Ancoratus 1 part 2/12

you have received the Holy Spirit, and you have been deemed worthy of the power of the Father and of the Son of God;

you have glorified the Father, and you have thereby signified the Son and the Holy Spirit.

For the Father is Father, the Son is Son, the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit.

But the Trinity is not thereby estranged from unity and identity;

the Father is honored inasmuch as he is Father, the Son is honored inasmuch as he is Son, the Holy Spirit is honored inasmuch as he is true Spirit and Spirit of God.

Thus the Only-Begotten says: "He who honors the Father honors the Son";

and "he who honors the Son honors the Father";

for in naming the Son, you honor the Father, not thereby asserting that Christ is lesser than the Father.

For if such a disposition is absent even among us men, and we do not wish our sons to be inferior, nor diminished in comparison with the honor due their fathers — for dishonor shown to sons is reckoned proportionately upon the fathers — how much more would God the Father never wish his own Son to be diminished? He, then, who supposes that the Son, who is truly the Father's Son, falls short of the Father's glory, rather dishonors the Father, being carried along by ignorance instead of by honor.

As, therefore, the Son reveals the Father, saying, "No one knows the Father except the Son, and no one knows the Son except the Father," so — I dare to say — no one knows the Spirit either, except the Father and the Son, from whom he proceeds and from whom he receives.

But how do those dare to call the Spirit alien to God, who are possessed by madness rather than by truth, who do not learn the true voice of the trustworthy and holy apostle Paul — to whom Peter, the most eminent of the apostles, who was deemed worthy to hold the key of the kingdom, gave his right hand; who heard from heaven, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me"; who was deemed worthy to hear unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter; who says, "No one knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that dwells in him" — wishing, by this example, to declare the things above, not that the example of man should be likened to God, but that by the example a part of the things above might be revealed? For the whole of creation, gathered together — angels and archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim together with the heavenly host, of heaven and of earth, of things earthly, heavenly, and beneath the earth, of luminaries and of stars, of things dry and moist, and of absolutely everything in heaven and upon earth — is not able to demonstrate, nor by any example to be made like, their own Master.

For it is by grace that he grants the image to man, saying, "God made man, according to the image of God he made him."

For every man has the image as a gift, but no one will be made like to his own Master.

For the one is invisible, the other visible; the one immortal, the other capable of receiving death; and the one is the fountain of all wisdom, having all things perfected within himself, whereas man, having the gift only in part, falls short of the most perfect things, unless God should wish to grant, according to merit, to those who receive it, the perfection that comes through the gift.

Nevertheless, employing an example, the same holy apostle says, "No man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man that dwells in him";

"so also no one has known the things of God";

and he did not say "except the Spirit of God that dwells in him," but only "the Spirit of God," lest anyone should conceive the divine as composite and compounded;

"except," he says, "the Spirit of God";

"for the Spirit of God searches all things, even the depths of God."

The Spirit of God, then, that searches the depths of God, is not alien.

For if the divine Scripture rebukes us, saying, "Meditate upon what has been enjoined upon you; you have no need of hidden things; do not seek things too high for you, and do not investigate things too deep for you" — shall we then say also concerning the Holy Spirit that he searches the depths of God rather out of officious curiosity than out of genuineness? Where, then, does he search the depths of God? For what reason? Tell me, O foolish one!

As one being over-officious? As a busybody in others' affairs? As one not content with his own concerns? Let it not be!

But it is because the saints are deemed worthy to have the Holy Spirit dwell within themselves; whenever the Holy Spirit comes to be in the saints, he grants to them to search the depths of God.

And from the time the Law was given through Moses, the sects that split off after it, before the incarnate coming of Christ, number eleven, and after the incarnate coming, another sixty.

apart from those before the Law — all of which number five — and the other four Hellenic sects; these before the Law number nine in all;

and all of them together, with their own mother-sects, number eighty.

Of these the mother-sects are five, as follows:

Barbarism, Scythism, Hellenism, Judaism, Samaritanism.

Of these, from Hellenism there are four sects:

the Pythagoreans, the Platonists, the Stoics, the Epicureans.

and from the Law, before the coming of Christ in the flesh, eleven:

the Scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Ossaeans, the Nasaraeans, the Hemerobaptists, the Herodians;

together eleven, sprung from the Law, out of the Jews and the Samaritans.

All, then, that existed before the incarnate coming of Christ, beginning from Adam and continuing up to that coming, are twenty.

