisdom and truth. And if, just as the Father creates, sanctifies, justifies, and deifies those to whom he comes, in the same way also the Only-begotten and the Spirit of God do these things, then those names—"only," and "true," and "wise," and "invisible God," and "who alone has immortality"—will properly apply to the Son and to the Spirit of God just as they apply to the Father; just as that passage of Scripture which speaks of the Only-begotten will also be appropriate to him: "This is our God; no other will be reckoned in comparison to him." For, so to speak, in all the things by which the Father differs from the creature, the Son and the Spirit of God differ likewise. For how then could the Father alone possess the aforementioned things, if what is written concerning the Son and the Holy Spirit is true, as well as that statement, "As the Father has life, so he gave to the Son to have life," as we shall also show in the next chapter? C But that text, "That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent," includes the Son as well, and shows him to be equal to the Father, with whom his Spirit is also understood. The "sending" denotes the economy. But that voice, "I stretched out the heaven alone," is not of the Father. For how is it true that all things were made through— D
A the Son? Let them know also concerning the Son that it has been prophesied in Job in a similar manner: "Who stretched out the heaven alone, and walks as upon dry ground upon the sea." For it is manifest to all that He, always, but not least in the Incarnation, performed miracles, and walked upon the water as if upon a plain.
Testimony is borne also to the others who have been mentioned, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, in this way. As regards the only true God, when John in the same phrase declares Him to be the true God B and utters "only-begotten God"; and Judas calls Him the only Master; and the prophet says: "Thou art the God who works wonders; Thou art the only great God"; and elsewhere: "One is holy, one is Lord, Jesus Christ." And concerning the Holy Spirit, as when Paul, full of understanding, testifies that the Spirit of God and the Father is to Him just as our spirit is to us. And again he writes: "All these things works the one and same Spirit, dividing to each one individually as He wills." C And concerning Wisdom, as when the aforementioned most venerable Paul writes concerning the Son: "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God"; and: "In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." And David sings: "How magnified are Your works, O Lord! In wisdom You have made all things." And as the prophet Isaiah prophesies: "And He himself, being wise, brought evils upon them." And concerning the Holy Spirit, as when Isaiah prophesies: "A Spirit of God, a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and piety." And concerning incorruptibility and immortality, it has been said before, yet it is not absurd to set forth other things also: as when, concerning the life-giving Only-Begotten, D whose eye, and hearing, and justice, and kindness stand everywhere, David sings: "You are the same, and Your years shall not fail"; and: "Into the age, O Lord, Your word abides in heaven." And concerning the Holy Spirit, who nourishes all things and illuminates them with divine rays, even unto those who are left behind.
A And if they who fall short of the divine law suffer punishment, He is merciful and patient, so that they may either be converted, or may receive an unresentful punishment in the other life: as when Scripture says: "And Your incorruptible Spirit is in all things."
To those, however, who say: "Are not souls and angels, then, immortal and invisible?" we must answer thus: Regarding immortality, first in one way, that their immortality in no way shares in the primary and infinite immortality, being subordinate and distinct from it, insofar as it is a creation of the Creator. And for this reason, God alone is said to have immortality, as it is easy to understand if we apply our minds to the fact that nothing of these things can either create or grant immortality, whereas the only invisible and eternal Only-Begotten, and the Holy Spirit, create and make [things] immortal.
B In another way, however: souls and angels are immortal in terms of immunity from death and the incorruptibility of their essence; yet they are mortal in that they are sometimes corrupted by their own will. For from defection, there are times when they fall into sin, from which comes death; according to which Paul writes: "And she who lives in pleasure is dead," even though she has not yet departed from this life, as has already been explained in the discourse concerning the Holy Spirit. For that C which is mortal is contrasted with that which is immortal, and it is understood in the case of souls and angels: the one immortal according to the immunity from death, and the [other] mortal according to [the potential for] change, as when the widow who lived in pleasure is said to be dead.
But because it is written, "And the widow who is living in pleasure is dead," [it implies that] since she is still living in this life, she is dead by reason of the corruption of the will. And the [Migne] text here ends the section on the mortality of the soul and moves on to the Spirit. D [alt-version omitted]
and correspondingly, that which is immortal is set against the mortal, and is understood in the case of souls and angels; immortality being understood when they are not subject to death—that is, when they are not dissolved, being simple in substance and indestructible, provided that they do not fall into a corruption of their will, that is, if they remain immutable; while mortality is understood as the opposite. In general, such people seem not to understand things spoken reciprocally, and that not all things which are commonly said in the same terms regarding certain subjects are, by their nature, reciprocal. For God is altogether immortal, but it does not follow that "the Immortal" is immediately God. As for the invisible, souls and angels are indeed invisible to the eye of our body, as they lack visible properties (I mean color, shape, size), but they are visible to the mind, which is the eye of the soul, since they are not incomprehensible, in that they have a created existence; we can indeed have a conception of them. Thus, even if they are invisible to the impact of the bodily sense, they are visible to the perception of scientific contemplation. A But God exists above the invisible, and above the most hidden, and above every mind, and is such that He does not fall under vision or any sense at all, nor can He be gazed upon by the mind of the very angels, because He is incomprehensible and unapproachable. For that God exists is known to all; but what or how He is, is a matter most difficult for all physical beings to grasp. Rightly, therefore, was it said in the aforementioned way: "The only immortal, wise God, and invisible." B
CHAPTER XVII.
And furthermore, the words of the Lord of all, which are blameless and irreproachable in the account of John, which say: "As the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man"; and again: "Those whom You have given Me were Yours, and You have given them to Me"; and again: "All things have been delivered to Me by My Father"; and again:
A "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me," and the words of David: "Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations as Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as Your possession," and other things of this kind, denote the ineffable Incarnation. That this is the case is certain, and these words, which are immediately added, place it beyond controversy: "Because He is the Son of man." Consequently, all who are not entirely devoid of soul and sense are compelled to agree with us. For since He was benevolent toward our race and willingly became poor in the flesh, as Paul writes, in order that we, who were subject to all manner of losses and changes on account of both original sin and recent sins, might become rich through His poverty; and since He comported Himself in a way useful to all, He used the dialect familiar to us from our swaddling clothes, so that we might understand the Incarnation, and that the sublimity of the divine speech might not astound us. For His miracles alone sufficed to manifest His godhead, which is without beginning and in need of nothing; to such an extent that, speaking modestly, He even said: "Foxes of the field have holes, and birds of the sky have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head." For it was not fitting for the Lord of all things B to possess anything on earth that would be, as it were, peculiarly His own. Furthermore, it was necessary for Him who was God—and with whom there was never any quarrel or contention toward men—to speak in a way that was fitting and modest for the human condition. This did not harm His most serene, most blessed, and all-encompassing nature in the least, but it was beneficial to us; for He always looks not to His own height, but to the lowliness of men. I will make Peter himself my supporter in saying these things: "But," He says, "so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you have opened its mouth, you will find a stater; and taking that, give it to them for Me and for you." But it is a sin for a man to usurp those words which befit God; for it behooves even a king to speak with the greatest modesty, for he reaps greater glory from this, and by this means is exalted to the very summit of honor; but for one who is subject, to speak in the manner of kings is C unseemly. Therefore, since He was the Most High, and the Word of God surpassing all word, His humble sayings had a place. But on the contrary, if He had been a creature, those things which were said in a lofty and sublime manner would have had no place. For how could Life receive life, or He who—according to Isaiah—is the mighty God and Potentate, receive authority, D He who is also able to those who are to die
to grant by His own authority that they should live and be? Who entrusted the keys of heavenly life to Peter? For the Apostle also exclaims: "Who did not count it a robbery A to be equal to God"; that is to say: He did not snatch it, He did not receive it to be equal to God and the Father. But if, indeed, it were said concerning the divinity of the Son, they ought to understand it in such a way that, just as God having life does not signify that He has acquired something other than Himself—as if He had not possessed it from eternity—but signifies that He is this very thing which He is said to have; so, in the same manner, the Son’s having received life does not signify that He does not have it by nature. For the wording—"as He has" and "so He gave"—demonstrates this: that the Son possesses life exactly as the Father possesses it, without having received it. And one must, in a manner worthy of God, understand both the phrases "has life" and "in Himself," when spoken of the Father, as well as the phrase "gave to Him" and "having in Himself" when spoken of the Son; B and, furthermore, from the necessity of the matter, one must behold the divine authority of the Son and the one will in both. For the life which He says the Father and the Son have in themselves is the Unity and the supersubstantial essence, and not one thing existing in another; whence He said: "I am the life," so that from this it clearly appears that the essence of the Son is not other than the essence of the Father. For if He Himself is the life, and the Father possesses that same life, what else is found but that He is consubstantial? And if He Himself is the life, how was He able to receive what He is? "But if He had it," they say, "how did He receive it?" And these are mere trifles. For even something similar receives from something similar, not to mention that sometimes even a greater receives from a lesser, and the right hand from the left. We know, moreover, that some who are endowed with equal authority in judging sometimes concede it to another who may even be greater than they; and we are accustomed to say: "They gave to this one alone [the authority] to judge this matter," even though he possesses—and perhaps possesses more C fully—the power of judging. Therefore, the Scripture does not say that the Son received something that He did not have; but the same evangelist says: "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not; but as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God." By such words, he not only shows that the creation is the Son’s own, but also that to the Father the Son gives those who receive Him—that is, those who believe—bestowing benefits upon them everywhere, receiving them, and presenting them to the Father Himself; for being from the world, by His own economy He makes them citizens of heaven. D How, then, do we in turn offer to God what is God’s? Or how do we send up glory to Him? Do we offer Him something He does not have, or what He is not? It suffices, therefore, to answer them that He "received" in the same way as He willingly "became poor," and as He "became a curse." For what would they reply if asked by way of counter-question?
from the world, yet by His own Incarnation He makes them citizens of heaven. But how do we ourselves offer to God again those things which are of God? Or how do we render glory to Him? Do we offer Him what He does not have, or what He is not? It is sufficient, therefore, to answer the heretics thus: The Son received in that sense in which He voluntarily became poor, and in that sense in which He was made a curse. B For what could they answer if we used an exception (or subjection) and, in turn, interrogated them thus: He who is God and Lord of all, and eternal life, and true light, and immortality, how was He made poor? Or how is He who is blessing made a curse on our account?
CHAPTER XVIII.
In a similar way, we must understand what was said to the apostles in John: “If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father; for the Father who sent me is greater than I.” For how does He, who said “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me,” and “The Father who C abides in me does the works,” and “He who sent me is with me,” go or get sent according to His divinity? And [how is this said of Him] who is witnessed to be the One who “emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,” and that “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him”? For he who sends, sends thither where he who sends and he who is sent are not. But if God is present everywhere and contains all things, embracing creation, and neither departing, nor coming back again, nor changing places for places—for the Psalmist says: “The Lord is near to those who fear Him,” and again: D “If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present. If I assume my wings at dawn, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me”—and Jeremiah: “I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord.” And the Acts: “And yet He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live, and move, and exist, as even some of our own poets have said.”
A And if the Lord Himself explains how He never stripped the heavens of His own presence, just as even now after His Ascension He does not abandon the earth—for He says: “Behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age”—thereby confirming what was sung by the holy herald in the Psalm, through which he proclaimed Him to be both on earth and seated in heaven upon the divine throne; for He says: “The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord, His throne is in heaven.”
If these things are so, the words “I go” and “He who sent me,” which the Lord spoke insofar as He took the form of a servant, are unassailable. He said them because the Jews did not believe in the dispensation, and because He appeared in accordance with the agreement of God and the Father. And not for this reason only, but also that those dull of mind B and uncultivated Montanists might be put to shame, who think the same one is Son-Father and Paraclete at once; and along with them, also the Manichaean, who does not accept the Old Testament, but calls the Father inhuman—as having cast Adam out of paradise—while calling the Son alone a lover of mankind, as having come by Himself and saved us. For how could we give thanks to Christ alone, if the Father also sent Him? C The Scripture is accustomed to use the term “He who sent” and “He was sent” in reference to the ineffable condescension. And just as it was impossible for the incomprehensible to be encompassed by mortal speech, so too was it necessary that the account be constructed with an accommodation of words, lest anyone get a suspicion of antitheism; indeed, D “all things are full of God,” as has been said. And the ever-living voice testifies to this, saying: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I spoke for the sake of the crowd standing around, that they might believe that you sent me.” That is to say: “I knew that you always hear me.”
while our will is one; but because of the crowd standing around, that they might believe, I said, 'Father, I thank you that you sent me.'” He uttered the words in reverse order, doing so cautiously for the sake of those listening who were contentious and fond of enmity, just as he also said concerning the one who proclaimed the dispensation regarding the Precursor: “There was a man sent from God,” and yet he was not in fact sent from the heavens. B
We read in the Scriptures that God is also sent by man, and that a man is called God, without any detriment coming to the divine and true glory. Thus, Moses says in Genesis: “And he crossed the torrent, and he brought across all that he had. And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until morning. And he saw that he could not overcome Jacob in wrestling; and he said to him: 'Let me go; for the dawn has risen.' But he said: 'I will not let you go, unless you bless me.' And he said to him: 'What is your name?' He said: 'Jacob.' And he said to him: 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name, because you have been strong with God, and with men you shall be powerful.' And Jacob asked, and said: 'Tell me your name.' And he said: 'Why do you ask my name?' And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of that place, 'The Appearance of God': For I have seen God face to face, and my soul has been saved.” That it is God who wrestled and did not tell his name is also confirmed by prophecy: “I appeared to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, your fathers, being their God, and my name I did not manifest to them.”
But how can the Father be said to be greater according to deity than the One who makes himself equal to the Father, who says, “I and the Father are one,” and of whom it is said in the Scriptures that he is the true God, and the Son, and the Only-Begotten, “in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead,” and “the great God, before whom no other shall be reckoned,” and that he sits at the right hand? But it is confessed that that term, “greater,” is referred to the Incarnation, on account of which He, who is entirely devoid of any change, is said by the Apostle to be made even less than the angels—if it is permitted to speak thus—in his words: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, on account of the suffering of death.” Naturally, not as he exists in the form of God in the heavens, but as he exists in the form of a servant on earth, when he came forth from the Virgin without any change of his own, he was saying: “The Father who sent me is greater than I”; as if he were saying: “That Godhead, which is invisible to you and to every mind, is greater than this visible condescension of mine.” For he who in reality…
A condescends, who ministers—yet is not ministered unto—who bears the form of a servant even while he is in the form of God, how should he not also condescend in his words? He himself, who is more sublime and exalted than any discourse, to the point that among John he even rebukes those who received the words spoken by him in a lowly sense on account of the economy, that is, the Incarnation, saying: “I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.” The Father also honors the Son, saying: “Sit at my right hand,” and furthermore draws to him those who were worthy. From this very fact, that he confidently called God Father, it is shown that that expression “greater” is said with respect to the Incarnation.
