On the Trinity 1-1 part 3/12

because He is also, as Maker, the origin of all magnitudes.

For where, among the highest, most incorporeal, and more excellent hypostases, is there magnitude? Nor again is He greater according to being without beginning.

for He coexists with the Father as the radiance of His glory, having no God before Him.

nor is God and Maker measured by time together with what He has made.

since it would require them—a thing dangerous even to contemplate—first to posit a time prior to the unoriginate and incomprehensible God and Father, and only then to make the comparison.

Now men are accustomed to call 'greater' those who have preceded others in time of birth, according to what was ordained concerning Isaac:

'the greater shall serve the lesser.'

for the only-begotten Son too has been shown to be without beginning;

otherwise the Father would likewise be greater than both Him and us — which may it never be said or even heard!

Nor according to essence and likeness.

for He is from Him, as only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, and as the express image of His hypostasis, being in every respect that express image, and as the image of God, whom he who has seen has seen the Father.

for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.

and this is further confirmed by the testimony, 'Let us make man according to our image and likeness.'

Nor according to an intensification of quality, since the divine and ineffable hypostases are not qualities;

but are incorporeal and intelligible.

Nor indeed can it be conceived of them, as though one were more beautiful than the beautiful and better than the better, in a manner resembling Paul's word spoken of something else:

'but now abide these three;'

for on account of its intensification toward virtue he assigned the 'greater' to love,

for, he says, 'having loved, we believe, and having believed, we hope to reign together with Christ.'

For if it is true that 'God is one,' and that 'you may become partakers of the divine nature' — and not

'natures' — then it has been demonstrated that the good, taken once for all, is one; and I mean:

Nor according to equality, because it is written that the Son is 'great' and 'God over all,' making Himself equal to the Father, and swearing by Himself, since He has none greater than Himself,

[calling Him] Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, and 'whatsoever things the Father does, these the Son also does likewise.'

Nor according to glory or any dignity.

for, he says, 'had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.'

and it is the will of the Father, according to John, 'that all should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.'

In what respect, then, is there still anything greater or unlike? As has been shown, in nothing.

And proclaiming also His co-unoriginateness, he wrote, as was said above:

'who, being the radiance of His glory' — the Father's glory — he continued:

'and the express image of His hypostasis.'

And again he wrote to the Colossians and to the Hebrews:

'who is the image of the invisible God.'

And in the Gospel according to John, the Son, showing that His own essence has been sealed with the Father's stamp, said:

'for this one has God the Father sealed.'

the seal, of course, subsisting together with the archetype and being of identical form, and in itself showing perfectly and truly the unity of nature of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

for the seal, like the impression, signifies that which is alike and unadulterated.

since it would then be time to say that the Father, too, does not exist in an unbegotten and incomparable manner, if indeed He is pictured and stamped by something generated and unlike Him.

Not rightly understanding these divine sayings, which need no further interpretation, but perverting them and warring with human notions against the words of God, they say:

'God is one thing, and the image of God another, just as man is one thing and the image of man another' — and in a sense they liken the living and active God the Word to a motionless image.

But according to essence and in every respect He is the most unerring and unoriginate image of the Father — not according to shape and form, as a molded or carved statue, breathless and unable to move itself, nor according to appearance and color, as an artificial and imitative, voiceless image.

for these, even by nature, do not manifest the prototype in any of the other respects either.

For a son of man is indeed the image of his own father's essence;

yet it happens that he differs in age, or appearance, or disposition, or power, or worth, or in both together, or in some other respect.

But God the Word, without variation and with exactness in every respect, naturally and without beginning images forth the simple, uncompounded, and unvarying Godhead of the Father.

For it is not permissible to conceive that the image of God agrees in one respect and differs in another;

nor indeed can there be an image of Him who admits of no comparison;

nor can that which is true and archetypal, greater, self-determining, and beyond comparison be manifested through what is unlike, or lesser, or subject to another's authority;

nor again can the natural form of the Creator be understood through a creature.

For indeed no nature displays another within itself.

Indeed, the Father too is found to have become without hypostasis, whenever the heretics refuse to grant that He possesses the express image of His hypostasis.

But neither does the invisible, uncompounded, and formless God have such an imitative image as they suggest.

And what plainly overturns their position is also the passage that follows, which reads:

'He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.'

And concerning the natural image, Moses too teaches thus:

'Adam begot Seth according to his own form.'