But after the incarnate coming of Christ, up to the reign of Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, all the sects that have falsely applied the name of Christ to themselves number sixty, reckoned as follows:

...of schisms — I mean of the aforementioned Meletians in Egypt, who split themselves off on account of a certain lapse that occurred among some during the persecution, though they were received back by our own [clergy] into their own clerical ranks after repentance, and are, indeed, not in heresy; and likewise of the aforementioned Audians in Mesopotamia, who are themselves also a schism, but do not hold an alien faith, only quarreling privately and idiosyncratically over the matter of "according to the image," and who have become unruly and separated themselves not for the sake of the faith nor for any other reason, but out of a supposed voluntary extremity of righteousness, because they refuse communion with bishops and presbyters who possess gold and silver, and because they keep Pascha at the time when the Jews keep it; and it is for the sake of these things that they split themselves off and alienate themselves from the union of the orthodox Church.

For those who did not receive the Holy Spirit did not learn the depths of God, and so were splintered off into these sects, and into the contentious wranglings of schisms arising from pretexts.

For having abandoned the truth, they walked upon many paths, thinking different things differently at different times.

And the same holy apostle says, showing us for what reason he said this: "But we have received the Spirit of God, that we might know the things graciously given to us by God,"

"which things we also speak, not in words taught by [human] wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual," and so on.

The Spirit of God, then, is not alien to God.

For if he is alien to God, how does he search the depths of God? But what will you say to me, O vainglorious one, who wage war on yourself — that I may not say, on the Holy Spirit of God? For why, O vainglorious one, do you make war on the unconquerable? Why do you fight against the unfightable? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.

You cause yourself to stumble, and not the Word; you capture yourself, and not the Spirit; you alienate yourself from the grace of God, and not the Son from the Father, nor the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.

For surely you say, with clever contrivance:

"For I have already heard also certain vain-minded persons twisting the truth of God our Savior into blasphemies, and saying:

'He searches the depths of God, but does not comprehend them, because this word is not attached to the saying; the apostle only says, "he searches the depths of God";

and "comprehends" is not added.'"

Was it necessary, then, O you plagued of God, after saying "searches," also to say "comprehends"? For according to your ineptitude, would the matter be found lacking if this word were not added? But as it is, no pretext remains to you.

For Scripture gathers the truth together from every side for the most reverent man.

For concerning God the Almighty it is written thus, that "God, who tests the kidneys and searches the chambers of the belly."

But if he tests the kidneys, does he then not know what he tests? Or has he declared the whole of knowledge to consist in testing? And "searching the chambers of the belly" — again, "comprehending" is not added.

Shall I, then, if "comprehends" is not added to the saying, procure death for myself by weaving into the saying "does not comprehend," according to your reasoning, O foolish one? Thus, then, it is said also concerning the Holy Spirit that he "searches," and there was no need to say also that he "comprehends."

For by the very saying itself it shows that in the Holy Spirit there is the knowledge of God and of the depths of God.

And even if it does not say "comprehends," understand it as meaning the same thing, and do not destroy your own soul.

For just as, concerning the Father, one must not dare to say "he searches and does not comprehend" — for he himself created man, together with the Son and the Holy Spirit —

for the Trinity is always Trinity and never receives addition — so indeed must one also understand concerning the Holy Spirit.

"God made heaven and earth" signifies the voice of the Father summoning together unto creation; and in saying "let us make," I would say this signifies not only the Son, but also the Holy Spirit.

For thus it says: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their host."

The Word, then, creates together with the Father; the Holy Spirit also creates together.

Does God the Almighty, then, who made man, not know the things of man, when he searches the chambers of the belly? Rather, the saying brings forward the very greatest measure of the knowledge of God by saying this, so that none of those among us who sin should suppose that anything is hidden from God.

For he himself knows man and the things of man.

The Father, then, searches the chambers of the belly and knows; the Spirit searches the depths of God and knows.

For he reveals to the saints the mysteries of God, and teaches them to glorify God profoundly, and shows to his own people God's incomprehensibility.

Therefore, the Spirit is indeed not alien to God.

For it did not say concerning the angels that they search the depths of God, nor concerning the archangels.

"For no one knows the day nor the hour" — says the Son of God — "neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."

But the senseless, who are not adorned with the Holy Spirit, suppose that there is something in the Father that is not in the divinity of the Son.

For as the Father has life in himself, so also the Son has life in himself; and, 'all that is my Father's is mine,' says the same holy Word of God.

But what are the Father's things, if not these:

That which is God belongs to the Father, this too belongs to the Son;

the life that belongs to the Father, this too belongs to the Son;

the light that belongs to the Father, clearly this too belongs to the Son;

the immortality that belongs to the Father, likewise this too belongs to the Son;

the incomprehensibility that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son;

all that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son.