However, it is easier to show by an example that the word “greater” should not be referred to the Godhead. B For the Lord says: “Amen, I say to you, there has not arisen among those born of women one greater than John the Baptist.” But Christ did not say he was greater because he was a different or greater human nature; for all who were pursuing virtue were either equal to him or only slightly inferior. Nor was John called greater because he was superior in power or because he had received his birth at an earlier time; for he had lived in the world for thirty years, and there were those who surpassed him in the strength of their bodies and the number of their years. But he did not call him greater than men for this reason, but because of the prophecy, which he had received as being most especially divine. And again: “He who is lesser in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” He was speaking about John the Apostle, who was lesser in years than John the Forerunner, but C greater in the dignity of the apostleship. For “God has placed in the Church,” as Paul writes, “first apostles, then prophets.” He said, “lesser in the kingdom of heaven,” because the names of all are written in the book of the living, and his name was fittingly placed later as he was younger. Some, indeed, understood this passage concerning the Lord, saying that he was lesser according to the form of a servant, in which he was supposed to be lesser than the prophets and priests, but greater according to the Godhead. Therefore, according to this explanation as well, the words “greater” and “he who sent” do not diminish his consubstantiality with the Father.
As it was already said a little before, he who uses a haughty style of speech D and always assigns the first place to himself and demands honor, seems to have a certain elation of mind; and an elation of mind is a kind of pride; yet nothing did he wish to be held in greater contempt than pride: for of him who is greater, there is no greater concern than to be lowly.
has God; or perhaps A (50) he has a greater care for him who is lesser. For he has it entirely, even if he does not say it, from his own nature, so that he is greater; nor does anyone who thinks rightly doubt this. For this cause he says: "If I (51) bear witness of myself, my witness is not true; it is my Father who bears witness of me." But lest anyone should think that this was said by him on account of his littleness, he says elsewhere: "And if I (52) bear witness of myself, my witness is true." But in the first [discourse] (53) it has been sufficiently shown that this expression "greater" was said neither in respect of essence, nor in respect of power, nor in respect of heavenly glory. Indeed, even men approved among the Greeks say: Immortalis vero Deus, supremus in æthere habitans, Incorruptus, inconcussus, æternus, semper similis.
CAP. XIX.
B There are also other oracles in the Scriptures, which the heretics have not accepted in that sense which would be worthy of the supreme and incomprehensible hypostases. Of this kind is that saying: "The Father (54) gave me commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." Such also is that which is said concerning the Holy Spirit: "He shall not speak from himself (55), but he shall receive of mine, and he shall announce it to you"; and what is read elsewhere: "I have not (56) spoken from myself"; and again: "As (57) the Father commanded me, so I do"; and again: "The word (58), which you hear, is not mine, but his who sent me." And things akin to these. For the Lord used such expressions, in so far as he is the Word of the Father; as he wished to show us the unity of nature, and the ineffable concord and consensus of the holy Trinity; and that the documents of the Trinity itself are common to the three persons, and not diverse. For every creature, if it be rational, has its own will, to which, as it is written (59), it imposes silence, so that it may speak from the will of God. Therefore C sometimes it says and does what is its own, and sometimes what is God's; and in some things it breathes in harmony with the similar man, but in others, it wills otherwise. For God the Word, being Dominator and Wisdom, and the holy Spirit of God indeed, as he proceeds from him, and according to the Apostle searches his deep things, and alone knows the things of God, and bestows divine gifts by his own power, therefore before he speaks or acts, he does not wait to hear, as creatures do, which can not only be ignorant of God's will, but sometimes also fail to do it: as when Abraham indeed, hesitating, says: "Shall I (60), O Lord, if I speak?" and Moses, deprecating and refusing: "I am (61) weak of voice and slow of tongue"; and: "I beseech, O Lord; I cannot alone carry the burden of this people; appoint another for thyself." And Aaron and Mariam of their own motion grew bold against Moses, when Mariam also became leprous, and the Lord was moved with anger. But also David, doing his own will, and numbering the people, is reproved. And
Jeremias, when he had spoken contrary to the purpose of the long-suffering and unresentful God: "I am young, and cannot prophesy," he heard: "Do not say: I am young." And Jonas, doing his own will and not that of God, boarded a ship and fled to Tharsis from the presence of the Lord, who is everywhere. And Paul, speaking to the Galatians about the apostles, says: "But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly toward the truth of the Gospel, I said to Cephas before all" these things. A Now, so that unbelievers may be persuaded, or at least if they can be persuaded, it is necessary to prolong the argument. Before the coming of the Son of God into the world, false Christs and false prophets appeared, such as Judas the Galilean, as the Acts of the Apostles contain, deceiving and not teaching the things of God and His Law; concerning whom Ezekiel also prophesies: "As I live, says the Lord, concerning the prophets who deceive my people, I did not send them; they spoke from themselves." B Having come, therefore, the true Christ was suspected of being a deceiver. For the Gospel has it, as in the feast of the Tabernacles the crowds were seeking Jesus, saying: "Where is he?" And there was a dispute about him: some were saying, "He is good," others were saying, "No, he deceives the crowd." And again the chief priests say to Pilate: "We know, Lord, that that deceiver said while still living: After three days I will rise again." The Savior, therefore, said about them thus: "All who came before me were thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them. My sheep hear my voice, and recognize my voice, and follow me." But about Himself He says: "I do not speak from myself," C as those men did—it is obvious. Moreover, foreknowing future events as God, and that after His ascension into heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit there would again be deceivers, such as Simon, as Montanus, as Manichaeus, He provided a safeguard by saying: "When the Paraclete comes, the Spirit of truth... he will remind you of my words, and will guide you into all the truth."
He will not speak on his own authority." That is to say: "Do not withhold faith from the Holy Spirit, who says and teaches the same things that I do; for He is not of a different will, nor of a different essence." A Do not believe those who claim that they have the Holy Spirit, but who do not speak the things that are mine or those of the prophets. And do not endure the Manichaean, who does not admit the Old Testament, but condemns the good Father of inhumanity—the Father who speaks with me and performs the acts that declare His kindness toward men. Furthermore, since the Son is the subsistent Word of God, and is in the Father, and has the Father in Himself, He is rightly said not to speak on His own authority; but, as it has been written before, He speaks the things of God, since He is as an ineffable God, ineffably beholding the will of the Father. And the same thing must be said of the Holy Spirit, for He is a divine Spirit.
One must also conceive of it in another way. When the Word of the Father says, "The Spirit will not speak on His own authority, but will take of what is mine," the bond of the one essence and the one will in the Trinity is displayed. B Since He did not say, "He does not speak on His own authority," but rather, "He will not speak," it is apparent that those words, "He will not speak," must be referred to a certain time and matter. For when Moses was shrinking back, as has been said before, God said to him: "Choose for yourself seventy elders, and I will take of the Spirit that is in you, and I will give it upon them." Yet God did not receive from the Spirit that was in Moses as one in need.
Furthermore, regarding the Only-begotten and the Spirit of God, Scripture testifies elsewhere, in this manner, that as those endowed with their own authority and as Lord, They act and speak. Concerning the Son, for instance, David says: "Our God is in heaven and on earth; all that He willed, He has done" (Ps. CXIII, 11). And Isaiah: "Mighty, Potentate" (Isa. IX, 6). And furthermore, by His own power He operated divine virture, and C performed miracles, as was said before. Concerning the Holy Spirit, for example, the Lord teaches thus: "The Spirit breathes where He wills" (John III, 8). And Paul: "But all these things one and the same Spirit operates, distributing to each one's own, as He wills" (1 Cor. XII, 11).
CAPUT XX.
A They imagine that the Only-Begotten lays aside His kingdom, and is not an eternal King, and is subjected to God as a kind of demigod (may He be gracious to us!), and that only the Father is B "all in all," from those things which Paul wrote to the Corinthians in these words: "When He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when He shall have brought to nought all principality, and power, and virtue; for He must reign until He hath put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death; for He hath put all things under His feet. And when He shall say, All things are put under him, it is manifest that He is excepted who put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." We respond that these words, for one who examines them accurately, must be accepted as referring to the form of a servant; for if He were subjected as God, He would have been subjected from the beginning. C This is further established by the prophecy of Daniel, which reads almost word for word as follows: "I beheld in the vision of the night, and lo, with the clouds of heaven, as it were the Son of Man coming, and He reached even to the Ancient of Days; and He was brought before Him, and to Him was given the principality, and the honor, and the kingdom; and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve Him; His power is an eternal power, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed." For He calls the Father the Ancient of Days; but by Him who was brought to Him as the Son of Man, to whom was given the principality, and the honor, and the kingdom, He signifies Him who was made conformable to our abjection. If, therefore, they do not grant that the words cited from the Apostle and the prophet were spoken for this reason, it remains that they must reject the testimony of one or the other by using a sort of prescription D and exception. For according to the apostolic words, now indeed the Son reigns, but after the resurrection He lays down His kingdom, as they imagine. But according to the prophecy, now indeed the King of kings and Lord of lords does not yet reign; but then He will begin to reign, and afterwards appear again in God and the Father. Moreover, it is discovered that He was subject to His Virgin Mother and to Joseph in the economy, and clearly He was subject voluntarily, and not compelled by necessity, nor casting away any of His royal dignity, but rather by such condescension demonstrating the transcendence of His deity, and the gentleness of the Creator's power, and arranging for us to be obedient to our parents.
A To these he justly granted to be honored, as he said in Luke: "Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?" And he went down, he says, to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. But according to the heretics, he was not yet subject to the Father and to God; and Paul was a liar when he wrote to the Philippians: "He became obedient unto death, even death on a cross." Therefore, just as, though he existed as equal to God and in the form of God, he was made sin and a curse not for his own sake, but for our sake; so also, it is written that he is to deliver up the kingdom and be subject, not for his own sake, but for our sake, since out of his love for humanity he became, without any confusion of natures, what we are—except for sin—while remaining one and the same. For how can the Creator of all things and the one who rules over all (among which all things the ages are also placed), who was proclaimed by the prophets as the first and the hereafter, B and as Almighty, not continue to rule and reign over the ages to come, together with the Father and the Spirit, just as he does now and always?
That his kingdom is interminable (for the kingdom of the Trinity is one and undivided) was confirmed more accurately and laboriously in the first book by the testimonies of Scripture. For it is rightly established that Gabriel said: "He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end"; and David: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a rod of uprightness is the rod of thy kingdom; thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." Regarding those words of Paul, C "That God may be all in all," they indeed refer primarily to God, and do not distinguish person from person; yet the same Apostle writes similar things regarding the Son. To the Romans: "Of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all." And to the Colossians, speaking about the world to come, he says: "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all." And again, writing about the Church, he says: "Which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."
A And elsewhere: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." And again: "That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." For if that is not false which says: "In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily," and that which says: "Reconciling the world in him," and that which says: "For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself," and not unto another—then those who fight against the Godhead have been overthrown. For they do not grant him communion with the Father as a Son, nor do they even concede to him the equality of joint-ownership that one friend might grant another. For Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, wishing to demonstrate the covenant of friendship to Ahab, the king of Israel, said: "As thou art, so am I; and as thy people, so my people; and as thy horses, so my horses." And he offered to him, though he was not born of him, an equal honor in his own kingdom. B Similarly, it is said that for the disciples, too, according to the Scripture, all things were common and undivided because of Christ. The words of the heretics, therefore, are more shameless than those of the devil. For he, the hater of God, not yet having learned of the economy—which was made known to angels at the same time it was to us, for as yet—to speak more boasting-ly, he did not know it at the time when it was made known through us, being convinced by Paul, who clearly proclaims: "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." And for this reason, daring to tempt, he left the power of the Savior alone, saying: "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down." C But these men, destroying the dignity of the divine and ineffable generation as far as in them lies, in a certain way shake the eternal throne, and defining it, they say: "We do not believe you when you say: 'I and my Father are one,' and, 'All things that the Father hath are mine.' And we believe no less but that we also disbelieve God and the Father, who says: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' Depart from the royal throne." Through these things, in the parable in Luke, it clearly appears what is said concerning them. For he says to the angels: "As for these mine enemies, who would not
are those who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here, and slay them before me.”
CHAPTER XXI
Since heretics wish to apply those things which are spoken in Scripture for the designation of Christ’s human affections to God the Word, and not to the economy—that is, the Incarnation—they claim that he became inanimate flesh. And as though he who is the great, immutable, and incorruptible God were led by repentance before his agony, or were subject to agony not voluntarily and willingly but by necessity, or as though he were not at all able to avoid if he had wished the things he suffered upon the cross, they—despising the divinity which is in no way to be despised—cast in his teeth that which is read in Matthew: A “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” B and this: “Save me from this hour,” and that which was said upon the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and this: “My soul is sorrowful even unto death,” and that he wept for Lazarus, and that he rested as though fatigued from a journey, and that he prayed, and hungered for food, and thirsted, and experienced sleep in a boat—away with such unbelief!—and that: “An angel of the Lord appeared, strengthening him,” and other things of this sort. But the Scriptures themselves, which attest that he is equal to God according to his divinity and that he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, as well as all things previously spoken, stand in opposition to these heretics and refute them. Furthermore, the fact that he spoke with confidence, saying “Father,” and that he himself animates all things that are animate, and that he never spoke as a minister—saying “In the name of God” or “Let it be done by my Father”—when performing one of his miracles, stands against them. Rather, as his disciples said to those whose diseases were difficult to cure and whose bodies were weak and putrid: “In the name of Jesus Christ, arise,” and in that omnipotent and glorious name performed those things which all created beings together could not do; C but he performed miracles by his own authority, he forgave sins, and by commanding he said: “Your sins are forgiven you,” D he snatched souls from Hades, he put demons to flight, and by rebuking the sea he commanded: “Be silent, be muzzled.” He rebuked the winds, and they ceased. Giving the keys of heaven to Peter, he said: “Whatever you release on earth shall be released in the heavens, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in the heavens.” To Laz-
Laza- A rus he gave command: “Come out from the tomb”; to another he ordered: “Young man, arise”; to the leper he said: “I will, be thou made clean”; to another: “Take heart, child, your sins are forgiven”; to another: “Arise, take up your pallet, and walk”; to the demon: “O speech- B less,” he says, “and deaf demon, I command you: depart.” And these things not only stand in opposition, but the mindset of the abusers regarding the verse, “Why have you forsaken me?” was also beforehand undermined; on one hand, by the Lord himself proclaiming through the same John: “Behold, the hour comes and is now here, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and leave me alone; and I am not alone, because my Father is with me”; and on the other, by Paul writing to the Hebrews that the Holy Spirit also was inseparable from him: “For if,” he says, “the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who are defiled, hallows for the purity of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Jesus, who through the Holy Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your hearts from an evil conscience?”