Now Seth was not necessarily of a different essence from Adam, and yet Moses called the image and likeness of essence a 'form.'

'But concerning man too,' he says, 'it is written that he is the image and glory of God.'

But nowhere, good sirs, is man or any other created thing written to be the radiance of God's glory and the express image of His hypostasis.

It is one thing for man to be the image of God — that is, the thing crafted being the image of its craftsman, as a chair is of the carpenter (for Solomon says:

'the Author of creation is perceived analogously through the things created') — and another thing to be, by conformity, identity of essence, and co-unoriginateness, the radiance of glory and the express image of hypostasis, itself subsisting and utterly true.

'He who has seen me has seen the Father.'

But he who has seen a man has not seen God, just as he who has beheld a chair has not seen the carpenter.

Moreover, it is necessary that the image of the only invisible God be itself alone invisible, and not man, who, though made according to the image, is visible.

The Son, then, is like no other; for it is written:

'Who among the sons of God shall be likened to the Lord?' Nor is He unlike His own Father;

for, He says, 'I and the Father are one.'

Taking these things thus, they make themselves like Nebuchadnezzar, who fashioned a lifeless image, a work of craftsmanship, to be worshiped.

And Adam too, on account of his disobedience, God justly cast out of paradise:

But the Son brought in the thief, and with him Adam and the whole common race, since he is in every way equal in divinity, goodness, and lordship to the one who cast him out.

But where is it written that the Father is incomparable to his own Only-Begotten, or that his Son — the maker and judge of all things, according to his divine and infinite nature set apart from all things — is a creature? Or altogether that he once did not exist? Or where did the Father specifically say

'I created for myself a son,' or the Son [say]:

'I was created by the Father'? — which it is dreadful and to be shunned even to hear, let alone to say.

Nowhere at all, then, is this to be found in the divine and inspired Scripture;

but on the contrary, all the Only-Begotten's words concerning his divinity are those of one comparing himself to the Father, uniting himself to him, and declaring himself of equal honor.

But neither has he ever been called 'child' or 'infant' or 'offspring' with reference to that eternal generation above, which nothing whatsoever can characterize, lest anyone should imagine something trivial, or something lending suspicion to their aforesaid sophistical blasphemies — but rather 'Son,' on account of his perfection, his having been begotten without beginning, and the unvarying identity of nature with the Father.

But all the things that some suppose to diminish his divinity — including 'the Father who sent me is greater than I' — have been declared by the sacred books on account of his loving and ineffable incarnation, which took place for us and on our behalf.

on account of which it is also written that he was made lower than the angels, according to the Apostle who wrote:

'but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, because of the suffering of death.'

I therefore think — though I do not claim absolute certainty — that he spoke concerning the Father and himself, showing the goodness and consubstantiality of both:

'Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad;'

'for,' he says, 'the tree is known by its fruit.'

Since, then, some who fight against God dare to say that the Holy Spirit, along with the Son, is the first creature, while Macedonius says this of the Spirit alone — may the holy and consubstantial Trinity turn upon them the burden of having to mention such desperate and condemned words; but we, setting forth the divine Scriptures, will show how the first creature of God actually came to be:

the first creature, having exalted himself, was cast down from the heavens like lightning, just as he who created it well, and afterward justly cast it down, beheld in the Gospel:

and thus it says in Job:

'But behold, there is a beast beside you that eats grass like an ox;'

'behold, its strength is in its loins, and its power is in the navel of its belly;'

'It set its tail up like a cypress, and its sinews are woven together; its ribs are bronze, and its backbone is cast iron.'

'This is the beginning of the Lord's creation, made to be mocked by the angels.'

So it says that the devil is the first creature, having made himself to be mocked by the holy angels because of the unholy and malicious character of his choice.

But the Son, who indeed created this devil himself, was not created after him, nor indeed was the Spirit of God.

[Chapter] N. Concerning the holy Trinity, and that because of the sameness of the essence, the same names are predicated of both hypostases, except for fatherhood and sonship and the procession of the Spirit.

for this is properly the distinctive property of each hypostasis.

and that at one time the Father, at another the Son, at another the Spirit is set forth first.

and that both the triadic and the unitary aspect are shown in Scripture.

From all that has been said, then, it has been established that their doctrines are in every way foreign to the truth.

...to search out the Scriptures with reverence and befitting acceptance.

