On the Trinity 1-1 part 5/12

'For when God made a promise to Abraham — what he promised, he also performed — since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying:'

'Surely blessing I will bless you.'

And to the Romans again he expounds the Son swearing by himself:

'For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, as it is written:'

'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.'

Moreover, that he sits together at the right hand of the Father — and further, that the evangelist proclaims with a god-inspired tongue that the seat befitting the Son is the Father's own bosom — if these do not signify sameness of essence and equality of honor, and the necessity that the only-begotten God and Son be worshiped together with the Father and his Spirit, then — though one ought not to understand what is written concerning God in a merely human fashion — on their reckoning he who sits at the right hand would be greater and more glorious than he who has the ineffable divine bosom as his many-eyed, cherubic throne.

May this never be said concerning the most ineffable and most tranquil Trinity!

For David sings concerning the Father in the 109th Psalm:

'The Lord said to my Lord:'

while Paul instructs the Hebrews:

'The only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.'

Likewise there is a theology concerning the Son: that in him dwells all the fullness of deity, and that he is the great God and God over all, beside whom no other shall be reckoned, and the true God and eternal life, and sole Master, and sole worker of wonders, and Most High, and King, and the one who exercises authority, and Christ all and in all, and so forth.

So much, then, has been sufficient concerning these matters;

but the initiates of divine things, who zealously pursue the loftier truths of the all-provident Trinity, do not rest content, but press on still further to what is exalted:

and just as they theologize concerning the Father, so too they theologize concerning the Son: that in him dwells all the fullness of deity, and that he is the great God and God over all, beside whom no other shall be reckoned, and the true God and eternal life, and the true light, and sole Master, and sole Most High, and sole worker of wonders, and great King, and Lord of all, and Creator, and the one who exercises authority, and of his peace there is no end, and Savior, and Christ all and in all, and blessed forever; and that great is the mystery of godliness — clearly that of the Christians, among whom Christ is hymned as the uncreated God, and [it is said] that by his own deity he acquires the people for himself, because he is of one substance with the Father.

In such manner, then, do the saints — whom we are now about to mention — speak concerning these things, to whom God, according to the 15th Psalm, made known the ways of life:

David, praying in the 7th Psalm:

'Arise, O Lord my God, according to the command that you have ordained, and the assembly of peoples shall surround you; and for its sake, return on high.'

You perceive how the prophet knows him as Lord and God, and entreats him, saying 'Arise' — with reference to your ineffable incarnation, in the manner that you foreordained by the saying, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'

'For it is on behalf of this,' he says, referring to the—

the salvation that thereby comes to be ours;

the nations shall encircle you in faith;

but you, return inseparably to the place from which you came;

Great God is the Lord, and great King over all the earth

From the rising of the sun to its setting, out of Zion is the perfection of his beauty;

Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered, and make a way for him who rides upon the west;

the Lord is his name; and in Psalm 81:

Arise, O God, judge the earth

Observe how each word kindles his glory and suffices to persuade [us] that he exists of the very essence of the Father's oneness;

and that the sublime writer calls him God who was laid in the tomb not apart from life — so that, together with the living, he might also save those of human affairs who had departed — and prophesies that he will rise from the tomb to judge those who, after so great and so mighty a benefit, thought in an earthly manner

And know that by 'the west' he means the last times

for in these he stood forth visibly in this visible world

Who is a great God like our God? You are the God who alone does wonders

here too he extols the incarnate God the Word, who dwelt in the Jewish temple, and taught, and worked wonders;

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord;

Great God is the Lord, and he has appeared to us

If, then, according to the prophet, he who has appeared to us as Lord is rightly called 'great God,' and if he is 'blessed' — that is, glorified — and is 'great King,' and alone works wonders, and he is the Son — then it is unreasonable that among the heretics he should be supposed lesser than his own Father

for it is not possible that the same one should truly hold the first place according to the prophecy, yet the second place according to them

If, indeed, we inquire of the same psalmist, we shall learn that he knows the Son, just as the Father, to be the God of our forefathers

for in Psalm 46 he cries out:

God has reigned over the nations

God sits upon his holy throne;

they were gathered together with the God of Abraham

and they assembled together with the God who became man, concerning whom it is sung in Psalm 2:

Why did the nations rage, and the peoples meditate vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ

And Isaiah cries out that he is incomparable, just as God the Father is:

From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen, any god besides you

for we have seen no other god than him who, according to the saving incarnation, was born of the Virgin Mary, nor have we heard of any, except him who was testified to by God the Father:

'This is my beloved Son.' And again, as was said before:

A child is born to us, a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder;

and his name shall be called Mighty God, Ruler, Prince of Peace, Father of the age to come

and of his peace there is no bound

The Son of God, he says, having become man, was born a child and given to us, himself bearing on his shoulder the beginning of this, his lower birth, that is:

he himself is his own beginning, in that, having without corruption been made flesh by a virgin, and ineffably born of her, he provided no beginning through union with a man

Mighty God, Ruler

not one subject to another's power, but he manifested his own nature, his power, his sovereign authority

Knowing this name, David sings:

let them know that your name is the Lord;

you alone are the Most High over all the earth — having said 'alone' on account of the one Godhead

But he called him 'Father of the age to come,' though he is also the maker of the ages that had already passed, because it was from the time of the dispensation that he became far more known to human beings

He called him, then, father of a created and not of an uncreated nature;

for there is one Father of the uncreated and consubstantial Son

and showing forth the immensity of his Godhead, he said:

of his peace there is no bound

And Jeremiah, or rather Baruch — for the book of both is one — speaks solemnly concerning him:

no other shall be reckoned as comparable to him

He found out every way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved;

afterward he appeared upon the earth and lived among men

If, then, this passage of Scripture is not understood in a manner befitting God — namely, that it was spoken thus because of the sameness of Godhead shared by both these ineffable hypostases — then it remains for one who has renounced God to say that he who begot [the Son], God and Father himself, is not our God, nor is he to be compared with his own Son

The argument of those who slander God the Word as lesser and as a mere servant has thus utterly collapsed and been altogether wiped away

For how could another be incomparable with God, one against whom no other is to be reckoned? And again:

The gods that have not made the heaven and the earth shall perish from the earth;

The Lord, who made the heavens by understanding, he is the living and true God — as though there were no other true Godhead except that of the genuine Son of God, through whom, and from whom, and from whom, together with the whole world, the heavens too were brought forth

And Paul too, foremost among men, keeping the same order as the prophets, renders the words fitting to be said of him, writing to Titus:

awaiting the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people of his own, zealous for good works

For by proclaiming aloud 'of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,' he shows that [the Son] does not hold second place according to essence, and [shows] his beginninglessness in relation to the great God the Father

And even from what appears, one can perceive that if the Son were small, how could the Father be great? If there was [a time] when God the Word was not, then there was [a time] when the name 'Father' did not exist

But may [God] be gracious to us who dare to say such things, on account of the perversity of others

'It is a good custom,' as they say, 'for those who make use of it'

And by saying 'who gave himself for us, that he might purify for himself a people of his own' — and not:

'that he might purify a people for another' — he adds what naturally follows upon what has been mentioned

for he thereby signifies that he possesses, by allotment, the one self-governing and good Godhead, the cause of all things

for it is proper to the Creator, and not to a creature, to die on behalf of — if one may so put it — his own handiwork;

whereas it is proper to the beloved Son, who possesses a Godhead and kingdom not different from the Father's, to acquire the people for himself

And this great and true expositor, carrying forward his argument to demonstrate that he [Christ] is at once a loving and saving God, and at the same time that it was of his own accord — not yielding to some superior deity — that he became with us as one of us, without change and without sin, says:

When the kindness and love for mankind of God our Savior appeared, not by works of righteousness which we ourselves had done, but according to his great mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit

And to the Colossians he both rebukes [them] and lays the foundation of the most primary theology concerning him, writing — as has already been said in the chapter on the consubstantial:

Why, as though living in the world, do you submit to regulations — according to the tradition of men, according to the elemental principles of the world, and not according to Christ Jesus? Because in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that is, essentially

for he too is by nature the fullness [of the Godhead], being himself, in essence, the very Godhead of the Father

for he did not consider being equal with God a thing to be grasped;

But we, out of his fullness, received grace on account of his goodness,

which, as slaves, we did not possess by nature, according to John who says:

'and of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace' — that is, the grace of regeneration in place of the grace we cast away when, deceived, we transgressed the first ordinance concerning the one tree.

'For you are no longer under the law,' he says, 'but under grace,'

'because in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things to himself.'

These words too follow upon what was said before.

For since the Father is in the Son and he in the Father by nature — just as everything that is akin to another remains in a way inseparable from what is akin to it, even though it is set apart in hypostasis — the illustration drawn from the shifting ground is also fitting, even if not exceedingly profound, yet not easily grasped by all;

'through him and unto him to reconcile all things' — so that what was spoken concerning the Father fits the Son as well;

'from whom are all things' — if indeed what has now been said stands sound, together with the saying:

'in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.'

And writing to Timothy also, he theologized about him in the highest degree, and from both expressions taught that, as regards the Godhead, he is not other than the Father's nature:

'confessedly great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.'

For he who is the begetter and benefactor of all things, not yet being plainly evident to all, was found to be manifest when, for the salvation of all, he willingly became, as it were, one among all.

Hence he 'was justified in the Spirit' — that is, he was declared, or rather confirmed, even by those who in the time before had been ignorant of him, to be truly God;

'and this,' he says, 'not without examination, but by that very movement of our soul, as common usage is wont to say:

So-and-so was proven truly to be the son of so-and-so, having furnished proof of his lineage;

so-and-so was proven to govern well.'

And that the statement might appear more credible, he claims that he was also 'seen by angels' — beings to whom, on account of his divine infinitude and formlessness, he had before that time been invisible, just as to the only invisible God — and that he was hymned by them, saying:

'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men.'

In the latter times, out of love for mankind, he was born in a manner beyond words, having manifested in himself all that belongs to the Father,

and that he has ascended to him who encompasses all things, in the glory which he ever possessed while being with God.

And he himself, of whom this account speaks, is also trustworthy, bearing witness to his own Godhead and lordship, saying — in Matthew, to the devil:

'You shall not tempt the Lord your God' — and in John, to the apostles:

'the Lord and the Teacher.'

And Thomas, having touched the marks of the nails which the Savior, in his love for mankind, bore for our sake and from us, was not disturbed, nor did he lower his estimate of the most exalted glory concerning him;

for he knew that it belonged solely to the sovereign, infinitely powerful, and most good nature — and not to a created one — not merely to suffer on behalf of its own creatures, but also to bestow that universal and generic salvation, as we call it, and this eternally.

Therefore, taking courage all the more from this, he offers him firm faith in return and cries out in acclamation:

'My Lord and my God.'

And in the catholic epistles too, they wrote, speaking of the Son's divinity equally and in like terms with the Father, as was said before — John, foremost among the theologians:

'and we know,' he says, 'that the Word of God has come and has given us understanding, that we may know the true God;

and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.'

'This is the true God and eternal life.'

'Do not seek,' he says, 'another God in essence, or another Son of God;

for I have told you twice concerning him the word 'true' — that he is both true Son and true God — having given understanding to those worthy to receive it,

so that they may know that he was truly begotten and truly is of one substance with God who begot him.'

And Jude, one of the twelve, defined him as sole Master, as one who has received by lot the paternal Godhead that is over all, through all, and in all, writing thus to all men everywhere:

'for certain men have crept in unnoticed, ungodly persons long ago marked out beforehand for this condemnation, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.'

But Peter also, the chief among the apostles, is seen in the Acts to have said:

'the word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ.'

Whose, then, or how, or when could he — who has been honored with so many clear, equally-ranked, and unvarying oracles concerning the Father — be introduced as unlike him?

Concerning the truth that the Son causes every good thing to rise, and is the Sun of Righteousness, and healing, and a treasury of wisdom and knowledge, and light; and that those who believe in him and are not scandalized by him become sons of light.

Those, then, who have hymned him in various ways, showing us his Godhead and how perfectly he presides over his own works, teach that he is the provider of every good thing, a good-formed and good-making light, and an intelligible sun, illuminating with his own unceasing light the eyes of unerring and receptive souls, leading them within the intelligible watch-tower and enabling them to see what by nature, through sin, they had not previously been able to see of themselves — or, rather, making the whole sound man light-formed, just as the sun makes sunlike the bodies in which it comes to be.

Moreover, that he is also healing, and an inexhaustible and all-sufficient treasury of wisdom and knowledge.

And those who are sincerely disposed toward him, as also toward his Father, become sons of light, even as they are sons of God the Father — as when Malachi proclaims:

'To you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise, with healing in its wings;'

and Peter, in his second epistle:

'until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.'

He was speaking, I think, of the illumination of souls that was to rise from his second appearing, brightening all things held fast in darkness;

'and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.'

And Zechariah prophesied:

'whatever is good is his, and whatever is beautiful shall be from him.'

And Paul, writing to the Colossians, said concerning him:

'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' — and to the Romans:

'for the Scripture says,' he tells us:

'everyone who believes on him shall not be put to shame;

for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek,

for the same Lord is Lord of all, rich toward all who call upon him;

for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

But what name of the Son do those invoke who call him neither an uncreated God nor a Son consubstantial with the Father — him, the most glorious victor, the Savior of heaven and earth and sea? And John likewise speaks concerning him:

'while you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.'

'For after death,' he says, 'there is no repentance,' as David also sings in the psalm:

'but in Hades, who will give thanks to you?' And again, from the Savior:

'go and tell John the things you see and hear:

the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them;

and blessed is he who is not offended in me.'

For what will he say concerning those who are led astray and those who lead astray? Isaiah foretold:

'O my people, those who call you blessed lead you astray, and disturb the path of your feet;

but now the Lord will take his stand for judgment, and will set the people for judgment.'

'The Lord himself will come to judgment with the elders of the people and with its rulers.'

But why have you burned down my vineyard?

And the Lord himself will come to judgment together with the teachers and rulers, not as one who is to be judged by another, but as one who will convict them, just as he declares elsewhere:

'Come, let us be judged together,' says the Lord; 'consider,' he says, 'what things have come to you from me, and what things have come from you against me and my servants.'

For by 'vineyard' he means the world, or the people—which the interpreters among the heretics and the Jews, through their blasphemous teaching, made liable to the fire of Gehenna, while the rulers, not making its affairs their own concern but abusing their authority, wronged it in various and sundry ways.

For something similar was also said by the same prophet, spoken in the person of the Master:

'Who is he that goes to law with me? Let him stand against me.'

'And who is he that contends with me at law? Let him draw near to me.'

'If anyone has just claims to make, being fortified by his deeds, let him, if he so wishes, come forward against me and draw near in argument.'

But some read it as follows:

'Who is he that goes to law with me?'—that is, let him stand opposite and far off from me, since he does not have good provisions for his case, and is therefore unworthy to be judged alongside me or to touch the most pure judgment-seat.

For to those who are worthy, should they attain to good things, no one begrudges it.

That the Son of God is the judge of the living and the dead, granting forgiveness of sins, and that salvation is in no one else.

For he himself is the judge of the living and the dead, that is, of the righteous and of sinners, who grants forgiveness of sins to those who believe in his name, and who saves us by his own glory and gift.

And in no one else is there salvation, since by nature he is merciful and a savior, in no way inferior to God the Father, who is merciful and saves, as both the other Scriptures declare in oracle, and indeed Micah too, saying:

'Who is a God like you, taking away iniquities and passing over transgressions?' And Peter, in the Acts, likewise says:

'And he charged us to preach to the people and to testify solemnly that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.'

'To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.'

...of God, on account of his saving incarnation, in which he came to seek and to save that which was lost.

On account of which it is also written: 'For neither does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son';

and he made him judge as one set apart from created things.

For a created thing does not judge, but is subject to law and to judgment.

'This is the stone that was rejected by you builders, which has become the head of the corner.'

'And salvation is in no one else.'

But he also sends a second catholic epistle, which, among other things, has this to say concerning him:

'seeing that his divine power has granted us all things pertaining to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue, through which he has granted to us the greatest and precious promises, that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature.'

Wherefore James also, in his general epistle, said:

'There is one lawgiver and judge, who is able to save and to destroy.'

But what further need is there of a multitude of Scriptures for this? Even the Samaritans, according to John, that precise theologian, being grateful men, utter these words:

'For we ourselves,' he says, 'have heard and know that this is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ'—he who, it is said, gently said:

'Take courage, child; your sins are forgiven.'

That, on account of the equal honor of the Trinity, the Father reveals to us the Son and draws us to him, and again the Son himself and the Holy Spirit bring us to the Father.

In the same place, also concerning the confession of Peter, and that repentance does exist.

For in order that the equal honor of the blessed Trinity in all things might be demonstrated throughout, the Father reveals to us his own Son and draws us through himself to him, and transfers us into his kingdom;

and again the Son and the Holy Spirit bring us to God the Father.

For God would not have transferred us to one of a different substance, or greater than himself, nor to beings subordinate to him, as it were his own scepters.

Accordingly, the New Covenant has brought the Old Covenant to perfection, through faith in the Son and the divine Spirit.

Thus they speak: God the Father, in Isaiah, to the Son:

'Behold, proselytes will come to you through me, and will sojourn with you, and will take refuge in you;'

'No one can come to me unless the heavenly Father draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.'

And again, to Peter, who had said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,' he said:

'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in the heavens.'

'And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.'

'And I will give you the keys of the heavens, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in the heavens.'

O how much faith can accomplish, and the confession that the Only-Begotten God the Word is a true Son of God and not a creature!

Peter did not hesitate, seeing with flesh and blood eyes God dwelling upon the earth;

for this is what is meant by 'flesh and blood has not revealed this to you';

rather, he recognized the connatural and coeternal Branch of God;

in this he honored the self-originate and unoriginate Root that had revealed him to him;

he believed in his unity of Godhead with the Father;

he was pronounced blessed by the only blessed Master.

Upon this rock the churches were built, against which the gates of Hades—that is, the reasonings of heretics—do not prevail;

he was entrusted with the keys of the heavens, so that—for those who believe, as Peter himself is shown just now to have answered, and as he heard from Christ together with the other apostles—

'baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit'—he might open the gate into the kingdom of God;

but to those who do not so glorify the Trinity, he might close off that thrice-blessed and most desired entrance.

and they grew cold in faith and were cast out.

Having thus spoken the truth and confessed him to be the Son of God—that is, genuine and consubstantial—he heard corresponding words in return:

for Peter was by no means of a different substance from the one who begot him.

In addition to this, he received authority—or rather, all the apostles received it through him—not to refuse those who fall, but to receive those who repent.

For no one is without sin, except the one who granted this authority to Peter; for this is precisely what is meant:

'Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in the heavens.'

From that time on, he cast away the inhumanity of Novatus and Sabbatius;

And in keeping with what has been set forth, Paul too, writing to the Galatians, follows suit:

'But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb, was pleased to reveal his Son in me...' And to the Colossians:

'giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the portion of the inheritance of the saints in light;'

'who has delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.' And to the Corinthians:

'God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.' And to the Ephesians:

'and coming, he preached good news of peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.'

That there is no end to the kingdom of the Only-Begotten.

And so that the heretics who say that, after the general resurrection, the Son is about to hand over the kingdom to the Father might be put to shame, the Scriptures proclaim that the Son's dominion is without end, as follows:

Gabriel, in Luke, bringing good news to the Theotokos:

And the Lord God, it says, will give him the throne of David his father, and he will reign over the house of Israel forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

For if he restores it, in which kingdom of his, and when, shall we reign together with him? But Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says:

No fornicator or unclean person or covetous man—who is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

He is certainly speaking of the kingdom after the resurrection.

When, then, according to them, will he hereafter hand over the kingdom? But in the second epistle to Timothy he writes:

I charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:

And it is clear that he speaks of a kingdom which he holds undivided and without succession together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, both now and unto the age to come.

And to the angels indeed he says:

Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire;

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;

A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom;

You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity;

Therefore God, your God, has anointed you, O God, with the oil of gladness above your companions.