Then, indeed, he offered himself to God through the Holy Spirit when he voluntarily ascended the cross. Therefore, the words are not to be understood nakedly just as they seem to sound; but these things also ought to be accepted C in such a way that he himself, condescending in all things and becoming poor in the form of a servant, and although he is devoid of any change, nevertheless transforming himself in his speaking like an ordinary human being, and preserving every consequence of the incarnation, and in nothing corrupting the character of truth, he spoke humbly—inasmuch as he is true Wisdom—the things that befit human condition, so that we too, having become like him and perfectly conformed to him, according to the Apostle, might do the things that befit and please him, and journey from earthly things to heavenly ones. D And as to what has been said about this by outsiders, there is nothing like hearing from those very ones. For in this way we shall not only love the greatness of speech of our saints even more, but we shall also more and more admire that one Wisdom who is the dispenser of all gifts. They have it thus:
For often they speak as much as mortals are able to hear, But other thoughts lie within their words, more sublime.
A And so, one must look keenly with pure eyes, and towards the truth of God (receive, blessed one, these gifts) proceed along a path more divine than myths. For how could we have been assured that He took our infirmities upon the venerable cross—in accordance with what is written [Matt. viii, 17]—in order to provide a better state for men through it, unless He had first assumed them into Himself in the way He knows, and demonstrated them?
And furthermore, how could we have discovered that He truly became living flesh, and not just in appearance, when the Manichaeans B think He had a body only in appearance, while the Arians believe it was inanimate; unless He had said, "My soul is sorrowful" [cf. Matt. xxvi, 38], and shown fear, and partaken of food, drink, and sleep? For such things befit neither divinity nor inanimate flesh. For what concerns the body, only the passions belonging to the body itself—those that can weaken and corrupt the body—are understood; not the passions of the soul, which arise in us due to a lack of necessary or useful things. But what concerns the soul, worries and anxieties resulting from those very passions are detected in it. For this reason, even profane authors, speaking of this foolish madness, enjoin these things:
Flee quickly, far from earthly passions, flee, With the most excellent eye of the soul, and its steady rays. As if to restrain the body with heavy reins, Through the purity of the soul and the celestial light of the Father.
C If we examine, therefore, not least also the other scriptural passages, which are far removed from the perverted opinions of the heretics, as I have already said, we shall learn in a similar manner that the God who is devoid of every change and passion was not stricken with fear; who voluntarily, according to the Apostle writing to the Galatians, "despoiled [Col. ii, 15] principalities and powers," and gave Himself for our sins, "that He might deliver us from this present evil age" [Gal. i, 4]; who rebuked Peter when he felt distress, because He predicted that He must be crucified, and die, and rise again on the third day; who voluntarily ascended the cross, and "exulted as a giant to run his course" [cf. Ps. xviii, 6]; D who by His life-giving death killed death and redeemed all from death; who by His own authority, power, and operation, awakened also another multitude of men who had previously died, together with Himself, and bestowed the hope of resurrection upon all human nature; who rendered death for His sake fearless to all, and the desire for...
A a beautiful death, prompted one not to flee through fear, but to compose oneself according to the will of God, so that those who faithfully apply themselves to Him may accept suffering and death for His sake without sorrow and without disturbance, crying out with Paul: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” For while it is natural for a mortal, even if he relies upon the virtue of his life, to fear death, it is impossible for the immortal God to cast away immortality and take on fear.
But He also tasted death in the flesh, just as He Himself knew and willed, and remained immortal, bestowing life upon all even then. Otherwise, some impotence would be attributed even to the Father, because of those words, “If it be possible,” and a fear that does not exist in reality would be imputed to the Son because of the word, “Let it pass.” B And His ascent to the cross would appear involuntary, whereas it proceeded from His own benevolence toward humanity and His own free will; and His powerful and weighty descent into Hades would not be considered to have arisen from the movement of the Son’s own will. Thus, John would be found to be a liar, who says, “He is life,” and, “He gives life to whom He wills,” as would also Paul, who preaches: “He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,” and, “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”—which means, enduring until the cross; for he did not say simply, “unto death.” So too, the Lord would be a liar for saying: “I am the light, I am the life and the resurrection,” and, “I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay C it down, and I have power to take it again.” Why then do we give thanks, as to a guardian who possesses authority first and alone, to One who suffered for us unwillingly and under some compulsion, as do those who are governed by another? Or why do we celebrate with fear every year, or rather every day, and even every hour, in faith, the much-desired and most providential Pascha, participating in His body and blood? Those who have been deemed worthy of the highest and eternal mystery know what I say; for worship and thanksgiving are owed to Him who, by His own intent and without repentance, has provided some good of His own.
D For Quadragesima (the Great Fast) occurs but once in the year; but Pascha [occurs] three times in the week, and sometimes even four, or rather as often as we wish. For the Pascha... is the offering and the sacrifice which takes place at every synaxis, that is, at every assembly.
A
Someone might say that it was in mercy towards those of whom he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (75), that he also said, "Let this cup pass from me"—meaning, "pass away from them," so that they might not commit so great an impiety against me for their own destruction. Nor is this interpretation of the words, "Let this cup pass," foreign to the truth. For since he saw the devil trembling and fleeing when the Savior showed himself to be God through his miracles, but approaching him when he spoke the things proper to humanity, B he manifested the fear of death present to him to the one who "catches the wise in their craftiness," so that, just as when he had dared to tempt him before, he retreated in desperation, having gained nothing but ignominy and having made himself a laughingstock, so now too, thinking him to be merely a man again and not God—who he knew had appeared in the flesh in a way known only to him—he might quickly run forth and suggest his crucifixion, and thus, while he endeavored to injure the invincible God, he himself might unknowingly be wounded and retreat; while we, quickened by the cross of Christ and redeemed by his most providential death, might cry out with Paul writing to the Corinthians: "O death, where is thy victory? O grave, where is thy sting?"
And so, the Lord's words were not those of distress; for regarding God the Father (whom, as the holy man said, "all things fear and tremble before the face of his power"), Isaiah speaks in a certain mystical vision: "Hear now, O house of David; is it a small thing for you to provide a struggle for men? And how do you provide a struggle for the Lord? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the Virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us." C But let our discourse return to where it departed. The supreme impassibility, and Life, and Joy, and Peace, and the Patience of all, he who gives bright days to all, does not weep for any other reason, but to reveal and tremble before the face of your power, that is, "O Lord Almighty... whom all things fear, and tremble before the face of your power." It is no wonder that this prayer is cited by the Alexandrian writer. For it is cited as part of the Holy Scripture by the very ancient author of the Apostolic Constitutions, book 2, chapter 22. D The Alexandrian codex contains it after the psalms among the sacred canticles. Also, the parchment codex of our Saint Savior library of Bologna, written in the twelfth century and consisting of 369 pages, after the Greek Psalter adds eleven canticles, the last of which is this prayer. And in the Nanian codex of the fifteenth century, which contains the interpretation of the Psalms by Hesychius of Jerusalem, twelve canticles are appended to the Psalms, the last two of which are the prayer of Manasses and the prayer of Simeon the Elder, with an explanation by Hesychius himself, as I suppose. Furthermore, Saint Thomas in the *Summa Theologiae*, part III, q. 84, art. 10, citing the prayer of Manasses, calls it the final chapter of the second book of Chronicles.
A and our discourse returns. He, therefore, who is the impassibility of the highest nature, life, and joy, and peace, and is all-tolerant, and grants joyous days to all, is moved by no other cause than to manifest, through visible action, the compassion of His invisible deity; for He is always accustomed to intermingle Himself by words or works with some affections, so that we, as if from certain traces, may be moved toward the hunt for the knowledge of the divine, and discover that whatever is peculiar to the divine economy is of compassion.
For the purpose of rebuking the mind of the sisters of Lazarus, as having nothing faithful or firm: for to Him who asked, "Where have you laid him?" they ought to have replied: "You know all things, as You are the Son of God, even as is clear from the things You said before, when you were apparently at a long distance: 'Lazarus our friend sleeps.' And even if You were to command, he would return from the underworld, preceding the general resurrection by his own; for all things are entirely easy for You if You will it." Since, therefore, they ought to have said these things, they said on the contrary: "He B has been dead four days, he already stinks." We would say concerning this, that He wept, as a king, submitting Himself to His own decrees—those that command "to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to weep with those who weep," and by this means putting an end to our ancient lamentation.
Neither does He grow weary according to His deity, but according to the sequence of the incarnation, He who heals the contrite, and gives rest to the weary and heavy-laden, He who has His going forth from the summit of heaven and His return to its summit; for to Him there is neither diminution, nor end, nor labor. For even if He sometimes appears seated on a foal, yet as God He was hymned by innocent children, who cried out: "Hosanna in the highest," which is interpreted: "Save, You who are in the highest." And by David C in the 49th Psalm: "From the rising of the sun even to the going down, out of Sion is the beauty of His splendor; God shall come manifestIy." Nor does He desire food against His will, He who is the Bread of Life, to whom all things look, according to the Psalmist saying: "The eyes of all wait upon You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing with delight." And again: "All things look expectantly to You,"
that You may give them food in due season"; He who satisfied five thousand men, besides women and children, with five loaves and two fish, and caused twelve baskets of fragments to remain; He who said to the devil, "Man shall not live by bread alone," He who set before us all an all-sufficient and unfailing table, namely His own goodness, saying: "He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst"; He who came to the fig tree as if hungry, but as God commanded that the plant should no longer bear fruit, and confirmed His word by the deed, and showed that He is the One who said in the beginning: "Let the earth bring forth fruit-bearing trees." He, being the immortal fountain, does not thirst, except for the sake of the economy, He who taught the Samaritan woman to ask of Him the water of life. It suffices, however, to recall this evangelical voice, which says thus: "Christ knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, says: 'I thirst'"; so that it is evident that Christ did not utter that word compelled by thirst, but that nothing of those things which had been said in the Scriptures might be omitted.
Neque somno involuntarie captus est; C nor was He who is the Lord of all, and indeed of sleep, subject to this involuntary experience; He who neither sleeps nor slumbers, but watches over Christians, and remains impassible in His divinity even while He dwells in the passions; so that the Psalmist addresses Him thus: "Arise as one sleeping, O Lord." The word "as" does not indicate sleep absolutely; for as soon as He was awakened from sleep, He rebuked it as God, and the winds were calmed, and the sea became so sedated that, ceasing to be agitated by waves and to roar, it was beaten by oars, and gave the opportunity for singing a hymn with nautical harmony, and with the pleasure of all who had cried out: "Christ, save us." For when true life is understood to be sleeping, then all things must be conceived as dead, as if not receiving life. For where, while this is sleeping, death is watching, and no one can catch the vital breezes. He is not poor, therefore, as He who is from heaven and in need of nothing, who is rich D in mercy and good in compassions; and who provided as a remedy for the pain of our poverty His own incarnation. Nor does He stand in need of another's strength: for it is written that in Him all things consist; and that every knee of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, bows to Him, and that in this [195 b] economy angels came and ministered to Him.
A What then is the meaning of, "There appeared an angel of the Lord strengthening Him"? It stands for "glorifying Him." For Moses also established this by singing such a song in the desert: "All the angels of God shall worship Him; and let all the sons of God strengthen Him"; that is to say, they shall sing His praises. Another Scripture also confirms these things, introducing angels saying: "Thine is the glory, Thine is the power, Thine is the virtue, Thine is the strength." B Those outside [the faith] also uttered hymns of praise thus: All things lie under the nods of the mind of great God. He is the beginning, the fountain of life, and the most eminent glory, And power and force, and the incorruptible vigor of strength, And mighty virtue, and encompassing necessity.
Nor does the great and true God, the brightness of the Father’s glory, the living Word of God and provider for all, pray as if He were lesser in divinity; for He is not changed by prayer, as we are, into [a state of freedom from] troublesome things, He who by will alone, and by His mere presence, brings about good hope for all, and through the bestowing of good things forestalls our prayers; for, he says, "Unto Him shall they pray." But He prays so that He might have come to be as we are, without confusion and without sin, and he was eager to demonstrate this through more illustrious deeds. For He who spoke such words, and was fixed to the cross in the flesh, hands and feet—the former, on account of whom He brought such things to the heights, He exalted, but the demons [194 a] He dashed into Hades. C And this is what Paul writes: "Having stripped off the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them, triumphing over them in Himself." And from the very sources from which they bring the charge, the refutation comes. For the same author, having been made wise by the Spirit of Wisdom, writes to the point, in a manner somehow sharp D and deep, yet becoming to God, and possessing not undiscerning, but reverent obedience—which constitutes...
From this point, moreover, the answer and refutation are sought, from which they themselves take their accusation. For the same Apostle, having become wise through the Spirit of Wisdom, writes a sentence that is in a way extremely sharp and profound, yet fitting to God, and not difficult to understand, and belonging equally both to the sublimity of the Only-Begotten and to his condescension, which stands thus: "Who in the days of his flesh, offerings up prayers and supplications with strong crying to him who was able to save him from death, and was heard for his piety—though he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered." B Since, therefore, he himself, in as much as he consists of two natures, has been demonstrated to be the natural Son of God, and not otherwise, and furthermore not on account of his own deity, but when he was in the flesh on account of the flesh, and for the sake of the flesh, he poured out supplications as one pious—that is, free from sin—for sinners to Him in whom he was, and whom he had within himself, in as much as he was one with Him in deity, "from what he suffered," having in a peculiar way shared human flesh with us, and having learned generally the obedience of the flesh, he blotted out our ancient disobedience. It would therefore be foolish to conceive in the deity of fear, or weeping, or weariness, and whatever was said before. For the Son, the Word, can do all things, being only excepted that which cannot be subjected to these things according to the paternal generation, in the same way as it is impossible for God to lie, as Paul writes while displeased with such people. It stands thus: "In which it is impossible for God to lie."
Therefore, let the heretics, "with hook and bridle constraining their jaws," withdraw from those things they cannot attain, and let them not curiously inquire into what is forbidden to investigate: for what need have they of this? But when they hear what has been brought forward, let them understand it in such a way that he said some things as man, and others as God; and let them acknowledge and adore with us his ineffable and inexplicable kindness toward men, and with the Apostle, and with us, let them cry out: "The peace of God surpasses all mind"; and, "The riches of Christ are unsearchable"; and at the same time with the Psalmist, let them chant: "The judgments of the Lord are a great abyss." These things, indeed, the truly faithful and accurate preachers [have said]. But even the profane have given these counsels and warnings:
Do not manipulate the mysteries: do not investigate God. For there is not such strength in man, To find, by tracing and seeking, The inspector of all things, the uncontainable nature. But you would attain him easily, if you are persuaded That the Creator of all things is the greatest.
CHAPTER XXII.
But let us proceed to another chapter. Therefore, the most wise answer also, which looks toward the general end of the universe, which from the Lord of all the apostles received in Mark, which concerning the general end says these things: "But of that day..."