It is necessary, then, henceforth, having passed over their implausible rubbish-talk and contentions, and having — so to speak — washed our salty ears clean with the intelligible, sweet water of the Holy Spirit, to show that the Scriptures, because of the sameness of the divinity, at one time name one of the divine hypostases, and at another the three, and likewise attribute goodness to each of them equally — as when Moses says:

'Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God, the Lord, is one' — by saying 'one' declaring the one divinity, and by saying 'Lord,' then 'God,' and again 'Lord,' signifying the Trinity, by whom every good thing in this world and above the world has existed and will exist for mankind;

'Let there be a firmament,' and 'God made the firmament,' and 'God saw that it was good;'

it should be noted that Scripture names three hypostases and calls each one 'God,' and shows the harmony and cooperation of the one who spoke, the one who made, and the one who approved.

'God,' it says, 'commands Moses, saying:'

'Speak to Aaron and his sons;'

'Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel:'

'The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.'

In order to make clear the three persons, he did not say once:

'May the Lord bless you and shine upon you and give you peace,' but named 'the Lord' a third time.

And so also when they prophesy: Haggai, bearing a God-given utterance in the person of the Father, speaking thus:

'Be strong, Zerubbabel, for I am with you;'

'and my good Word, and my Spirit, are in your midst;'

But Isaiah, saying that the sending forth came about with equal honor from hypostases of equal honor, each complete in itself, and in a brief statement showing the entire communion among them, cries out:

'And now the Lord, the Lord, has sent me, and his Spirit.'

For he did not simply name 'the Lord' a second time, and thus speak of his Spirit, without purpose, but in order to make clear both the hypostases and the one divinity and will.

And David too — for he himself likewise supports this very topic and fills everything with song, and reveals in what manner he held his faith, in the following words:

'For who is God besides the Lord? Or who is God except our God? — the God who girds me with strength;'

'you, O God, are my helper.'

'My God — his mercy shall go before me.'

'My God will show me victory over my enemies.'

'Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth; sing to the Lord, bless his name.'

For by naming either 'Lord' or 'God' a third time, he indicated the Trinity.

But Hannah too, praying in the book of Kingdoms, called upon the Trinity, saying:

'Adonai, Lord, Elohei Sabaoth.'

for in the Hebrew tongue, 'Adonai' is translated:

and again, in the Greek tongue he said 'Lord.'

and a third time he said in Hebrew 'Elohei Sabaoth,' which is:

'O God of hosts,' that is, of powers.

And already now Elijah the Tishbite too, in the narrative of the Third Book of Kingdoms, having prayed that the dead son of the widow of Sidon might live again, breathed into him a third time, and thus raised him up — thereby all but signifying that he himself had, in his prayer, called upon the life-giving Trinity, and also teaching us to believe and glorify God in no other way.

And by commanding the water-bearers, 'Do it a second time, and do it a third time,' he indicated that the three all-praised hypostases work everywhere in all things with equal power and equal honor.

But if you wish, I will again make known to you, from a divine utterance, the matter under discussion.

For in the book of Genesis, at the building of the tower, God and Father revealed the blessed hypostases, speaking to his own Son and his Holy Spirit:

'Come, let us go down and confuse their tongues there, so that each may not understand the voice of his neighbor.'

...in their depths — nowhere calling this one's depth more profound than the other's, lest anyone suppose that this hypostasis takes precedence over that one, but that we should all believe that the three converge into one divinity.

For this reason also the God-inspired Scripture forbade making steps at the altar, on which the Trinity is glorified, so that people might not distinguish it as though by steps, supposing that the divine hypostases exist according to some degree of diminution.

And, simply put, the Old Testament, bearing the type of the New, speaks mystically and most providently, in many places hinting rather than plainly declaring;

but in other places declaring rather than hinting the mystery afterward manifested, so that it might neither strike with sudden impact those who were uninitiated and not yet steadfast or capable of receiving the vision of God, nor yet cause them entire loss;

for the one extreme would be a sign of rashness, and the other of inhumanity.

and often, too, what perhaps it expressed to us here in a way difficult to grasp, it provided the resolution of through another passage of Scripture.

But the New Testament no longer speaks as in a shadow and a veil, but declares clearly and explicitly, as these passages testify:

Paul, writing to the Romans, says:

since indeed God is one -- as also to the Galatians; and to the Corinthians:

And again, to the Corinthians, in the second epistle:

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

Here, because of the identity of the Godhead, he mentioned the Son first, and then the Father, and then his Holy Spirit.