If then the Father's things are his, then the knowledge that is in the Father exists also in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.

But if anyone supposes that the Son is ignorant of the day, let the ignorant man learn and not blaspheme.

For I offer him knowledge, and he shall know.

Tell me, O beloved — for I call you beloved;

for I hate no one, save only the devil and the works of the devil and false belief;

but for you I pray, that you may come to the truth of God and not destroy yourself in blasphemy against God.

For the words of the holy God are deep, and knowledge is given by the Holy Spirit through the gifts of grace.

For to one, it says, is given a word of wisdom, and to another a word of teaching, and so forth; and it is the same Spirit that apportions to each as it wills, so that it may show you also the sovereign authority of the Holy Spirit.

For since the same Spirit gives the gifts to all as it wills, therefore entreat the Father, that he may reveal to you the Son; and entreat the Son, that he may reveal to you the Father; and again entreat the Father, that he may give you the Son and reveal to you the Holy Spirit, and grant you to have him within you, so that the Holy Spirit, once given within you, may reveal to you the whole knowledge of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that you may learn that in the Son there is no ignorance at all, nor in the Holy Spirit.

For even if angels fall short of the greater authority and knowledge, may it never be that the Son of God and his Holy Spirit likewise fall short.

But the Son speaks spiritually — the holy Word who came to us from the Father:

but those who are unspiritual are called to account, not understanding the wisdom of the Son, or rather the word of his wisdom — I ask you, and tell me:

Which is greater — the Father, or that day of which he speaks? You will not dare to say that the Father is not greater.

None knows him fully but the Son — which then is greater, to know the Father, or to know that day? It is quite clear that to know the Father is the greater.

How then does he who knows the greater things fall short of the lesser? If then he knows the Father, he assuredly knows the day also, and there is nothing in respect of knowledge in which the Son falls short.

But you will say that the Father, being greater than all, has the knowledge, while the Son does not have it at all, just as he himself says, 'My Father is greater than I.'

But the Son says this honoring the Father, as was fitting, being himself the more greatly honored by the Father.

For it was truly fitting that the genuine son should honor his own father, that he might show the genuineness of his sonship.

But in what way do you suppose him to be greater — in circumference, or in bulk, or in time, or in season, or in dignity, or in Godhead, or in immortality, or in eternity? Do not suppose these things.

For nothing in the Godhead is unequal in relation to the Son, but insofar as the Father is Father, and insofar as the Son is a genuine son, he honors his own father.

For the divine is not carried along by bulk, so that the Father should be more massive than the Son; nor does it fall under time, so that the Father should be prior in time to the Son; nor is the Father ranked in a partial measure as to height — for he contains all things, himself contained by none — so that the Son too may be understood as transcendent.

For he sat down at the right hand of the Father, and it is not said that he entered into the Father, so as to dissolve Sabellius and cast Arius down from his blasphemy.

And when you hear concerning God, 'No one is good but God alone,' do not dare, because the Son honors the Father exceedingly, to declare the Son not good.

For it is not by denying that he himself is good that he calls the Father good, but he reveals himself all the more greatly precisely in not wanting the honor from men, but referring the honor to his own Father, so that from the goodness of the Father the knowledge of the goodness of the Son of God might be known — he who was begotten of a good God the Father.

For there is great feebleness in those who dare to say such a thing concerning the Son, even though he himself says, 'God alone is good.'

For behold, in many places the divine scripture teaches us, calling a poor and wise child good; and, 'Samuel was good with God and men'; and, 'Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, was good, taller than all Israel from the shoulders upward'; and, 'it is good to go to the house of feasting'; and, 'open, O Lord, the heavens, your good treasure'; and, 'a good word is better than a gift'; and, 'a living dog is better than a dead lion'; and, 'two are better than one'; and, 'the end of a matter is better than its beginning'; and, 'if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children' — speaking of fish and bread.

How then do you dare to think that the Son denies his own goodness, and does not, out of surpassing honor, refer his goodness to the Father? For he saw the one who said to him, 'Good teacher,' speaking with his mouth and not with his heart, and, wishing to convict him — because he was not persuaded by his lips, but searched out his heart — as he also says in another place, 'Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?' — and here too he wished to convict him.

For he called him 'good teacher,' yet did not abide in the faith of believing in his goodness.

The Word became flesh — [the text] having placed the word 'flesh' between [the naming of] 'the Word' and [the verb] 'became.' For it does not say, 'the Word, the one who became...,' but after saying 'the Word,' it sets down 'flesh' directly and without qualification, and only after 'flesh' does it say 'became' — so that the 'became' might be shown to be from Mary, and so that the Word might be understood as having come down from above, from the Father. This is the holy, living Word, the God who is with the Father, the angel of great counsel, who announces the things of the Father's counsel, the father of the age to come — he himself said, 'No one knows the day and the hour, not even the angels who are in heaven.'

For indeed they do not know that the Son speaks in a spiritual sense when he says, 'except the Father alone.'

If then the Son knows the Father, and the Father is greater than both the day and the hour, and no one doubts this, how then does he who knows the greater thing not know the lesser? For no one knows the Father except the Son, and no one knows the Son except the Father.

For as the Father is great, in that he knows the Son, so also the Son is great, in that he knows the Father.

If then he knows the Father, the greater thing, how does he not know the lesser thing, that is, the day and the hour? Search the divine scriptures and learn the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit himself, who knows the Father and the Son, will reveal to you the knowledge of the Word, the Son of God, so that you may not be led astray from the truth and destroy your own soul.

But in order that I may set forth similar things from examples, so that through many instances your erring mind, and the mind of those who think this way, may be smoothed out, learn what the scripture says concerning Adam:

'They were,' it says, 'naked in paradise, and were not ashamed.'

For if they were not seeing, how did they see the tree, that it was good for food and pleasant to look upon? And, 'the woman took,' it says, 'and ate, and gave also to her husband who was with her.'

So then they were not blind, but had their eyes opened;

and though naked, they were not ashamed at seeing, and though naked, they knew themselves.

but they knew by way of perception, and not by way of act.

For after they were cast out of paradise, having eaten of the tree, after a long time, it says, 'Adam knew Eve his wife.'

How then can this be? And yet they were seeing one another, being naked, and knew themselves by sight;

but the scripture called their coming together with one another 'knowledge.'

But it knows how to call [it], now 'perception,' now again 'perception.'

For again it speaks thus: 'Jacob knew Leah his wife, and she conceived and bore'; and yet at first he had already known her.

for with her he had spent seven years shepherding the flocks of Laban her father.

but he knew her by perception, that is, through sight and through acquaintance, but he had not yet known her also through act.

And Abishag the Shunammite was found.

And it says, 'she was brought to the king, and lay with him, and kept him warm';

Does he then not know things that do not exist? And, 'Depart from me, workers of lawlessness';

'for I never knew you.'

Is there then ignorance in the Son of God? And again, 'You only have I known of all the nations.'

Does he then not know the rest of the nations? May it never be!

But the divine scripture knows [more than one kind of] knowledge — one according to perception, and another according to act.

Since, then, the Only-begotten, fulfilling the will of the Father, has already shown all things to be perfected — for the Father knew the hour and the day, and he knew it both according to knowledge and according to act —

for he himself knows all things; and in the Son's saying, 'the Father has given all judgment to the Son,' even while not himself judging, the Father, by his very act of having given it to the Son, himself judges;

for God has not been estranged from judging those who are judged; and even in the Father's not judging, he has already judged.

But the Son knows when he comes;

for he himself brings that day, and he himself appoints and leads and accomplishes it.

For he says, 'that day comes as a thief in the night'; and he also says, 'you are not in night, that the day should overtake you in darkness.'

If then the servants of Christ are children of the day, is the Son himself, who brings the day, then ignorant, so that the day should overtake him, and not rather that he himself brings the day? Who, thinking such things, would not blaspheme, reasoning things unbefitting concerning the Father and the Son? And the Father indeed knows the day and the hour in two ways, according to perception and according to act;

for he knows when it comes, and again he has already judged, having appointed the Son to judge, and so he has known it according to act. But the Son of God knows when it comes, and he himself brings it, and is not ignorant; yet he has not yet enacted it according to knowledge, that is, he has not yet known it according to act.

For still the impious act impiously, and the unbelieving disbelieve, and the wicked in faith blaspheme, and the devil is at work, and sins occur, and injustice prevails, and judgment is longsuffering, until he comes and knows it by deed and executes vengeance and saves those who hope on him in truth and do not blaspheme his deity, and that of the Father and of the Holy Spirit.

From the holy angels, however, this dignity is lacking in two respects.

For they are indeed honored, having obtained this from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit;

but this is what is lacking to them:

for they do not know when the things appointed take place.

For the Father, by his own authority, set the times.

But if the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, then the authority that is in the Father is not lacking from the Son.

But it is lacking to the angels;

for angels and archangels and powers are created, but the Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Spirit of God is uncreated.

The angels therefore know, neither by knowledge nor by deed, the day and the hour.

For they do not know when the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit will to bring that day, and they do not know it by knowledge-in-deed;

for they have not yet been commanded to go out and gather up, as it were, bundles of tares, and bind bundles, bundles for burning with unquenchable fire.

Not yet, then, have they either done so or known it; but the Father knows and has done so;

but the Son indeed knows, but has not yet done so.

That is what [the saying] 'except the Father alone, neither the angels nor the Son' means.

Let us understand the power of Scripture, lest the letter become death to us.

For 'the letter,' it says, 'kills, but the spirit gives life.'

Let us take hold of the spirit, that we may be benefited by the letter.

For it is not the letter that kills; for in the letter is life;

but it kills the one who approaches the letter without understanding, and who does not have the interpreting spirit that opens the letter and reveals what is in it.

...of perfection, so that in the name of the perfect Father, who is God, we may receive the seal, and in the name of the perfect Son, who is God, and in the name of the divine and perfect Spirit we may receive the seal.

O holy Trinity that is numbered, a Trinity numbered in one name!

For it is not called 'one and two,' nor 'unit and unit,' but 'unity in Trinity' and 'Trinity in unity' — in one form, in one name, one God: the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, together with the Holy Spirit.

Call me witnesses of the truth — call me the children saved from the Babylonian furnace, who were deemed worthy to be cast into the fire yet not consumed — not that the fire was quenched, lest they be suspected of having devised some new contrivance against it, but rather that they were in the fire, and yet in the fire were not consumed, on account of their right faith, God through them teaching us which things are created and which uncreated, which things are made and which did not come to be, which things always exist, and which exist from those [that always exist], yet came to be.

These children, thus saved, wished to show a grateful disposition toward the God who had saved them, in whom they had hoped from the beginning and had not doubted, and had not bent the neck to the image and to the king's insolence and tyranny.

And when they wished to render something to God — having searched out the depths with the Holy Spirit in their heart, being holy, and having considered heaven and all the things in it, and the earth and all the things beneath it — they judged all things whatsoever not worthy to be brought to God as an offering; for neither had they the power to offer to God things above themselves, and, wishing only, according to worth and according to power, to hymn God with hymns — for this is what is written: 'Offer a sacrifice of praise,' and 'a sacrifice of praise shall glorify me' — having already, being goaded by the Holy Spirit, passed over from the old covenant to the new, having no need of sacrifices of animals nor of whole burnt offerings — for they themselves say, 'there is no place to bring an offering, nor sacrifice, nor altar,' as though all things had already been comprehended — but wishing to offer such praise, and having set aside their own smallness, they are borne along in lowliness of mind; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.

For together with the grace of their salvation they receive also this gift of lowliness of mind, and they wish to offer praise to God and not to grow faint.

And having tested themselves against God's ineffable doxology, they deem it fitting to take creation along with themselves for the doxology, and they begin to speak, having comprehended all creation together.

They named all things and left out nothing.

But in order that the Holy Spirit might mark out perfect knowledge, so that we might know which is the divine and which are the things that came to be by God, lest we mingle with the eternal [being] the things that came to be out of what is not, lest we destroy our own understanding — [the Spirit] gathered all things together by number.

For the Holy Spirit was revealing to them, as to those deemed worthy to be together with angels and to have become companions of angels, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth and the things beneath the earth; and thereafter they were not ignorant.

And the same holy children say, as I said before:

'Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord,' and they begin to enumerate and distinguish which are the works, which are the things that made [them], which the things that are working, and which the things that were wrought;

and living creatures, the souls of the devout, the spirits of the righteous, Ananias, Azarias, Misael, priests, and servants of God.

For all these are things made and created, having come to be by God through the Word and the Holy Spirit;

for 'by the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.'

But observe, beloved brother, how they numbered all things, being borne along by the Holy Spirit, and did not number the Son among the things made, nor the Holy Spirit either, but knew that the same deity exists in Trinity, and that the same Trinity exists in one deity.

And they glorified the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father together with the Holy Spirit — one sanctification, one worship, one deity, one doxology.

But the devil surely dares to stir up this too among men — the audacity of unbelief — to fabricate a lie against the holy children, and to say:

'they did not know how to say the name of the Holy Spirit;'

'for they were Jews, and, being Jews, did not even know the Son.'

But immediately the words [of Scripture] refute the unbelief of these ill-minded men.

For it says, 'and the face of the fourth was like the face of a son of God.'

Therefore they did know the Son, and they knew the Father and the Holy Spirit; and it was not for lack of knowledge that they did not say the names, but for the sake of caution.