A or hour, no one knows, nor even the angels who are in heaven, nor the Son, except the Father"—they interpret incorrectly. For Matthew, indeed, before him, approaching the other expressions without omission, did not say that the Son is ignorant, but also set forth the very form of the end, speaking thus: "But of that day or hour, no one knows, nor the angels of the heavens, except the Father alone. For as the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." The other evangelists, therefore, did not mention this at all B. But the apostles provided the solution for this heretical opposition, saying in the Gospel according to John: "Now we know that you know all things," for the Son is the Word of God, through whom all things came into existence, among which things is also the last day. And it is necessary not to interpret in an unseemly way that which was ordained for a providential purpose. For just as for our sake he chose to assume the form of a servant, so also he chose to say that he is ignorant. For he used this as a kind of remedy, because it is profitable for humanity not to know that about which it asks; so that it might always be expectant, and by thinking that the time of judgment is at the doors, it might be ready through works C and faith, so as to be saved. For he was not unaware of the time he created, which he did not know; nor again was he ignorant of his own second coming, he who is in the Father and has the Father in himself; it is clear, moreover, that he knows it with his knowledge. For if the Father is in him, he who knows all things, he himself also knows, he who contemplates everything in the Father. For how could he not see, he who possesses the light in himself; who brought everything into order and decoration; who knows all things before they come into being; the creator of the times; who also set a limit for the creation, and established the quantity of days of its constitution, and having said: "As a thief in the night D comes the last day"; and again: "It shall not be in the night, so that the day might not overtake you in darkness"; he who has also foretold the signs that are to come concerning that time, and who is about to cause that very dreadful and never-setting day to rise, he who is of the judgment...
A and manner has been shown to have the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and having foretold: “There shall be heresies and schisms among you,” and the denial of Judas, and the denial of Peter before the cock-crowing, and the destruction of the temple; he who has signaled those who shall be false prophets in the last times; he who says: “No one knows the Father, except the Son,” and, “As the Father knows me, I also know him.” It is clear, however, that with this knowledge he knows the Father.
If it is one thing to know the Father, and another to know the things of the Father, it will be greater to know the Father B than to know what is his, that is, even the last day; inasmuch as every person is greater than the things that are his own. But it is also possible that the statement, “No one knows that day or hour, neither the Son, except the Father,” might be what one of the holy Fathers, filled with wisdom, taught in a non-syllogistic manner (Basil was his name); intending that, “Unless the Father knows, neither does the Son know,” following which, as it is impossible for the Father to know and for me to be ignorant—but I do not say, he says: “For I do all things according to the will of the Father; but for you to know this is not the will of the Father.” Therefore, to you, he says, I am ignorant, not being ignorant in truth; for I foretold to you through the Psalmist: “How far from my sal- C vation are the words of my trespasses!” That is to say, far from my divinity are the
[The Latin column continues the critical commentary on the interpretation of texts such as 1 Thess. 5:4 and the authenticity of certain quotes:]
...it is likely, however, that Paul is also cited here, 1 Thess. v, 4, where it is read: *ou estè en skotei, ina...* that is, “you are not in darkness, that the day... [as a] thief might overtake you,” that that day comes as a thief in the night. And he says: “It shall not be in the night, so that the day in darkness overtake us.” But Petavius furthermore at first thinks these words are taken from John xii, 35. Second, he translates the whole passage thus: “For so the (Son) speaks: As a thief in the night, so shall that day arrive.” Then that: “Do not remain in the night, lest that day take you in darkness.” Third, he notes that for *ouk estai*, that is, “it shall not be,” one should perhaps read *ouk este*, that is, “you are not.” But Didymus also reads, “It shall not be.” Fourth, for *hina*, that is, “that,” he perhaps judged that one should read *hina me* [“lest”]; for he translates, “lest.” But Didymus also reads, “that.” Finally, the word *kai* [“and”], is perhaps a printer’s error: for Petavius himself translates “you,” not in truth “us.” Furthermore, in a similar way that text, “No one can receive the Holy Spirit, except from the Lord,” which Didymus cites in segment [a], is not currently read in the Scriptures, but it was read in them in Didymus’s age: certain copies indeed had it in 1 Cor. xii, 3, as I gather from Epiphanius’s *Ancoratus*, cap. 69. Thus then that text, “And I will adore you, O Lord, my strength,” which Didymus cites in segment [b], it is clear that it existed in the Bibles of Didymus’s age from the same *Ancoratus*, cap. 50, where it is thus cited: *Kyrie, ischys mou*, that is, “And let him adore you, O Lord, my strength.”
(37) *Erunt*. These things are not in the Gospels. He cites perhaps the sense, not the words. See Ep. ad Cor. xi, 19, and Epist. II Petr. ii, 1. Moreover, Justin also in the *Dialogue with Trypho*, num. 35, attributes these very words to Christ the Lord, while he speaks thus: *Eipe gar (Iesous Christos)...* that is, “For he said (Jesus Christ)... There shall be schisms and heresies.” In a similar way Jerome, epist. 119, num. 11, says: “And the words of the Savior saying: ‘Be approved money-changers’”: even though these words do not exist currently in Scripture.
(41) *Quidam sanctorum Patrum*. The interpretation which Didymus here cites from Basil exists in letter 236, which Basil himself wrote in the year [376] to Amphilochius, tom. III of the Works, page 362, of the Paris edition. But that Basil, even though having finished life a few years earlier, is addressed thus by Didymus will not be marveled at by one who knows that even Gregory, brother of Basil himself, in his opuscule *De resurrectione* speaks thus: *Ho megas en hagiois Basileios*, that is, “that great holy man, Basil.” Furthermore, I do not doubt that when the same Basil was among the living, Didymus knew him by face and was his friend: for he had come to Alexandria to visit the monks dwelling in Egypt, as is evident from his epist. 223, num. 2.
(42) *Simpliciter*. In the Greek, *asyllogistos*. Furthermore, in the Lateran Council, which was held under Pope Martin I, a certain passage of Basil is thus cited secretly, that is, from the syllogistic discourse against Eunomius. Didymus therefore perhaps says *asyllogistos*, that is, “not syllogistically,” so that he might indicate that he is looking at Basil’s letter, and not in truth his polemical works.
my words of transgression!" that is, far from my deity are the words which I speak in the incarnation. And He behaves in the same way also with respect to Lazarus; for first, as one who knows all things, He said: A "Lazarus sleeps," then, as if He knew nothing, He asked: "Where have you laid him?" and finally, as God, He raised him up. He behaved in the same way also with respect to the woman suffering from a hemorrhage; for at first, as a man who is ignorant, He said: "Who touched me?" then He healed her as Savior. Thus also God and Father questioned Adam, as it were, not knowing: "Where are you?" and Cain: "Where is Abel your brother?" and Moses: "What is that in your hand?" and elsewhere: "The Lord knew those that were His," as if, forsooth, He were ignorant of those that are not His. He also said to Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his son to Him: "Now I have known that you fear God," as though, forsooth, He had been ignorant of this before it happened. And again: "Where is Sara your wife?" But that He certainly said this also while knowing it, the following verses show. For when He had spoken of her giving birth, and she, because she had already grown old, had disbelieved and smiled B within the bedchamber, He said: "Sara laughed, being within." Furthermore, He also said to Lot: "I cannot do this (that is, bring the punishment upon the Sodomites) until you come there. Therefore he called the name of the city Segor," and elsewhere: "Depart from me, workers of iniquity; I never knew you." And other things also, which in appearance are lowly as regards the deity, are attributed to Him; such as, "I will go down now, and see whether they be altogether according to the cry of them which is come unto me; and if not, that I may know," and elsewhere: "It repented me that I have made man," and again: "It repented me that I have anointed Saul to be king," and in the 105th Psalm: "And He remembered His covenant, and it repented Him according to the multitude of His mercy, and He gave them over to compassions." C
CHAPTER XXIII.
They gird themselves for war as best they can, and have in [them] the truth of God; thus even when He is said to be ignorant of the day of judgment, He is not diminished: for neither when God is said in the Holy Scriptures to forget, and to repent, and to be angry, is He diminished in His divinity. For in the same manner as those things are explained, so too is that which is said concerning the ignorance of the judgment; for God, since He alone is wise and possesses the knowledge of all things, oblivion and repentance, or anything of this sort, can in no way exist in Him, since, at any rate, these things are spoken of Him D economically; thus, therefore, since the wisdom and truth of God do not admit of ignorance, for the sake of a certain utility He is said to be ignorant both of these things and of the day of judgment.
A And the formulation which Paul writes to the Corinthians in his first Epistle: “For there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.” For they say: “The phrase ‘from whom’ and the word ‘God’ belong only to the Father, as being superior toward their creed, and as it were existing in time before both hypostases; while ‘through whom’ and ‘Lord’ belong to the Son, as to a minister and one who holds a secondary position, through whom all things were made; and ‘in whom’ belongs thirdly, according to sub-position, to the Holy Spirit, for in him, he says, every glorification is offered up to God.” Taking their start toward this from the letters of Paul—both from those to the Ephesians, containing the exhortation which is in these words: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption;” and from those to the Corinthians, containing teaching of this kind: “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” B But not even this argument of theirs is of any value at all. For those interchanges of terms are not to be attributed to the inferiority of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; for both terms belong properly to each hypostasis. For if all things are from God, as indeed is true, how are all things from the beginning through the Son? And if he knew that he was to be numbered among the adopted gods, why did he not mix him with the others, and why did he not unite him with the Father? But they have been spoken in this way, on the one hand, so that we may not conceive of a confusion of the divine hypostases, but that each may be distinguished; and on the other hand, so that polytheism might be cast out—the polytheism of the Greeks by the words, “One God the Father;” the denial of Christ by the Jews by the words, “One Lord Jesus Christ;” the madness of the Montanists, who were about to worship the three all-hymned hypostases as one person, by the words, “One,” and “One,” and “One;” and finally the most senseless furor of Sabellius, who imagined the God-Word to be an insubstantial word, as if it were a spoken word that is dissolved and poured out into the air. C Truly the Apostle, keeping the bond of divine peace (that is, of unity), again bringing both these terms together, refers them to the one most ineffable God, writing to the Romans: “For from him, and through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen.” And to the Ephesians: “One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.” He does not say that “through all” is foreign to “over all,” nor “in all” to “through all.” D
For He who is “over all,” being immense, is not absent from the creature, which God indeed the Word, who is “through all,” brought into existence, while the Spirit of God, who is “in all,” fills, holds together, sanctifies, and vivifies it. For this very reason, following the decree of the Lord concerning the baptism, he wrote to the same Corinthians in his second epistle, preserving the equality of honor for the Trinity, saying: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
B In these words, because of the identity of the Godhead and the simplicity of the faith, he not only places the Son before the Father, but also attributes equal worship to the Holy Spirit, mentioning His unity and “fellowship” (that is, communion). But what is this fellowship? It is of essence, of kingdom, of will, and of the glory which we offer to God. But let us again recall the things which the heretics object. Paul writes: “One God the Father,” and “one Lord Jesus Christ,” not as though the name of “Deity” were more excellent or prior to the name of “Lordship,” nor as though it were fitting for the Father alone to be called “God,” and for the Son alone to be called “Lord” (for both these names are proper to both); but rather so that he might announce the individual subsistence of the hypostases, and that they are in one Godhead and lordship. For if, according to them, the Son were not God by nature, neither would the Father be Lord (may God forgive us for saying such things out of necessity due to their madness) as though “God” and “Lord” were the same, and as though the one did not differ from the other, nor were separated in any way. C Scripture places the name “Lord” before the name “God,” as when Moses says: “The Lord your God, the Lord is one.” And again: “How shall one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless the Lord had delivered them, and God had surrendered them?” And according to the Psalmist in the seventh psalm: “O Lord my God, if I have done this.” And according to Joshua the son of Nun, the worship which is owed to God alone is offered and rendered to the Lord; and it is offered precisely as to God. For it says: “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord, to worship Him.”
It is also worth noting from another passage of Scripture that “the Lord” does not befit only one hypostasis. For David sings in the eighty-first psalm: “Let them be ashamed and troubled for the…”
age of ages, and let them be ashamed and perish, and let them know that thy name is Lord. Thou alone art the Most High over all the earth.” If this is said concerning the Father, how does Paul write: “One holy, one Lord Jesus Christ”? And again: “The Lord is the Spirit”? But if it is written concerning the Son, then according to them the Father is not Lord, not Most High, nor holy. Or let them accuse David, who sings in the one hundred and ninth psalm: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand,” and in the ninety-ninth: “Know that the Lord he is God; he has made us, and not we ourselves.” By these words he signifies Him through whom all things were made. And in the sixty-seventh: “Make a way for him who ascends over the west; Lord is his name.” By “west” he means the final times; and by “Lord,” Him who was manifested B “when the fullness of the time had come.” Let them also accuse Isaiah, who similarly prophesies of the Son as God and Lord thus: “Behold our God; behold the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with power; behold his reward is with him, and his work before his face. As a shepherd he will feed his flock, and with his arm he will gather the lambs.” And furthermore James, who made this the preface of his own writings: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus,” and in the following: “And of the Lord God.” And Paul, too, writing to the Romans and asserting: “That everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Or let them agree with us that the name “God” and “Lord” is a name common to the three hypostases, just as “King,” “Most High,” “incorrupt,” “incomprehensible,” “holy,” and all those things that are appropriate to say concerning God. Nor is the Father alienated from lordship, even if it is written: “One Lord Jesus Christ,” and: “The Lord is the Spirit,” nor is the Son or the Holy Spirit excluded from the Godhead, even if it is said: “One God the Father.”
C This, then, is the doctrine of truth, as has been shown, and as we profess in the doxology. But the heretics, having composed a certain doxology by their own authority, give glory, some through others in others, as if through an instrument, or rather to no one at all. And so they violate the divine edict concerning baptism, and they act against the Epistle of Paul, where he mentions the persons of the Trinity conjointly and as equal in dignity; furthermore, they act against the will of the Father, who wills that His Son be honored even as He Himself is honored. For they say: “Glory to the Father through the Son D in the Holy Spirit.”
which phrases are nowhere all written together in the Scriptures, but only separately through a permutation of terms, for the reasons we have mentioned; and not, as some maintain, that greater and lesser degrees are established in the glorification. Thus, for example, regarding those things which have been cited, the Scripture said: A “One God and Father, of whom are all things; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things”: but it did not add, “In the Holy Spirit,” or, “In the Spirit.” But it uses the phrase “through whom” more frequently for “with whom,” as Paul writes to the Corinthians: “For out of much tribulation and anguish of heart I wrote unto you through many tears”; meaning, “with many tears.” And again in the first Epistle: “And when I arrive, whomsoever you shall approve, them I will send with letters to bring your grace to Jerusalem”; that is, I will send them with letters. Then elsewhere, when the Scripture has not first mentioned “of whom” and “through whom,” it says: “In the Holy Spirit,” which is to say, “with the Holy Spirit.” For in many B places, instead of saying “with such-and-such” or “along with such-and-such,” it has said “in such-and-such”; as in the sixty-sixth Psalm it is prophesied: “I will enter into your house in burnt offerings”; that is to say, “with burnt offerings.” And again: “He brought them out in silver and gold,” that is, “with silver and gold.” And again in the one hundred and seventh: “Will you not go out in our virtues?” which is to say, “with our virtues.” But the most wise Paul, writing concerning the Savior Christ, instead of saying, “All things stand upon Him and were created by Him,” said: “All things consist in Him, and in Him all things were created.” If, therefore, the voice of the Master saying, “Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” does not indicate a difference, C then neither will the expression “in the Holy Spirit” indicate a difference: both because equality of honor is preserved in that one name being spoken in the singular number, and because “into the name” and “in the name” are the same.
These things, then, are indeed sufficient. Yet the phrase “of whom” is also found written concerning the Son and concerning the Holy Spirit, and the phrase “through whom” [is found] concerning the Father and concerning the divine Spirit, and the phrase “in whom” is not reserved for the Holy Spirit alone, but is spoken also concerning the Father and the Son, as the underlying Scriptures show. That the phrase “of whom” is used also of the Son and of the Holy Spirit [I will show] thus: concerning the Son, Paul says to the Ephesians: “Who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, D being joined and compacted together, increases with the increase of God.” John says in the Gospel: “Of His fullness have we all received.” And again, from the person of the Son:
“He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.” And elsewhere: “I perceived power going forth from Me.” A Regarding the Holy Spirit, John says: “He that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” And again: “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” And the angel: “For that which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit.” That it was written previously concerning the Father in a unified way: “of whom, through whom,” and “in whom,” has been said. That the phrase “through whom” is said separately concerning the Father and the Holy Spirit, I show thus: Regarding the Father, Isaiah speaks from the person of the Father to the Son: “Behold, proselytes shall come unto thee through Me.” Notice how, because of the equality and consubstantiality of the persons, the Father brings the nations to the Son. B And again: “Woe to them that take deep counsel, and not through the Lord.” And in Genesis, Adam says: “I have acquired a man through God.” And again: “Whatsoever things Moses commanded to Israel through the command of the Lord.” And Joseph says to the eunuchs: “Are not their interpretations through God?” Furthermore, Paul says to the Hebrews: “For it became Him,” he says, “for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, who brought many sons into glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” It is to be noted how similar this is especially to the chapter set forth, namely: “One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things.” And he writes to the Colossians: “Paul, an apostle, [a] servant of Jesus Christ through the will of God.” And to the Corinthians: “God is faithful, through whom you were called into the communion of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” C Observe here again, as above, that God and Father calls men unto His own Son. And to the Romans: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, through the mercies of God.” And to the Galatians: “So thou art no longer a slave, but a son; but if a son, then an heir through God.” Regarding the Holy Spirit, Isaiah [speaks] from the person of the Father: “You have taken counsel, but not through Me; and [made] covenants, not through My Spirit.” Paul, writing to the Corinthians: “To us God has revealed [it] through His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” And again: “To one indeed,”
A to another, faith through the same Spirit: to Romans: “I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit”; and again: “He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened by His Spirit”; and again: “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost”; and to Timothy: “Keep the good deposit by the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in us.” And the Acts saith: “The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, of all things which Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day on which, giving commandments by the Holy Ghost to the apostles whom he chose, he was taken up.” By that word, “former,” the Gospel according to Luke is designated; for Luke himself also wrote the Apostolical Acts. But that which was written concerning both the Father and His Only-Begotten Son, is manifest from these things. Concerning the Father, he saith in Osee: “And God said to him: Call his name, Not-pitied: for I will not add any more to have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will be contrary to them B and will oppose them; but I will have mercy on the children of Juda, and will save them in the Lord their God.” In the Canticle of Anna: “My heart hath been strengthened in the Lord, my horn is exalted in my God.” David in Psalm cvii: “Wilt not thou, O God, go forth in our virtues? Give us help from trouble, and vain is the help of man. In God we shall do might, and he shall bring to nothing them that afflict us”; and again: “In God I shall go over a wall”; and again: “In God I will praise my words.” Paul to the Colossians: “Giving thanks to the Father, who hath made you worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated C
and translated him into the kingdom of the Son of his love: in whom A we have redemption(47), the remission of sins; B and again: "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ"; and again: "If thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and gloriest in God"; and elsewhere: "One God, through whom are all things, and we in him"; and again: "In God, who created all things"; and again: "At length I shall have a prosperous journey in the will of God to come unto you"; and again: "Pray in God"; and again: "He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."
Concerning the Son, Paul writes C to the Colossians: "For in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist"; and to the Corinthians in the first Epistle: "But ye were washed, but ye were justified, but ye were sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God"; and in the second: "But thanks be to God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and manifesteth the savour of his knowledge through us"; and again: "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature"; and to the Romans: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death"; and to the same: "For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus"; and to the Hebrews: "God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son." Peter in his Epistle: "But the God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus."
Chapter XXIV.
In addition, the Greeks(65), who arrogantly claim wisdom for themselves, and are the most stupid of all stupid people, and are drunken with the superstitious worship of many gods, and convince themselves that they alone are learned, D
A while in reality, regarding that which is most important, they are the most unlearned of all, and possess no accurate knowledge of the blessed Trinity which is in unity. According to that which Scripture says: "The impious man, having fallen into a depth of evils, despises," B they, on account of their extreme and voluntary superstition and their superfluous zeal for establishing polytheism—or rather atheism—incorrectly lean upon the aforementioned voice of the Apostle: "If there are any who are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords," and upon the prophetic sentence which says: "You shall not revile the gods," and, "The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken." Not observing these two things: first, that the Apostle wrote before the mentioned passage: "There is no God but one"; and second, that he says "who are called gods," that is, who are not gods by nature, but by name. C For the conclusion is passed over, but it must be understood, as if the whole had been given to those who understand the part. For the sake of those things stated by ellipsis, he will write: "Let him who reads understand." Therefore, he calls the saints gods, those who have been deemed worthy of adoption and this appellation by grace; whose citizenship, according to the same Apostle, is in heaven, and concerning whom God Himself, who cannot be deceived, appears to have spoken: "I said: You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High"; and the evangelist says: "If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came." And indeed, the Scripture hints at Moses and Aaron, the neighbors of the angels, who were honored with the name of God not only in a general sense, but even more specifically. For God said to Moses: "Behold, I appoint you as a god to Pharaoh"; and again to Aaron: "You shall be to him as a god," that is, in regard to the providence concerning him. D Or perhaps it is not unlikely, in my judgment, that the faithful and approved ministering powers of God—thankful creations, I mean, the Seraphim and Dominions, and Powers and Authorities—have been honored with this most excellent name even as we are. For the Creator of all things generously bestows of His own good things upon all who ask Him, and even those who do not ask, provided they are faithful and grateful and know how to be mindful of grace.
which the Creator of all things abundantly communicates, both to those who ask of him and to those who do not ask, but are faithful and know how to be mindful of his grace, even if they themselves are silent. Let them rather read the prophet Jeremiah concerning the gods of the Greeks, who are as destitute as they are, saying these words: A "The gods who have not made heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth." The Lord made the heavens in his understanding; he is the living and true God; and David in the one hundred and thirteenth Psalm singing: "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have a mouth, and will not speak; they have eyes, and will not see; they have ears, and will not hear; they have noses, and will not smell; they have hands, and will not touch; they have feet, and will not walk; they will not cry out in their throat. Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them."
CHAPTER XXV
Since, therefore, enough has been said on this chapter too, let us pass on to another. The masters and interpreters of the heretics, always inclined towards baser things, come into the contest in order to tear apart the truth, and they continually stir up and devise contentions that in no way agree with a right purpose; B for they fall and sin when they explain even the harmless and sublime sentiments of that great God, who is immune from all sin, who out of his own compassion heals the diseases into which we fall through our own folly, and who always brings aid to all, and does not forsake or turn away from those who live rightly and as it were stand firm, nor from those who have fallen in life. Now, the words of the same (Lord) are as follows: "Glorify me, you, O Father, with yourself." But they think that he possesses a proper and separate glory, even though he added, "with the glory which I had with you before the world was," and by adding this he made it manifest that he possesses an eternal and connatural glory, insofar as he is God, a glory which was never cast off by him; for the Godhead is immutable. C And so the apostles wrote these things word for word: the renowned and most celebrated John says, "And we have seen his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten"; and that apostle Paul, worthy of eternal memory and well-versed in these matters, says: "For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." But it is impious to think that God is glorified by his own work; for all things were made through him, and along with all other things, that glory too, which they think is to be understood here, was made. Furthermore, it is said in Scripture that all things are works and servants of him who is the power and wisdom of God. Now the wisdom and power of God is the Only-begotten, as the Word who is the Creator. D Therefore, this "well-tempered" God interpreted at the same evangelist what it means when he says to the Father, "Glorify me," by saying: "I have glorified you on the earth; I have completed the work which you have given me to do," which is equivalent to saying: "My incarnation has done nothing outside of your will, but all things..."
concordantly. Some have faithfully understood the words, "Glorify me," as spoken on account of the glory that accrued to the servile form. These things belong to a brief summary. We come now to formal arguments A against those who do not hear the word, "Father," but who, as it were, seize upon the word, "Glorify." Let them say what glory they understand. Is it the glory that we also ascribe to God? Let us grant this by concession, though it is not the truth. Why, then, do they call the Son, who is glorified by the Father, a creature and lesser? For in the same Gospel He said, "Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee," and again, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is my Father who glorifies me," and again from the person of the Father, "I have both glorified, and will glorify again." But is the lesser glorified by the greater according to this? And how did He preserve the equality of honor for Himself by saying, "Glorify the Son, that the Son may also glorify thee?" Or shall we assume another glory? This is found [to be something] out of nothing. And what reason is there for both the Father and the Son to be glorified by the creation of glory in an intelligible way?
CHAPTER XXVI.
How then, they ask, does He say in the Gospel according to Mark, "When He shall come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels?" B For this is exactly what the orthodox say, that by reason of the identity of divinity and kingdom He shall come in the paternal glory; that is, possessing glory equal to the Begetter. For again in Matthew the same Lord, uttering this chapter and showing that the glory is the same for Him and for the Father, spoke thus: "But when the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him."
CHAPTER XXVII.
But it is entirely alien to the truth for them to say that the nature of the Son stands between the divine nature and the created nature, as they wrongly cite to this end the place of Scripture, in which it is rightly said, "A mediator," [transferring it] C there for their own purposes, while distorting the well-used text in an evil way.
citur: « Mediator Dei et hominum Dominus A noster Jesus Christus. » For if the matter is so, He will not even be God, nor the true Son—which two things have been shown to belong to Him in the correct sense; furthermore, according to the opinion of the heretics, He will not even be a creature, a name which, however, does not in truth belong to Him, for He is not a creature in reality, nor has He ever been called such in Scripture. On the contrary, it is written in Isaiah: « Not a legate, not an angel, but the Lord Himself saved them: » that is, not a creature, but God Himself, who, even before we pray to Him, grants us gifts appropriate to Himself, indeed worthy of God. In the Incarnation, therefore, is the mediation; for in the Incarnation, immolating Himself ineffably for the whole human race, and offering Himself to His own Father in the place of a spiritual and mystical incense, He both placated Him, and extinguished the death that was hanging over the whole human race, and drew us away from idols, and united us through the knowledge of the one God, and restored paradise, and led us back to the heavens, joining the earthly to the heavenly as the omnipotent God, and fitting together that which had been separated, and restoring man to that grace from which he had fallen; so much so that the Apostle, astonished at the excellence and magnitude of this reconciliation, proclaimed these things with his divine tongue: « He is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of the partition; » and again: « Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. »
CHAPTER XXVIII
C But certain of the heretics, bereft of all faith, object something else, which it is ridiculous not only to suspect, but much more so to say. For they assert that the gifts given to creatures before the stable, fixed, and benevolent advent of the Savior Christ into the world were given by God the Father alone, and not by his own beneficent and proper Son, the Word, on the ground, forsooth, that He is subject. But if they had a part and share with those who pronounced that theological opinion: « All things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing » (for in the reckoning of all things, every donation comes through Him, and is made by Him; for these gifts are also a part of those things which were made; for which cause it was proclaimed: « This is the Lord of all; » and: « God, Mighty, Ruler; » and: « There shall be reckoned no other beside Him »), and if they had also understood Him D who says: « There is one legislator and judge, who alone is able to save; » they would have known that, apart from the Creator and Donor of good things, the Judge at once and Redeemer, the only-begotten Son, the Word, no
gift has been bestowed from above; nor has any time, or order of created things, been spared from evils or deemed worthy of providence. But since, again, not even one thing is outside His judgment; but rather, we shall receive from Him—from whom we also received good things from the beginning, by the good pleasure of the Father and the consent of the Holy Spirit—the judgment appropriate to each, humanely, and if anything more can be said or conceived, or even not conceived, regarding this. For how is it not most unjust and most impious to say, or even to surmise, that He created and legislated, but did not provide—which is considered superior to the act of creation itself—but that after all these things here, He judges those who received good things from another, and lost them through their own folly and senselessness? Or how is it not absurd to suppose that He has made us endowed with free will, as has been said many times, yet He Himself did not possess that which He bestowed upon others according to the measure of their nature and what was fitting? They themselves, I think—even those heretics whose doctrines miss the truth—perceive B that they will have nothing to say should they desire to assert something in opposition to our dogmas. For they are opposed by their own intolerable and unrestrained wickedness, while others, in addition to those already mentioned, who are trustworthy and firm in their way of life—not mere men, but prophets—are seen to bear witness to the Savior who gave joy in common to all men. For Zechariah, speaking separately of past and future things, cries out: "If there is any good, it is His; and if there is anything noble, it shall be from Him." And Isaiah proclaims of Him with equal clarity: "God, Mighty, Potentate." And following these saints, whom the theologies adorn everywhere with grace and beauty in their words, even those outside have in this part sung hymns appropriate to the Creator and King of all. For they have said:
All glorious gifts for men from God proceed; If any good or happiness has grown, Or best of things, or that which is desired, In all, God’s lovely gifts are brought to light.
And again: The power of God is measureless, His strength C Is infinite; He holds all things, and He Alone is ruler over all.
CHAPTER XXIX
And in Matthew, they say, concerning the mother of the sons of Zebedee, who asked that her two sons—who were apostles—might be seated on either side of Him, at His right hand and at His left, in His heavenly kingdom, D
A He replied, “It is not Mine to give, but to those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.” And this in no way diminishes His dignity. For as matters stand, it is not always the case that the bare arrangement of the words matches the reality; but sometimes the truth itself completes the full meaning by supplying that which is not spoken. Christ spoke in this way because He was bearing the form of a servant; or perhaps because He wished to point out as hateful to God those who, disregarding rank and the principle of equity, covet the honor of the first seat. Or it may be because that woman was secretly puffed up in her mind at the excellence and beauty of her sons, whom she considered worthy both of the apostolic primacy and of divine co-session. Nothing of their secret hearts escaped Him, as John says: “But Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all persons, and had no need that anyone should testify about a human being; for He Himself knew what was in a human being.”