And he spoke of the communion of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son as belonging to the one Godhead, glory, and kingdom.

For what other communion could there be with respect to God? And to the Ephesians:

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

For this cause I bow my knees to God and the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Here again, likewise, because of the equal honor of the hypostases, after the Father he mentioned the Spirit first, and then the Son.

Now I beseech you, brothers, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf.

For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? -- which, having first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by various miracles, and by distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his own will.

By 'the Lord,' then, the Son is signified, and by 'God' the Father; and then also the self-determining and almighty power of the Holy Spirit.

And the Son also showed the one Godhead by saying:

'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone' -- and the three hypostases, equal in honor and equal in power, [he showed] through the teaching concerning baptism.

But he did not simply answer the lawyer who questioned him testingly:

'Why do you call me good?' -- rather he thereby showed that he himself also is good, equally with the Father, and that his own goodness shines forth from the Father's goodness, and it is shown that he, being good, was begotten of the Good.

'For if,' he says, 'you know me to be good, and yet you do not join that word to the title Teacher, [it is] as in the saying:'

'Well done, good servant'; and as the good man brings forth good out of the good treasure of his heart; and as Samuel was good before God and men; and:

'Saul, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, was good, taller than all Israel from the shoulders upward'; and:

'A living dog is better than a dead lion.'

...of the Father, but in hypostasis...

For the Godhead of both is one:

since otherwise the first Good would no longer be found to be one.

'For you have read somewhere,' he says, 'that it is good for you to trust in the Lord rather than to trust in man.'

'For it is good to cleave to God.'

and as good I have always exhorted you to follow me and to walk behind me.

[It does not say] 'No one is good but the Father alone,' but rather 'No one is good but God alone,' as he also says somewhere else:

'Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?' For creation, he says, possesses goodness by participation, imitating according to its own capacity -- if it is lawful to say so -- the innate and perfect goodness of God, and being saved through it.

And the existence of the good that is in it consists in partaking of that good which belongs to God, cleaving to him through obedience and through love for him.

For it is written: 'Those who remove themselves far from you shall perish'; and:

'God is far from the impious, and salvation is far from sinners.'

But it is clear that this is said with respect to relation and disposition -- on account of opposition to the good and slowness toward virtue -- and not with respect to place.

And that he himself also is good, inasmuch as he is by nature one with the good Father, he himself says in Matthew:

'Or is your eye evil because I am good?' And again:

'Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.' And by 'the good part' he meant himself.

and they proclaim together by the Spirit

men not obscure, but who also communed exceedingly with the divine Spirit.

And these are, among the others who accompany them, the following:

the sacred psalmist, in the 117th psalm:

'Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.'

Let all who fear the Lord say indeed:

'The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.'

'The Lord is a good judge to the house of Israel.'

And that the Holy Spirit of God is also good, the aforementioned David sings in the 24th psalm:

'Your good Spirit shall guide me in the land of uprightness.'

Moreover, if eternal life is good, so also are the words of the Son.

'I am the life.' And again:

'The words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and they are life.'

And if the sanctification of the Holy Spirit is good, and his activity in illumination -- for he is mentioned together as a co-worker -- and further also the distribution of the heavenly gifts, then altogether the Son and the Holy Spirit are good.

But we have not only been taught by hearing, but have also seen, so far as is possible, the particularity of the hypostases of the venerable and consubstantial Trinity:

the Father speaking from heaven:

'This is my beloved Son' -- while his Only-begotten was being baptized on earth, and his one and only Holy Spirit was descending in the form of a dove and remaining upon that very Only-begotten God and Son.

And indeed the Davidic treasure confirms this in the 84th psalm, that he who was made flesh from our earthly nature was testified by God the Father to be his Son.

And the saying, known to all, runs thus:

'Truth has sprung up from the earth, and righteousness has looked down from heaven.'

Likewise, because there is no difference of Godhead in the awesome and undefiled Trinity, the oracles sometimes reveal the Father together with the Son, as when David says:

'The Lord said to my Lord:'

'Sit at my right hand.' And Paul:

'Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.'

And sometimes they join the Father together with the Holy Spirit, as when Haggai prophesies:

'Because I am with you, says the Lord Almighty, and my Spirit stands in your midst.' And again:

'Not by great might, nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.'