Listen then to what follows, and be convinced that I have not been deluded in my interpretation of this passage. For Matthew immediately adds that, when the twelve were B indignant “on account of these two brothers,” the Lord said: “Whoever among you desires to become great shall be your minister, and whoever desires to be first shall be your servant.” And we have heard how, in Luke, He likewise prevents the honor of the first seat and the place of honor from being deliberately sought. It was not for the just God, who prepares rewards in the future life for each according to their deeds, to grant to anyone what was demanded unjustly and arrogantly, or to place the first in second-rate seats, and to sadden the apostles who had remained constantly faithful to Him, and who had not sought primacy. Neither was it right to sadden our fathers along with them, who had pleased Him beforehand and were to be admired for their virtue, with whom He had entered into a covenant, and to whom it is entirely probable that the first seats on either side of Him had been promised beforehand; C in whose bosoms those of whom we are speaking were about to rest, and in addition to them, Moses as well. For He is Himself the Lord both of the matter requested by the woman and of all judgment, and He is the one who preappointed the thrones for the apostles, leading them forward in a most kingly manner and promising: “You shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Therefore, setting forth a single, unanswerable rule against anyone boasting of greatness and attributing it to himself, He says: “If I bear witness to Myself, My witness is not true; but there is One who bears witness concerning Me, the One who says (he says), the Father.” This D especially, and other patriarchs of the Old Testament of this kind.
is my Son.” A That He said this for the sole reason previously mentioned, He Himself confirms again, saying: “Even if I bear witness concerning Myself, My witness is true”; and again: “The works themselves bear witness concerning Me, and Moses bears witness concerning Me.”
CAP. XXX.
The same meaning is contained in what was said by the Savior in Luke: “Father, into B Your hands I will commend My spirit.” Through His own person He commends the humanity which is vivified by faith in Him, which He deigned to call His members; or perhaps He is teaching all men, that they might first know that Arius erred in this point as well, by thinking Him inanimate in the Economy; and secondly, so that in our final breaths we might use the same formula in our prayers, and gratefully C acknowledge that our existence as men comes from God, and into Him again is our departure. Therefore what was happening was a law.
CHAPTER XXXI.
The heretical impiety does not stop with the Only-begotten, but extends even to the Holy Spirit. For they use not only the aforementioned words of the Savior, “I did not speak from Myself,” and “The Holy Spirit will not speak from Himself,” and the verse of Paul which says, “To the only wise God,” and furthermore other oracles that are D brought forward in the discourse *On the Holy Spirit*, in a dismissive manner, to belittle His infinite and venerable nature; but they also use the prophecy of Amos, as if it were indicating...
that the Holy Spirit of God is a creature, although the passage in its entirety gives no suggestion of this, either in this part or in any other. A His words are as follows: “I have overturned you, as God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became as a brand plucked out of the fire; and yet you did not return unto me, saith the Lord. Therefore, I will do this unto you, O Israel; yet, because I will do this unto you, prepare to invoke your God, O Israel. For behold, he that forms the thunder, and creates the spirit, and declares unto men his Christ, that makes the morning and the darkness, and treads upon the high places of the earth: the Lord God Almighty is his name.”
Since, therefore, three perfect hypostases are commemorated here—one speaking, which says, “I have overturned,” another of whom it says, “as God overturned,” and another where it contains “his Christ”—we understand these words to have been spoken aptly and harmonically, not from the person of the Father, nor B regarding His Holy Spirit, but from the person of the Holy Spirit Himself, who speaks also concerning the wind—that is, concerning that spirit which is accustomed to accompany the thunder that resounds in the ears of men. For this reason, in the words that follow, He makes mention of the morning and the darkness. For how could the Father have said, “And declaring unto men his Christ,” and not “my Christ,” as He said in the cxxxi Psalm, “I have prepared a lamp for my Christ”? Or why would He say, “His name,” when He ought to have said, “My name”? And if it were granted that the voice is His, then the Holy Spirit is revealed as God Almighty. Nor does this voice befit the prophet as he speaks concerning the Father; for the “I” would be found to be from His own person. Because C the Lord is he that forms, the high places, “I have overturned you, as God overturned,” is a statement; but man does not overturn as God does; nor is it fitting for a prophet to speak boastfully and blasphemously at the same time.
And as for the inclusion of “forming the spirit,” and not “having created the spirit,” and the order of mention—placing the thunder to be formed first, and the spirit created second, and furthermore, that it is prophesied without the article and without “Holy,” simply as “forming the spirit,” D the prophet speaks of the work of God, not of Christ; for he uses the word *ruach*. But who can be so senseless as to think that the Seventy Interpreters read *mashichi* when they translated “his Christ”? If, therefore, Basnagius wished to criticize anything at all, and to use so confidently that word of his, “they erred,” he ought not, in my judgment, to have criticized the Seventy Interpreters, but rather the scribes who, in their copies, had written not *mashichi*, but *mashicho*, that is, “his Messiah,” namely, “his Christ.”
[He is treating this] and going over it more deeply than he does in the book *On the Holy Spirit*, num. 14; he speaks more distinctly here. For there he was content to have said: “For the discourse of the prophet was not proposed concerning the Holy Spirit, as is understood from the very series and context of the speech. Since the prophet Amos (the word “prophet” is perhaps omitted here in our codex) from the person of God says: ‘Prepare to invoke your God,’ and the rest.”
A And not, indeed, [of One] who created spirit, and first 54 the firming of thunder, then the creation of spirit, and furthermore without the article 55, and without a voice, [it says] simply: 427 *creating spirit*, that is, creating spirit; it is apparent from all these things that [this] pertains to the aerial spirit of which it speaks. For rarely 56 is the holy Spirit of God mentioned, without adding the word ‘holy,’ or the word ‘God,’ or the article *to* being joined to the noun *pneuma*, or the participation of the same Spirit being signified: as when it is written: “Spirit of Elijah” 57, and: “Walk in the Spirit” 58. But the prophet said “creating spirit” because the aerial spirit arises 59 when opportunity and our utility require it, for bringing aid in the necessities for which it was made. For we are accustomed even now to say: “A great wind occurred,” not as if it were created just now, but that it was recently stirred up with force.
Prophetically, therefore, and with the word order inverted B by the divine Spirit, it is said thus: “I have subverted you,” that is, “you stiff-necked [ones] and uncircumcised in heart, O Jews,” just as God subverted Sodom and Gomorrah, whose inhabitants, he says, lived just like the Jews, impenitently. Therefore, “prepare to invoke your God, O Israel,” whom, he says, you have not yet appeared to recognize clearly even unto this day. And he meant the only-begotten Son of God. “Because He who matures,” he says, “even the deep things of God.” And many things which it is possible to excerpt from the sacred Books.
In our own codex—for the codex has *liris*—it is possible to excerpt many things.
C Prophetically, therefore, and with the word order somewhat inverted 60, Amos speaks from the person of the divine Spirit in this manner: “I have subverted you,” that is, the stiff-necked 61 and uncircumcised in heart, the Jews: “just as God subverted Sodom and Gomorrah,” whose inhabitants, he says, lived in such a way, just as the Jews, that they never repented. Therefore, “prepare yourself to invoke your God, O Israel,” whom, he says, not yet unto this day have you manifested to be recognized by you.
D And it is pleasing to transcribe these very things more harmoniously from our codex: “Neither, indeed, [is it] in vain [that] without the article, which in the Greek language is a signifier of singularity, [it] is now called ‘created spirit’; since it is not holy, whereas almost always the holy Spirit is named with the article; as in that [passage]: *Autò tò Pneuma* (that is, ‘the Spirit himself’) bears witness to our spirit. And elsewhere: *Tò Pneuma* (that is, ‘the Spirit’) is that which gives life. And again: ‘So also, no one has known the things of God except *tò Pneuma Theou* (that is, “the Spirit of God”): for *tò Pneuma* (this is, “for the Spirit”) searches all things, even the deep things of God.’ And many things which it is possible to excerpt from the sacred Scriptures.”
A You have shown this manifestly. The prophet designates in this place the only-begotten Son of God: “For He who establishes the thunder, and creates the spirit, and makes the dawn and the mist, and ascends upon the high places of the earth; the Lord God Almighty is His name: behold, He that announces His Christ unto men.” When, then, and how did He announce Him? When He said from above: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found pleasure.” B It is evident that in many places one of the three divine hypostases speaks of another, or of two, just as this matter was interpreted through many proofs in the first discourse. Indeed, this is also found a little before the aforementioned prophecy of Amos; for it says: “Thus says the Lord: For the three impieties of the sons of Judah, and for the four, I will not turn them away, so that I may heal them. The law of the Lord and His commandments they did not keep; and their vain idols led them astray, which they made, which their fathers followed after them; and I will send fire upon Judah, and it will devour the foundations of Jerusalem.” C It behooved the heretics, therefore, if they did not think the prophecy was speaking about the wind, at least to think it was speaking about their own spirit, of which the divine oracles frequently make mention: as when Paul writes to the Thessalonians in his first Epistle: “And may the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your whole spirit, and soul, and body be kept blameless, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” D
and your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless A in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and as when Stephen praying says, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and as Luke in the Gospel, recounting that the Savior raised the dead girl, says, “And her spirit returned.” It would have been proper to give glory in this way, if they had wished to act modestly; but they did not suspect that this referred to the Spirit, rather they arrived at the extreme degree of blasphemy. One ought also to observe that which the prophet says, “Announcing His Christ,” meaning God and the Father, and not “creating.” For regarding those things which are manifested to us in an arcane manner because of the ineffable Trinity, it was written: “Who is wise, and shall understand these things?” That is, clearly, he who understands in a fitting and spiritual sense. For in truth it is difficult for those who are occupied with worldly or heretical things to attain the accurate [interpretation] of the Scriptures. Whence He said, “My Spirit B shall not remain upon them, because they are flesh.” And outside philosophy also transmits that the power of discernment hidden in these treasures is from God, as are all things, speaking thus:
For God has given signs to men for all things That He wills, and without any help, He hears the mortals.
CHAPTER XXXII.
But, they say, “All things were made through the Son.” If, therefore, “all things” includes the Holy Spirit, [then the Spirit was made]. But when John said “all things,” he designed all creatures; yet it is nowhere written that the Spirit of God is a creature, as not even the Son [is a creature]. For a creature is a servant; but a servant neither liberates, as does the Holy Spirit, nor knows what its Lord is doing, nor recreates what has been created by the Lord, C nor has man as a temple, just as God has, nor is he called divine in Scripture. But the first-created, who fell from his primacy on account of his own arrogance and was cast into the depths of the depths, was called by other names.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
But when the Jews thought that the Lord was not the son of God, but of David, and He himself asked them regarding Himself, whose son He is, and they answered, “David’s,” then He said to them, “And how does David in the Holy Spirit call Him Lord,” D
A thereby making it clear that David, prophesying in the Holy Spirit about his descendant according to the incarnation, calls this one his Lord according to divinity; just as he himself says in the Books of Kings: “The Spirit of the Lord spoke in me.” Heretics, interpreting these things wickedly and ignorantly at the same time, say that it was the Holy Spirit whom Christ called His own Lord through David. But the follow-up refutes them: “If therefore David calls Him Lord, how is He his son?” All things David said while the Holy Spirit was prompting him; for he himself was naturally ignorant of both future and heavenly things, and for this reason it says, “In the Holy Spirit.” Yet he did not prophesy all things entirely from the person of the Holy Spirit, or of the Son, or of the Father, or of the creation; but he also prophesied from his own person, such as the aforementioned words, and as when he says, “Against You only have I sinned, and done evil before You,” and, “In iniquities I was conceived, and in sins my mother conceived me.” Otherwise, it would remain that we must attribute to the divine Spirit even that which David himself and the other prophets say—for all spoke in the Holy Spirit—when they say: “I am the Lord your God the Almighty,” and again, “Besides me there is no God,” and other similar things.
Chapter XXXIV.
That which was said by John, “For the Holy Spirit was not yet [given], because Jesus was not yet glorified,” has this true interpretation: Not yet, he says, did all have perfect knowledge of the sanctification and the gifts of the Spirit of God; not yet had He been known by the world, nor was He glorified together with the Father and the Son. For with respect to us, X the existence of God is his being known; for then, indeed, God is said to exist to us when we know Him; but we know the Holy Spirit not when we wish, but when we acquire the perfection of understanding. For when, having been purified by strenuous virtues, we become worthy, then He himself provides his own illumination to us of his own accord. For after the [c] what was perceived by them concerning Christ, and hearing that He was the son of David, he speaks: “How does David in the Spirit call Him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand? If therefore David calls Him Lord in the Holy Spirit, how is He his son?” Although, as the most illustrious Valarsius observes, the old edition reads thus: “Questioning... and hearing that He was the son of David, speaking in the Holy Spirit: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, he asked again, ‘If therefore David,’ etc.” Our codex, although corrupt in this place, nevertheless in some way agrees with the old edition: for it reads thus: “Questioning... and hearing that He was indeed the son of David, he speaks in the Holy Spirit: The Lord said, etc.” D For the sake of explanation he adds the word, “given.” For these things are read there: “For whatever they were able to bear, He handed down to them, [and] deferred the rest to a future time, which they could not know without the discipline of the Holy Spirit: because before the coming of the Lord’s passion, the Holy Spirit had not been given to men, the evangelist saying: ‘For the Spirit was not yet given to anyone, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’” Nor does our codex seem to differ from the published books, which reads thus: “The evangelist saying: ‘For the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.’” Thus, indeed, Didymus spoke—because he was not there professedly dealing with this argument of the heretics; but now, since the very words of John press the point, he weighs them more accurately.of the Word, and we shall have attained it. But when we have been purified by virtue, having compared spiritual contests, and have been made worthy, then He Himself willingly bestows upon us His own illumination. For after the resurrection, the A Lord Christ, breathing into the faces of the apostles, said: "Receive the Holy Spirit"; but the Holy Spirit Himself, after the assumption of Christ, appeared in fiery tongues at Pentecost, "and sat upon each one of them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance," as the Acts testify. Therefore the Lord also foretold to them: "But you shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." Those words, however, "Jesus was not yet glorified," mean this: He had not yet suffered, nor risen again, nor had He simultaneously with Himself raised a multitude of the dead, nor had He been taken up into heaven. For not yet did all believe Him to be the beloved Son of God, existing before the ages, and He was not yet glorified as the God of the fathers; that is, the glory concerning Him had not yet been established among all. Wherefore He said afterwards: B "Father, the hour has come"; that is, whatever was foretold concerning Me in the inviolable Scriptures is now fulfilled; "Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify thee." In whatever sense, therefore, you understand "Jesus was not yet glorified," understand in the same way "The Holy Spirit was not yet." Otherwise, would you not be seen to say something foolish—which you yourself do not even say—namely, that the things which are told before this text, "The Holy Spirit was not yet," are prior and, as it were, older than the divine Spirit by whose inspiration that text was written? If anyone were to say this, it would be most foolish to respond with a simple thought running like a pen, as they say. Others have interpreted those words, "Jesus was not yet glorified," as if they were said because of the servile form which He Himself bore, because it had not yet ascended into the heavens, nor had it yet become the first-fruits C for the faithful of every other happiness, and also of the ascension into the heavens; for Christ is the first-fruits, as I have said above: or as if they were said for our sake, of whom He is called the first-fruits in the Scriptures, insofar as He exists in the flesh: in which sense it was said: "I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth"; and Paul, writing in agreement with these things, says: "He raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus"; and again: "But our citizenship exists in the heavens."
CHAPTER XXXV
They do not understand with a sound mind even that which Paul D writes to the Romans: "For, he says, he who saw me, saw also the Father." And the Father, revealing the Son to those who have merited to reach the depth of knowledge, and the rest. The Lord, therefore, after the resurrection appearing to His disciples, and breathing upon their faces, said: "Receive the Holy Spirit." And again: "You shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you."A The writing, that: "The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to God." He indicated this most especially by the use of "unutterable," that such things should not be searched out; for they are, he says, incomprehensible and ineffable. And by having the expression "according to God," he indicates that these things are not according to us, nor should they be understood according to human custom; for it transcends every mind and puts to the proof the nature of speech. Then he did not say absolutely, "He intercedes," or "He intercedes against us and against the saints," but, "He intercedes for us," and, "for the saints." It is a characteristic of the Holy Spirit, as God, to be philanthropic. However, since they bring these things forward as if they were to be received in a human manner, and not in a way worthy of God, let them know, even if late, that "to intercede" and B to find—I happened upon the book, he intercedes—entreaty. But "to ask" or "to encounter" are different. "To intercede," "to ask" is said; for example, as we are accustomed to say: "I happened upon the book." And one might say this even more properly; for some call that which is for the sake of pleasure and entreaty "to make." "To ask" is used more than "to intercede." And here he calls mercies "groanings." The Spirit, therefore, he says, of God, oversees for us through incomprehensible mercies; for this, though spoken of mystically, so far transcends the creation that He immediately attributed to the God who knows hearts as a great thing the knowing of the mind of the Holy Spirit. C Then also the Son likewise intercedes for us; and yet He is great, and a sovereign, and true God. For the same Apostle writes concerning Him, to the Hebrews indeed: "Always living to intercede for them"; to the Romans however: "Christ Jesus who died, or rather who has been raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." But that the name of the Paraclete, and the "interceding for us," ought not to be received according to the appearance of the word and in worldly conversation, can be taught from similar expressions; as when he writes concerning God and the Father in the 85th Psalm: "Show me a sign for good, and let those who hate me see and be put to shame, because You, Lord, have helped me and comforted me," and Paul: "May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God and our Father, comfort D your hearts." Rather, also, has been raised, who also is.
and elsewhere: "He who repents regarding the evils of men," which is to say, He who pardons or sympathizes; for it is not as if He were Himself the cause of the evil regarding which He repents. Frequently, indeed, Scripture employs a word that in a given passage signifies one thing, yet sets it down to indicate something other than what is apparent. For example, as it says in Exodus: "Moses was pasturing the sheep of Jethro, his son-in-law." A Yet the situation was the opposite: Jethro was the father-in-law, and Moses was the son-in-law. That the invisible God is incomprehensible B and unattainable to every mind (wherefore divine utterances, for the most part, do not have a simple and obvious meaning for everyone, but possess a hidden understanding) may be found even in the books of secular philosophy. For they contain these lines:
"Hidden from mortals are the purposes of the heavenly God, And each thing is bounded by ineffable providences; Which no mortal is permitted to measure, nor to grasp the immeasurable."
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Furthermore, regarding that passage which exists in John: C "And this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent," and again: "Believe in God, and believe in me," the Macedonians have reasoned most blasphemously, asserting that the Holy Spirit is not mentioned, as if He were by nature alien, and therefore excluded from being true God. D But much has already been said regarding similar problems in the first volume in the tenth chapter, and in this present book in the fourteenth chapter; yet it shall be spoken of even now. If, therefore, eternal life [cont.]
knowledge of the Father and of the Son, then eternal life is situated, and the Spirit A is demonstrated to be both life and the Spirit of God; it therefore follows that he is also the only true God, always to be understood as being with the Father, as His Spirit. Therefore, in one eternal life, He taught one knowledge, and not a different one, following in the chapter set before us. And the evangelist also, when he says, "In this we know that God is in us, by His Spirit which He has given us," indicates that He is mentioned together with and is present with the Father. And that not even the Son is understood without the Holy Spirit is clear; for the Father says to Him: "My Spirit which is upon thee," and He Himself says: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." And Paul also, signifying the communion and identity of the Godhead, and indicating that the Holy Spirit is implicitly understood, or super-understood, by the mind of Scripture, even if B sometimes He is not mentioned specifically, writes: "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." At other times, therefore, he again makes mention of the Holy Spirit, either alone or together with the Father. It is necessary, therefore, in my opinion, rather to say to them as the all-wise Moses: "If I have found grace in thy sight, manifest thyself to me, that I may know thee," so that at some time they may know the Trinity, indivisible in nature and harmony. For apparently, many prophets and kings have wished to see and hear, and have not attained it; but we not only hear, but also see, as he says according to Luke.
CAP. XXXVII. On that which is written: "No one knows the Father, except the Son, nor does anyone know the Son, except the Father, and he to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him." And against those who say that the Holy Spirit searches the depths of God, because by being ancient He is ignorant of them.
In this also they have erred equally from the truth, because they have wrongly received those things which are written in Luke: "No one knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him," and elsewhere: "Not that anyone has seen God, except He who is from C of God." They suppose, indeed, as if this word, "No one else knows," pushes away...
the divine Spirit from the divine knowledge. They do not attend to the voice which says, "Except he who is from God," nor does it exclude Him from seeing and knowing the Father, since Paul in the same way wrote concerning Him: "The Spirit which is from God," and the Son has said: "The Spirit, which proceeds from the Father." And then, in another passage, Paul, though silent in the wording yet not in mind, concerning the Son, but teaching that the Spirit alone sees and knows the Father in these syllables: "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows the things of a man, except the spirit of a man which is in him? So also the things of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God." And again: "That God knows what is the mind of the Spirit." B He who does not see, and who does not exist with Him, does not search God; and he who does not know Him, nor is of the same divinity, does not know the things of God; for it is impossible to know the things of God as God knows them, and to possess equal knowledge with Him, unless one belongs to the same essence and knowledge as Him. And the One who knows the things of God on account of the Son, knows also the things of the Son. Therefore, with respect to creatures, that saying is spoken: "No one knows the Father," or "the Son," nor does anyone see Him as He is; for neither is such understanding possible in all, since not all are worthy; and where it exists, it is not equal in everyone. For according to Paul’s word: "To one indeed is given the word of wisdom, to another this or that"; and according to the Gospel, to whom more is given, of him C more is required. But the heretics say: "He searches the deep things of God, as if He were ignorant." But he added, as "He knows the things of God."
[Didymus' note on the meaning of 'spirit' in the text:] D Didymus took this concerning the human created spirit, as things must be accepted in reality; although he distinguished this very spirit from the soul, as some others had done before him, concerning which matter it would be inopportune to speak at present. Therefore, I have not yet been able to understand enough why in the book *On the Holy Spirit*, no. 54, the learned man Vallarsi changed the vulgate and, as I indeed believe, the genuine reading. In order for the matter to be clear, I first present that passage of Didymus from the Veronese edition compared by me with our codex. "It is said also, except the soul, and except our spirit, that there is another spirit in man [our codex: and except the Holy Spirit, that there is some other spirit in man], concerning which Paul writes: 'For who of men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of a man which is in him?'" For if anyone wishes to contend that the soul is signified here by 'spirit', who will be the man whose thoughts, and arcana, and hidden secrets [our codex more correctly: *of the heart*] are not known to another man, except his own spirit? Since it is quite foolish to want to understand this of the solitary body. But if he relies on artful fraud to steal away [our codex: *subripere*] from the Holy Spirit by testifying these things are written; if he carefully considers the very words, he will cease to assert a lie. For it is thus written: "For who of men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of a man which is in him? So also the things of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God." For in the way that man is one thing, and God is another; so also the spirit of a man, which is in him, is separated from the Spirit of God, which is in Him: which Spirit we have frequently shown to be the Holy Spirit. Thus far Didymus, who here records three significations of the word "spirit": the first by which the Holy Spirit is signified, the second by which the soul, the third by which a created spirit in man distinct from the soul is signified. Therefore, I do not see why the most illustrious Veronese editor noted these things to the words which he himself reads thus, and "except our spirit": "By a remarkable error, those edited hitherto, and manuscripts everywhere, read 'and except the Holy Spirit, another spirit' etc." I substituted "our spirit" according to the faith of the Queen's codex, but especially to the argument of right reason, and the sense of the Pauline testimony. For if my opinion, or the reading which I defend, stood in need of confirmation, it could also be confirmed from Jerome's commentaries on Daniel, ch. III, vol. V, p. 641. For there the holy Doctor, looking back to this very passage of Didymus, as I believe, writes: "There are those who wish there to be another spirit in man, except the Holy Spirit, and another soul." "Who searches the hearts." But Didymus, citing the sense, uses the name "God" in place of these words.
B "For the servant does not know what his master is doing." That "to search" does not always mean to inquire is made clear by the oracles. For when Scripture prophesies, "Searching into what, or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ within them was showing," it signifies inquiring and learning, similar to the one who says, "Search the Scriptures." But when the Apostle writes about God and the Father, "He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because according to God he intercedes for the saints," or when it is said in the 30th Psalm, "Because the Lord searches for truths," or in the 7th, "God searches the hearts and kidneys," or elsewhere, "Searching the storehouses of the belly"—the word "to search" does not signify to inquire and to learn, but to encompass the heart so that nothing of those things which have at any time been thought or pondered by it may escape him; things which the Knower of hearts knows even without investigations. For if the whole of knowledge were attributed to "searching," then even God would be found searching just as if He were ignorant, and the opinion of the heretics would bring dishonor upon Him, namely that which is said by Him in Sophonias, as if by a metaphor derived from men: "I will search Jerusalem with a lamp." Such a statement regarding His power produces a great signifier. The divine Spirit of God, therefore, searches, not as one ignorant, but as the Spirit of God, existing by nature as one with Him. Wherefore the Psalmist, not denying to Him the essence and knowledge of God the Father, but rather convincing us that He is His subsistent Wisdom, equal to the Only-Begotten, prayed: C "Do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me"—that is, the Spirit, he says, who reveals to me the hidden and secret things of Thy wisdom.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Those highly useful words of Christ in John—"When the Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you from my Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me"—and again: "But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and will bring to your memory all things which I have said to you"—are interpreted perversely by those who bring charges against the Holy Spirit. For they ought to understand these things as meaning that He is called Paraclete either because, as God, He is invoked by the creature, or because He consoles it and brings it joy and peace—for the words of "paraclesis" (consolation) and "paramythia" (comfort) are synonymous, as it is written: "And the humble of"
A And the [words] from the persons of those who have been deemed worthy of consolation, he says: “O Lord, according to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Thy consolations have gladdened my heart,” and again: “Thou hast put gladness into my heart.” And as Paul prays for the Thessalonians: “And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God and our Father, shall comfort your hearts.” But they, instead of understanding it in this way, say that it is because of His interceding (παρακαλεῖν) for her that He is named Paraclete; and they add that He is also sent. But first, the name of Paraclete is common to the Holy Spirit and to the Son, just as the nature is also, as John has written, in his Catholic epistles, thus: “These things I write to you, that you may not sin; but if we also do sin, we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the just, and He is the propitiation for our sins.” B Observe further, for the present, that by calling Jesus Christ a Paraclete with the Father, he assigned the power to the Paraclete, as though He Himself were being invoked; for he says: “He Himself is the propitiation,” in order that he might thus show both the self-authority of the Paraclete, and refer the propitiation to the one Godhead.
And again in the Gospel, from the person of the Lord: “If you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him, nor know Him; but you know Him, because He dwells with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you [214 b] orphans; I come to you.” By saying “another Paraclete,” [He means] not according to essence, but according to C the relation...
A Then, the fact that the Son previously said, “I will send to you from my Father the Spirit of truth,” presents the three hypostases, and shows how the manifestation or advent of the Holy Spirit came to pass in one will and concord, just as was said before in the chapter: “The Father gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak” [John 12:49]; and concerning the Holy Spirit it was said: “He shall not speak from himself” [John 16:13]. For just as the Son, having been sent, is not separated from the Father, so neither is the Holy Spirit.
The addition of “Spirit of truth” truly teaches that He is the Spirit of God, and not like the ministering spirits. The phrase, “Who proceeds from the Father,” signifies that He emerged from the paternal hypostasis without beginning and consubstantially; for every procession is accomplished through equals and likes. And the generation of the Son and the procession of His Spirit from God came about differently, yet as consubstantial; in this, it is distinguished from other processions, because it was done consubstantially. B By these words, “He will teach you all things, and will bring to your remembrance all things that I have said to you,” He commands and warns, as has been said by us above, that faith is not to be denied to the Holy Spirit, who came after the Assumption of Christ and taught. For He says, His [the Spirit's] opinion and teaching will not be discordant with mine, since in divinity also He is united and joined to me. The doctrines and the gifts pertaining to salvation are common to the Holy Trinity. And in the same way I spoke the words, “The Father gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak,” which denotes the concord of the Trinity, in the same sense I speak also concerning the Holy Spirit: “He shall take of what is mine, and shall announce it to you” [John 16:15].
But when He says, “If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete,” He indicated, as it were, that He Himself is also called a Paraclete, and that if you do not keep my commandments, He says, you become unworthy of the visitation of the Holy Spirit, which is not discordant with my epiphany. C And the passage, “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him, nor know Him; but you know Him,” showed that worldly people—that is, heretics—cannot receive Him, because they do not see Him with the eyes of faith, nor do they know Him, not glorifying Him as God; but those who confess Him to be God have Him remaining with themselves.
That He says, “He will give you,” and, “He remains with you, and will be in you,” signifies that the Holy Spirit is as God in heaven and on earth, present everywhere. For if He remains with us and will be in us, and fills all things, according to the Wisdom that says, “The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world” [Wisdom 1:7], how was He sent to us? But that even while He was saying these things, He [the Spirit] was with Him as consubstantial, He again persuaded, D
and saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit," as has been said before. A And the words, "I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you," taught that, just as the Spirit of God was in all things even before His manifest coming, so also after the ascension the Son is everywhere, since the hypostases are of one uncircumscribed Divinity and will. It is not that He Himself is both the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit of God—as Montanus imagined, who relies most heavily on this passage of Scripture, neither seeing nor understanding that it is manifest that one thing is said of one person and another of another: "I will ask the Father, and He will send another Paraclete"—but that He is present with the Spirit, possessing His own subsistence, just as the Father is also always everywhere. Nor, however, does His having come a second time signify, as he often signified His future second arrival at the judgment. Furthermore, there is the remark, "He will bear witness concerning Me." Truth, he says, bears witness of truth, and the Lord of the Lord, just as He said concerning the Father: "And the Father who sent Me bears witness concerning Me." Macedonius passes over all these things, and before all else the Master's declaration, "I will ask the Father," which is blameless and ought not to be understood according to worldly custom, running instead to "He will send" and rejoicing in it. Let him have, in response to such utterances regarding the Holy Spirit, the answer that he himself would give if questioned by those who object with similar passages of Holy Scripture concerning the Son. And let him also know this: that it is often the case, though not always, nor of necessity, that he who speaks—as if commanding—or who sends is greater than he who hears or is sent; but it often happens that one sends someone who is his equal and worthy of equal honor. Nor is it truly absurd that among men he who is a craftsman of any art should be greater than one who might appear to say or command something to him, or to send him. B Furthermore, let him know that the only-begotten God, the Word, was also sent by the Father or the Spirit, as He Himself says in Isaiah: "I am the first, and I am for the ages; My hand founded the earth, and My right hand established the heaven." And after other things, He adds: "And now the Lord has sent Me, and His Spirit." Thus, the Spirit of God and the Father is not sent in the manner of the apostles or prophets, but as His Spirit; nor is He sent in such a way as to travel from one place to another, since not even the Father, whose hypostasis the Spirit is, is circumscribed by limits.
Chap. XXXIX
Still diminishing, and to their own ruin adulterating, the things written concerning the Holy Spirit, they reproach Him also for another divine philanthropy, which Paul...A commemorates when he wrote: “God sent his Spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” The word “sent” signifies the concord and agreement, as has been said before. But that the Holy Spirit cries in our hearts, “Abba,” which in Latin is interpreted as “Father,” shows the clemency and mercy of the Holy Spirit, which renders us members of the household and kin to God and Father, in that He has spoken this voice in our stead and on our behalf—we who at that time were still infants, fed with milk, and without confidence (dignity/boldness), both on account of the ancient disobedience and the forsaking of the living God, and on account of the negligence of our previous life, and being found unworthy to break forth into such a form of address; just as the Son also, in the economy for our sake, took upon Himself all that was ours. And indeed, through what follows, Paul also called the Holy Spirit B God, and showed that it is through that aforementioned voice of His that we are liberated, adopted as sons, and inherit the heavenly goods. For immediately after saying, “Abba, Father,” he at once adds: “So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God”—signifying the Holy Spirit who cries within us. That this aforementioned voice is on our behalf, the same Apostle wrote to the Romans: “But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live; for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God; for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” Since, then, as has been said quite often, every salvation has been granted to us in common by the holy Trinity—the Father indeed having called us to adoption, while the Only-begotten, and true and genuine Son, has named us brothers and allowed us to call God our Father, and the Holy Spirit has inhabited, sounded, and taught, having said, “Abba.” “He,” He says, “will teach you,” and, “He will guide you into all the truth.” Furthermore, He also regenerated us, and liberated us from sin and death, and sanctified us, and showed us to be sons of God according to His own goodness. Therefore, before being regenerated by Him through the washing (baptism), it is not fitting even to say, “Our Father who art in heaven.” And in addition to these things, He cries in our hearts C of your hearts, of God through Christ, [at which point] it ends; and the Spirit of truth is in no way enclosed by the limits of places. D
God, A teaching the deaf ears of the heretics that He himself is the God who dwells in the faithful, according to the text: "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people," and according to the Apostle who writes: "Do you not know that you are God's temple, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" But heretics strive to claim that the passage, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," and all such places, refer to our own human spirit, and not to the Holy Spirit. But the subsequent text refutes them, for it contains: "For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption of sons." For absolutely, since we already possessed our own spirit, we received additionally the Holy Spirit of adoption as sons.
CHAPTER XL
B Those who hold an inimical and hostile disposition toward the Holy Spirit also misinterpret with a perverse mind what was said by the Savior in the Gospel of John concerning Him: "He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of mine, and shall announce it to you." For it is not permitted to understand the things of God as if they were human, nor to insult the Divinity—which is in no way like us—on account of the resemblance of words and concepts used in our own manner of speech. He will glorify me, He says, insofar as He will teach you the same things that I do; and I, [in turn], teach what I heard from the Father. He will glorify me also insofar as He will demonstrate the infinitude of my Divinity through His ineffable majesty. Furthermore, He will glorify in the sense that it is written: "The Son glorifies the Father"; and as it is said, "The light is the glory of the sun"; and as I myself said: "Glorify me, O Father." And it was answered to me: "I have glorified you, and will glorify you again." For He does not praise God as a creature does, since the Son does not differ from the Father in divinity, dignity, or excellence; nor does the One who, through Himself, purely and cleanly always distributes divine gifts to us, announce anything received from elsewhere; nor is He separated in nature from the Father. For just as the Son, when He gives, is deprived of nothing, nor is He emptied; so too the Holy Spirit does not receive what He does not already have, nor, having heard what He was ignorant of, does He then speak; since, according to Paul, He alone knows the things of God, and rather He inspires wisdom and understanding into those worthy to receive it, out of innate divine impulses; nor is He taught by another, He who breathes wisdom and the knowledge of prophecy into the simple; beyond
are; but rather He Himself infuses wisdom and understanding into those who deserve to receive it through divine and natural motions; nor does He who inspires wisdom and the knowledge of prophecy into the simple learn anything from another; for His divinity exceeds any knowledge whatsoever; for such things have been said improperly A regarding the ineffable Trinity. Therefore, the Savior also says of Himself: "As I hear, I judge." And John says of Him: "He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God," that is, he gives testimony. But the Holy Spirit is also glorified, both through His complete communion with the Father and the Son, and through the things which the Son threatens concerning Him, saying: "Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven to men, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven."
CHAPTER XLI
B The error of the Montanists is situated in these things: C 1. First, these rash diviners say that there is one person of the three divine hypostases; for Montanus, they say, said: "I am the Father, and the Son, and the Paraclete." And in order to prove this, they most foolishly interpret what the Son said most rightly: "I am in the Father, and the Father in Me"; and: "We will come, I and My Father, and make our abode with him"; and: "I and the Father are one"; and: "He who has seen Me has seen the Father"; and: "The Paraclete, whom the Father will send in My name." But all these things, as has been said above, signify not one and the same person, but rather one person in each, with its own subsistence in one divinity and concord. For He did not say: "I and the Father am one," but "We are one." And these things convict them of their madness and perverse opinion.2. Secondly, when the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians in the first Epistle: "Whether there are prophecies, they will be done away; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will be destroyed. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away," they say that Montanus has come, and that he possessed the perfect D (that is, the perfection) of the Paraclete, that is, of the Holy Spirit; nor do they attend to the things that are added; for these things follow immediately: "When I was an infant, I spoke as an infant, I thought as an infant; when I became a man..."
I put away the things of an infant." A For we see now through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face: now we know in part; but then we shall know just as also we have been known. That is: what we now believe to be true while hearing it from the Scriptures, we shall see with our eyes after the resurrection, and we shall come to know it by the reality itself, for that knowledge which is in part will cease; for the knowledge which is acquired from hearing is a part of the knowledge which we compare by the vision and experience of the thing itself. Just as we now believe while hearing concerning the second coming of the Lord, and concerning his judgment seat, and that most blessed voice, "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you," so then we shall learn it by vision and experience. Now we believe while hearing about the holy angels; then we shall see them B serving God face to face. Now we believe while hearing, "What eye has not seen, and what ear has not heard, and what has not ascended into the heart of man, those things God has prepared for those who love him"; then those who are worthy will not only see these things, but will also enjoy them. For the things that now lie hidden from the eye of our soul beneath the heavenly things, the life to come will make manifest. C But, they say, Christ said: "I still have many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them now; but when he comes, the Spirit of the truth, he will lead you into all the truth"; and, "He will not speak from himself, but will receive from mine and will announce it to you"; and, "He will glorify me," and again: "I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you." Therefore, they conclude, he came when Montanus came. But the matter is not so; far from it! Otherwise, if their foolish reasoning were heeded, it would follow that those before Montanus did not have Christ and the Holy Spirit—neither those who held Christ, nor the apostles who received their rank from God and had Christ speaking within themselves, and the Spirit of God dwelling in them, and, through the laying on of hands, granted him to others also according to his will, and taught with boldness, and were believed by all and were not disbelieved as Montanus is; nor did those who heard, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ," lack Christ and the Holy Spirit. But the words of the Savior set before us signify the equality and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit that sounds in harmony with his own. And what the expression, "I am coming to you," signifies has been said above; for we had (even if those who are worthy have it perfectly) the Christ who said, "I am coming to you," and the Holy Spirit, of whom he said, "When he comes." For the D Lord did not do anything incomplete when he breathed upon the faces of the apostles after the resurrection and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit," nor was he lying when he said, "That he abides with you and is in you."
Nor did the Apostle lie when he wrote: "Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" Nor did Wisdom, when she said: "The Spirit of the Lord has filled the world and that which holds all things together has knowledge of the voice." A Nor, moreover, were the apostles or the saints who existed before the apostles less perfect than Montanus. For on Pentecost he was manifested there—he who was already the Holy Spirit who holds all things together—and he was received, as the Acts relate: "Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit." And just as the Son was always everywhere, yet after his incarnation in the world he was perfectly known and glorified, so also the Holy Spirit always filled and held all things, but after his coming at Pentecost he was more perfectly known and glorified.
C Third, they attempt to show that Montanus possessed the perfection of the Paraclete, and that Priscilla and Maximilla were prophetesses. They wrote to Montanus. They say: "You do not believe that after the first manifestation of the Lord there are any prophets; but the Savior," they say, "said: 'Behold, I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them you will kill, and crucify in your synagogues, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues.'" But these things are not to be understood as they suppose; rather, Christ is speaking of the apostles, who foretold many things regarding the end times and the kingdom of heaven; from whose number some were killed, as Stephen and James; and some were crucified, as Peter; and some were scourged, as Paul. D Perhaps, indeed, by the name "wise men" he designated the martyrs and episcopal martyrs. The Scripture knows of prophetesses: the four daughters of Philip, Deborah, Mary the sister of Aaron, and the Theotokos Mary, who said, as the Gospel states: "From this time all women and generations shall call me blessed." But it knows of no books written by them and inscribed with their names; indeed, the Apostle even forbade this, writing in the First Epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach." And again in the Epistle to the Corinthians...
and again in the first [epistle] to the Corinthians: "Every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered disgraces her head"—which signifies that it is not permitted for a woman, by her own authority, to write books or to teach in the Church (40), and by this reason to do injury to her head, that is, to the man; for "the head of the woman is the man, and the head of the man is Christ." As for the reason why women are commanded to keep silent, it is manifest. The doctrine which proceeded from the woman at the beginning did indeed harm the whole human race (42). For as the Apostle writes (43), the man was not deceived, but the woman. Therefore, Montanus is not to be said to have known or possessed the Holy Spirit in any way, since he thought this; and such [he was,] having become a priest—first to an idol—more than a hundred years after the ascension of the Savior and the coming of the Holy Spirit, B and thus having introduced this blind heresy. So far do we contend, as much as we are able, in a sober manner against other heresies; yet there is another "uncovered head" which wages war against the truth, and this, too, must not be left unrefuted C (45).
Chapter XLII.
For regarding the soul-corrupting dogma of the Manichaeans, it would indeed be better to maintain silence than to show by speaking how greatly human nature has offended against the divinity, and to carry to the ears of men things whereof I would that they had never engaged in the act themselves, nor that they had come to our knowledge, partly through experience (46) and partly by hear-say. For it is written: "Answer not a fool according to his folly (47)." But lest anyone should fall into this evil inadvertently, or suspect that the things they teach are tolerable, it is necessary to touch upon this sort of dogma just enough so that those who are to read these things may be able to understand how pernicious and pestilent it is; and from the things we shall say, to infer the things D we shall keep silent, and to flee far from this ruin of superstition, and never to associate with such men as profess such foul practices. For indeed, even physicians do not reject the knowledge of poisons, not that anyone should use them, but so that, knowing them, he might avoid them. This dogma, therefore, is a certain outflow of that mire which derived from Simon Magus of Samaria, who taught that the world was not the creation of God, but of the angels, and who denied that there would be a resurrection, and who advocated that promiscuous intercourse with all women ought to be practiced; and he reached such a pitch of madness that he usurped the name of our Christ and great God; and for these things he has paid an eternal penalty and has been justly brought down into the much-famed and gloomy Tartarus. And indeed, there was also an addition to this dogma at one time [made by] Me-
Menander and Saturninus, who came after Simon. Although some differed from him, they upheld the aforementioned indecency and similarly believed that the world was made by angels. Furthermore, they dared to teach that the Son of God is just, while that [God] from whom all things come, the good God the Father, is unjust, and estranged from the creation and providence of the world. B This madness was learned by Basilides from his master, and he added of his own that there are 365 heavens, having the names of angels; wherefore, he says, the so-called holy name "Arbasax" (for so they call it) will be found, if you calculate the sum, to have 365. Further, Carpocrates, who in later times confirmed these things and, in place of a supplement, brought forth a most filthy invention, taught that unless one, by passing through every sort of sinful practice, fulfills the will of all the demons, he cannot pass beyond the principalities and powers and arrive at the highest heaven. Furthermore, [this was also taught by] Valentinus, who followed the aforementioned heretics and persuaded those who applied faith to his deceptions that Christ brought his body down from heaven; and he fashioned a myth of this kind: that Bythus [the Deep] begat Sige [Silence], and from her he contrived a certain word of the Zeus who is worshipped among the Greeks, and he introduced thirty Aeons, whom he called gods. Since, he says, it is written that Jesus was baptized when he was about thirty years of age—which, however, in no way proves his absurd opinion—he adds, moreover, that the last of the thirty Aeons was androgynous, and that this [Aeon] was Wisdom, who, desiring to see the first God and being struck by his splendors, fell from the heavens and was cast out of the number thirty; and while weeping, from her own wailing she birthed the devil; and that by weeping over her fall, she formed the sea. And so that [the number] thirty might be completed, the twenty-eight Aeons were added. C And indeed, those who differed with regard to his opinions, but confirmed the aforementioned depravity, and similarly set forth that the world was generated by angels, and dared to teach that the Son of God is just, while the Father—the good God from whom all things are—is unjust and a stranger to the creation and providence of the world; and [those who had] this madness learned from Basilides, and who added that there are 365 heavens established, having the names of angels—whence, he says, the so-called holy name "Arbasax" is found to be calculated as 365—and [those who had this] from Carpocrates, who also in later times strengthened these things and, by way of an addition, announced a foulness such that, if anyone has not, through every practice of sin, arrived at fulfilling the will of all the demons, he cannot pass beyond the principalities and powers and reach the highest heaven; and yet further, from Valentinus, who also followed the aforementioned [teachers], and who deceived those persuaded by him, [claiming] that Christ brought his body down from heaven, and modeled a myth such as this: that Bythus [the Deep] generated Sige [Silence], and from her he fashioned a certain account of the Zeus among the Greeks, and introduced thirty Aeons, whom he called gods. For he says there is written: "Jesus was baptized being about thirty years of age." But this in no way validates his absurdity. And he announced that the last of the thirty Aeons was male-female, and that this is Wisdom, who, wishing to see the first God, was struck by his rays and fell from the heavens and was cast out from the thirtieth number, and, wailing from her own lamentation, gave birth to the devil. And that, having wept over her fall, she established the sea; and in order that the thirtieth number might be filled, the D twenty-eight Aeons were gathered together. . . .