For since there are times when the heterodox, when the Spirit is mentioned together with the Father, claim that some non-hypostatic power is thereby signified, the passage cited above stands as a safeguard against this.

'There the deer met one another and showed their faces one to another.'

'They passed by according to number, and not one of them was missing.'

'One did not seek out the other, because the Lord commanded them, and his Spirit gathered them together.' And Paul to the Corinthians:

'Do you not know that you are God's temple, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?' And again:

'The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.' And again:

'But to us God has revealed [them] through his Spirit.'

But at other times they name only the Son, as when Isaiah prophesies:

And now, O Lord, you are our Father, and we are clay, all of us the works of your hands; and Paul, writing to the Galatians, says:

'For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.'

At other times they proclaim the Only-begotten together with the Holy Spirit, as when Paul writes to the Corinthians:

'But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.' And to the Romans:

'I speak the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.' And again:

'For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive...'

And at other times Scripture makes mention of the Holy Spirit alone, as when Isaiah prophesies:

'But they disobeyed and grieved his Holy Spirit.' And again:

'The Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them.'

And Paul writes to the Corinthians:

'But the fleshly man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.'

And as Stephen says in the Acts:

'You always resist the Holy Spirit.' And again:

'We are witnesses of these words, and so is the Holy Spirit' — as we are generally accustomed to say for short:

'We alone are here, and God.' And the Savior, in John, likewise makes mention of the divine Spirit alone, saying:

'But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all truth.'

And the Acts likewise bear witness to this concerning him:

'And while Peter was pondering the saying, the Holy Spirit said to him:'

'Rise, go down, and go with them without hesitation, for I have sent them.' And again:

'Thus says the Holy Spirit:'

'Set apart for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them.'

And again the Holy Spirit said to Peter:

'Rise, go to the house of Cornelius.'

And once more, the Acts of the Apostles, elegantly composed, furnish occasion for such a discourse:

'Then Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to him.' And further:

'For Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to the people.'

The equal balance and equal power of the all-honored hypostases is likewise signified also in this: that the Master, God the Word, through the all-praised voice already mentioned at his baptism, preserved for himself and for the Holy Spirit the same equality of honor that is due toward the Father.

On account of which the sacred books sometimes mention the Father first and then the Son or the Holy Spirit, and sometimes mention the Son first, because of the indivisibility of the nature and the sameness of the theology — as when Job speaks, clearly indicating the Trinity:

'As the Lord lives, who has judged me thus, and the Almighty who has embittered my soul:'

'as long as my breath is yet in me, and the divine Spirit that remains in my nostrils,'

he means the Holy Spirit that gives me life and still causes me to breathe.

And as when Paul writes his second letter to the Thessalonians:

'Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, comfort your hearts.' And to the Galatians:

'Paul, an apostle — not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father.' And to the Corinthians, as was said before:

'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit...'

And sometimes they name the Holy Spirit first, and afterward the Father or the Son, as when David sings:

'Where shall I go from your Spirit, and from your face where shall I flee?' And Job, showing his gratitude, says:

'The divine Spirit made me, and the breath of the Almighty teaches me.'

And as Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians:

'There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;'

'and there are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord;'

'and there are varieties of workings, but it is the same God who works all things in all.'

And sometimes they speak of two hypostases under the same title, as when Zechariah says:

'The Lord said to the devil:'

'The Lord rebuke you, O devil.'

And this was shown above through many examples.

On the fact that what is now said of the Father is at other times said of the Son or of the Holy Spirit, because the Trinity exists in one Godhead.

Since the hierophants know the glorious Trinity to exist in one Godhead, and that the theology concerning it is common to all three, what they have said at one time about the Father, at another time others of them declare about the Son or the Holy Spirit — not contradicting themselves, but so that we too might know this very thing, which is the essential point of the orthodox faith:

namely, that whichever hypostasis we happen to mention, we thereby also embrace the other together with it in faith, inasmuch as they are inseparable.

Now it is necessary that the truthful interpreters of God not lie, and that those who teach the simple and truly real truth of God — that is, his goodness — be pure, since the opinion that denies the truth is thereby excluded.

'for they say that it is not lawful for the impure to touch the pure.'

But they were pure and strangers to every false opinion.

And we shall find this immediately in the vision of God which Isaiah beheld.

But why should I not first mention that whole passage just as it stands? He says, then: