論三位一體 第 2-1 章 第 2/9 段

If it has been testified that he sent forth the prophets and apostles with authority, after the likeness of the Father and the Son;

then he has done these things as God in complete accord with the Father, and as foreknower and Master of creation.

If the things now said concerning the Father or the Son are elsewhere written concerning the Holy Spirit, it is impossible, it cannot be, that he should not belong, without variation, to the one self-complete Godhead, and will, and glory of the Father and the Son.

For things equal to the same thing, they say, are also equal to one another.

...is able to furnish the heavenly gifts of the powers, whereas the Spirit of God bestows by his own authority those things which only the divine nature is able to give;

then he is God all-sufficient, and ruler even of the things in the heavens, and is consubstantial with the Father and the Son.

If none of the invisible or visible things is called, in the sacred writing, divine and truth, except the Father, and his Holy Spirit, and the Only-begotten;

it is beyond dispute that he belongs to the divine and super-essential unity of essence.

If the powers of the heavens, the greatest and most luminous of all created things, exist in the Spirit of God, it is not possible for him to be constituted a creature, but rather a fellow-worker and equal worker with the Creator.

If he fills the whole world, and contains all things within himself, according to Wisdom, which says this;

...he is Creator, belonging to the one supreme, venerable, incomprehensible, inaccessible, untouchable, and formless essence;

and he is not circumscribed by place, but he himself has encompassed this universe.

If Scripture does not divide the Trinity in nature, nor is a first, a second, and a third nature defined with respect to it;

what argument remains to them against those who believe that it is united in essence, yet distinguished in the properties of the hypostases?

If the devil was shown in Job to be the first creature, the Spirit is not a creature, but belongs to the essence of the Monad.

For they would not say that the devil was created beforehand, and that he at one time held the higher rank, while the divine Spirit held the lower.

If, just as the Passover was from the beginning celebrated also by the Jews unto the glory and worship of God, so also the Pentecost of the Holy Spirit;

how is he not co-eternal without beginning together with him, God ever to be remembered?

If, just as of the seal that is from the Father and the Son, so also the oracles make mention of that which is signified to us by the Holy Spirit;

then he is not among the created things, but is also held in equal honor and thanksgiving.

For we do not receive the seal of a creature together with that of God, nor does God join the seal of a creature to his own, as though he alone were not sufficient to save.

If every blasphemy is forgiven men, but that against the Spirit of God is unforgivable;

then he is not a lesser God.

And it is blasphemy not to call him God.

For the blasphemy is referred back also to the Almighty, whose breath he is.

If the heretics keep inviolable both the command of the Father, saying, 'This is my beloved Son;'

'hear him,' and also the tradition concerning the baptism of the Son;

why do they not confess the Trinity to be inseparable in nature, and equal in honor, and equal in power, and glorify it with equal honor? For he taught one name, that is, the name of the one Godhead, but three hypostases, preserving to each the equality of honor.

Let these things, then, stand as having been demonstrated.

The first and most impious and most harsh problem raised by the heretics is that which is written in the Proverbs of Solomon:

'The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works;'

'before the age he established me;'

'in the beginning, before he made the earth, and before he made the depths, before the springs of the waters came forth, before the mountains were settled, and before all the hills, he begets me.' For by means of this problem they force the argument to declare the Creator and Benefactor to be a creature.

But the true understanding of this Scripture is both better and more persuasive than their intention.

For if all the chapters set forth above, and those arranged in the first discourse, are true and prevail — as indeed they are and do, having received the clearest testimony from the divine oracles —

...of the Word of God, whom no argument could ever prove to be a creature, Solomon speaks proverbially in the words, 'The Lord created me.' For he did not become so brazen-hearted and presumptuous against God — who, even after such great sins, forgave and showed compassion, as he always does toward all, and toward him as well.

But if he has, as indeed he does have, some perception of what happens here, or of what is said by those of a different mind;

I think that even before the sovereign and eveningless day, he would contradict them, and accuse them, and oppose them, teaching that he had never entertained any such suspicion concerning himself.

For he says that he himself knows this, since he sought wisdom above kingship, and obtained it, and received the kingship as an addition;

and moreover, that he had heard from his father David that the Lord, as life-giver and life, did not begin to exist according to the birth from above, and that, as a life-giving and eternal light shining forth co-existently and consubstantially from the paternal light, he has not been illumined by another;

but rather that he had directed his discourse concerning worldly wisdom — that found in eloquence, in strategy, in medicine, in architecture, and, simply, that found in every marvelous branch of knowledge present in all wise men.

For indeed, in truth, if anyone should wish, with sobriety and piety, to examine what precedes and what follows the words, 'The Lord created me,'

he will quickly, and immediately, and from the very text itself, find abundant refutation.

'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;'

'and good understanding have all who practice it.' And again:

'Through me kings reign, and rulers decree justice;'

'through me nobles are made great, and through me sovereigns hold sway over the earth.' Without wisdom, he says — which is the prudence, and good sense, and excellence of speech imparted to us from above — nothing that is needful is accomplished rightly;

for many good thoughts escape the one who is deprived of it.

But the man who has partaken of it fears God as he ought, and does what is pleasing to him, and gives law to man, and this man prevails over the other, and has acquired manifold gain, and not only takes pleasure in speaking and doing himself, but also brings to soberness those who hear him or learn his works by practice.

And in what follows, he set forth the following things scattered here and there:

'The Lord made the uninhabited lands, and the inhabited heights of the world under heaven.'

'When he was preparing the heaven, I was present with him;'

'when he was marking out his own throne upon the winds, when he was making strong the clouds above, and setting securely the springs of the world under heaven, in fixing for the sea its exact bound.' But he who made the earth out of what was not earth, and skillfully fashioned the circling spheres of the heavens out of what was not heavens, and who causes the sun, completing its swift courses, to shine everywhere over heaven and earth, and who, simply by his word, brought all things to light — he is the Only-begotten Son, the Word of God, the one hymned as the Power of God and the Wisdom of God, and, being these things, is of his Father who is without beginning and truly so, himself also having no beginning, as they teach — John indeed saying:

All things came into being through him. But Paul, writing to the Hebrews, says:

'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.' And in between he says:

'And you, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.' So that it would not be he himself, but rather another person, who has spoken all these things, including 'The Lord created me' —

'And the waters shall not pass beyond his mouth.' Therefore, in the passage where it says wisdom was created, [Scripture] is expounding concerning the intelligible mouth of God the Word, the Creator.

'When he made firm the foundations of the earth, I was beside him, fitting all things in harmony;'

'I was the one in whom he took delight daily;'

'and I rejoiced before his face at every season;'

'and she too rejoiced before his face.'

'My goings-forth are in the ways of life, and will/desire is prepared by the Lord.'

'But those who sin against me act impiously against their own souls;'

'and those who hate me love death.' And quite reasonably so.

For those who do not govern their own life by wisdom plot against themselves, and find a death worthy of their own folly and lack of instruction.

So that even the blind — as the saying goes — might not have reasonable cause to doubt our interpretation, the created wisdom speaks concerning that one of whom John said, 'And the Word became flesh,' 'and dwelt among us': 'Wisdom built a house for herself, and set up seven pillars.' Concerning this house the same Master said:

'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' And Solomon, showing all the more that he is not speaking of the Creator Wisdom, proceeds in what follows thus:

'Son, if you become wise, you will be wise for yourself and for your neighbors;'

'but if you turn out evil, you alone will draw up evils.' And again:

'A son who is instructed will be wise, but he will make use of a foolish man as a servant.' And again:

'He who is wise in heart receives commandments'; and, 'This one brings forth wisdom from his lips.'

'Strike with a rod the man who lacks heart (understanding);'

'the wise will conceal knowledge.' 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 will be wise.' Then next:

'You will seek wisdom among the evil, and you will not find it.' And after other things:

'The wisdom of the crafty will discern its own ways;'

'the fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom;' and again:

'More desirable to the young than gold —'

'— and the broods of prudence, more than silver.' If, according to the heretics — those who sever the head (chief article) of the Christian faith, or rather, so far as it lies with them, choose to destroy it in its entirety — the creator Wisdom said this,

then which are we to understand as her fledglings? And again:

'He who lacks understanding has no need of wisdom;' and again:

'Wisdom is an ornament to young men;' and again:

'The fear of the Lord belongs to the generation of wisdom.' What sort of generation, then, will they here assign to the Creator, if he himself spoke concerning himself, 'The Lord created me'? And in what follows he says:

'With wisdom a house is built, and with understanding a city is set upright;' then:

'A wise man is better than a strong man.' All these things, then, are said concerning the wisdom that is in the world.

For whenever, in these very Proverbs, [Scripture] makes mention of the wisdom of God the Father and of the only-begotten and true Son the Word, it cries out these things in an extraordinary manner, as though marveling in astonishment:

'God taught me wisdom, and I have known the knowledge of holy things;'

'Who has ascended into heaven and come down? Who has gathered the winds in his bosom? Who has bound up all the water in a garment? Who has grasped all the ends of the earth? What is his name, or what is the name of his child, that you may know?' As for the phrase 'He begets me before all the hills,' this speaks concerning the wisdom created in us, [meaning] that it is generated in a creative manner, and, so to speak, is co-engendered on every occasion together with each wise person.

For the Son of God was begotten as co-subsisting with the one who begot him, inasmuch as he is the Word, the radiance, and the exact representation of his hypostasis;

And not only this, but also the very name 'Proverbs' given to the book [indicates] that it does not always signify simply what appears on the surface, but rather, above all, signifies something else by means of another thing or person — and that Solomon is a proverb-maker, but not a prophet.

Concerning this wisdom — I mean the wisdom that is within creation — the most wise son of Sirach also says:

'Before all things wisdom was created, and the understanding of prudence from eternity;' and he adds to this:

'With the faithful it was created together, in the womb, and with men it has nested as a foundation of the age;' and the Apostle, writing his first letter to the Corinthians, wrote in this manner:

'But wisdom — from where was it found? And what is the place of prudence?' And elsewhere:

'The wisdom of the poor man is despised;' and, 'This one is the corrector of wisdom.' But some have understood that the Author of generation [the Creator] spoke, in the persona of created wisdom, the words 'The Lord created me.' For often the one who gives subsistence to all things, the Savior, converses by assuming the persona of created beings —

as when, in the persona of the Church once persecuted by Paul, he says:

'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' And to those who did well:

'I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat;'

'I was thirsty, and you gave me drink;' and as many such sayings.

For, shining forth with his own love for mankind, being wholly goodness, and — as the apostle Jude said — the only Master, he spares all, and makes his own the sins committed against the works of his hands.

And indeed we shall find also other things spoken in human terms concerning the unapproachable Divine [nature];

as when he writes in parables:

'A certain man was a householder;' and again:

'A certain man had a vineyard;' and as when he compares the kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard seed and to sown seed.

But even if it must be granted that Solomon did not write in the persona of the wisdom that is within us, it must nevertheless be understood as [written] in the persona of the wise and inconceivable incarnation, and that he has not spoken even once concerning the unoriginate and uncontemplated nature of the only-begotten God.

For he did not say absolutely, 'He created me,' but 'for his works' — as if he were saying:

'He created me when, for the sake of his works, I came to be among men, or [when] I tabernacled, having been made flesh out of them.'

For as to him who is, who pre-exists, and who came to be not for his own sake but for the sake of others — how can that be conceived, with reference to those for whose sake, and according to whose condition, he came to be? It is as though, conversely, those others are found, in a certain manner, to be that very thing which he — having come to be for their sake — became according to them.

Therefore, existing in the form of God, he took the form of a servant;

and we came to be according to the image of him who created us, as Paul taught.

Or perhaps here too he used the word 'created' in place of 'appointed' or 'ordained,' since he was at once both upon the cherubim and in the manger — as he foretold beforehand, in riddling fashion, the things concerning his incarnation, saying:

'But I have been established as king by him upon Zion, his holy mountain;' and as the Psalmist sings:

'The Lord has reigned, he has clothed himself with majesty' — although he pre-existed eternally as King of kings, possessing an incomprehensible majesty.

Likewise, he did not say 'in the beginning,' or 'before the beginning of his ways,' but 'the beginning of his ways.' So that, once again, it is the beginning of his incarnation that is foretold here, and not the nature of his unoriginate divinity.

For when men had lost the way that leads to God, he himself, in the dispensation, became for us a way both new and living;

and in the manner that, because of the dispensation in the flesh, he said:

'I am the way;' and again:

'No one comes to the Father except through me' — that is, unless he walks by faith in my incarnation;

it was because of this that 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 — since as God he foreknew all things, and had foreordained the dispensation before the age, as [the apostles] write in their epistles: Paul, on the one hand, to the Colossians:

'This mystery, which was hidden before the ages and from the generations, has now been made manifest 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' — and in fact, when he appeared from on high to those who had once sat in darkness and in the shadow of death.

When he was figuratively called a stone;

When he became the beginning of ways and our foundation;

To this foundation and stone they bear witness thus: Paul, writing to the Corinthians in his first epistle:

'For no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.' And he took the beginning of being called Christ Jesus at the incarnation,

'You shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called Son of the Most High'; and after other things:

'Therefore also the holy thing that is begotten shall be called Son of God.' And Peter, to the Romans:

'Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense;'

'and everyone who believes on him shall not be put to shame.' And the Acts of the Apostles:

'This,' it says, 'is the stone which was rejected by you the builders, which has become the head of the corner, and there is salvation in no one else.' Observe that, unless the Godhead and power of the Holy Trinity are one, salvation would not belong to the Father either.

May the Holy Trinity be gracious to us.

And indeed Daniel also saw a stone cut from a mountain without hands, which is he who was born of Mary without flux and the agency of a man, and which ground the image to powder — that is, the world — freeing it from the coarseness of mind and the vulgarity with which it had lived.

And why do we marvel that a saving matter beyond reason and understanding came to be before the ages by divine foreknowledge, seeing that the Apostle says that we too were created and saved before the ages by this ineffable foreknowledge and power, writing thus to the Ephesians:

'He chose us for himself before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons.' 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 to us in Christ Jesus before eternal ages, but has now been made manifest through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ.'

For there are many things which, though about to happen, are spoken of as already having happened;

and others, though already having happened, are spoken of as still happening or as yet to happen — such is the custom of the Holy Spirit, who knows and is able to do all things, in foretelling them;

and not least, it has declared the matters concerning the ineffable dispensation as things already past, before ever they came to be;

as when the Master, not yet having become flesh, says in the twenty-first Psalm:

'They pierced my hands and my feet'; and again:

'They divided my garments among themselves, and cast lots for my clothing'; and in the hundred and seventeenth Psalm:

'The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner, and it is marvelous in our eyes'; and Isaiah:

'A child was born to us' — he speaks of him who had not yet been born.

'He was led as a sheep to the slaughter' — and yet the Lamb had not yet been born of Mary.

'We saw him, and he had no form nor comeliness' — and yet it was only after many generations that he appeared thus, in his saving Passion.

'My soul hates your new moons, your Sabbaths, and your feasts' — yet he hated them much later, namely when he became man and established for us the New Covenant.

And things past, too, as has been said, it narrates as present, as when it declares:

'He who makes the Pleiades and the Evening Star'; and, 'He who makes his angels spirits' — instead of, 'he who made.'

And, 'He who founds the earth upon its stability' — that is, 'he who founded it.'

For these reasons it is therefore necessary to refer the Proverb here set forth, if not to the wisdom shown in our own pursuits, then at least to the sinless incarnation of the Master, and in no way to the Son, the Word, of the ineffable divine nature — he through whom, and from whom, and in whom all things were set in order.

For to say, 'The Lord created me,' and then to add, 'and before all the hills he begets me,' is equivalent to saying:

'Though I subsisted together with him from him, he later created me, in that, by his own will, I came to share, without change and without sin, in the nature of men,' as has been said a little before.

'But before all the hills he begot' me — impassibly, without beginning, and ineffably, because the Godhead is beyond even the incorporeal.

For the word 'before,' when applied especially to it, proves to be without limit; and moreover the connecting particle 'but' also establishes this.

For if he also created, how did he beget? And if he begot, how did he create? For one might call a creature the offspring of its creator, as we ourselves have been called 'sons of the Most High';

but that which is truly a begotten offspring could never be called a creature of the one who begot it.

For to this day we have never yet known this to have been said [of a begotten offspring].

— [what is well known, rather, is that] wisdom is found everywhere through the best of pursuits, [when Scripture], having said 'the Lord created,' [means this];

so that, even by a forced interpretation, it is he who became conformed to humanity [that is meant].

For by the decree of divine foreknowledge this one came to be before all creation; and Scripture calls humanity 'creation' only in a loose sense, just as it also names worldly wisdom thus, through the words in which Paul says:

'Submit yourselves to every human institution for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors as sent by him.' And indeed, to say:

'So-and-so created this,' or 'made this man a bishop,' or 'a clergy,' or 'an army,' this does not signify that a substance was brought forth out of things that are not, even though the same word is used;

rather, it refers to those who already exist, or to matter already subsisting, being brought into a certain order or such-and-such a position.

And the Psalmist, concerning that part inherent in him which was yet to be granted to him, prayed, crying out:

'Create in me a clean heart, O God.' And Paul, that most holy man, writes in accord with this, and evidently:

'If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;'

'behold, the old things have passed away, all things have become new' — not by having just now been created, but by shining forth thereafter.

'That he might create the two into one new man' — instead of, 'that he might bring them together.'

Consider, too, whether what was said to those being renewed in baptism can also lend support to our argument:

'Put on the new man, which was created according to God' — and however many other such sayings one might find upon searching the Scriptures.

It has also been written figuratively concerning those who beget children:

'He made sons and daughters'; and, 'I have gotten,' she says, 'a man through the Lord.' And yet it is spoken in the sense of begetting, not of fashioning.

But if 'The Lord created me' must, by way of concession, be understood as referring to God who is from God, then let it be remembered again and again, and let it be affirmed and believed by us, that for this very reason he added:

'And before all the hills he begets me' — so as to nullify the statement 'he created me.' For in the divine oracles, the later statements, being better and more certain, everywhere put an end to the former ones.

Contending, then, against these men — who neither say nor hold in store anything trustworthy or true, but heretics who employ an imported, extraneous, and burdensome teaching — he who received from him the gift of theology, from the greatly-longed-for and long-suffering Savior, whose mercy fills the earth, both teaching what manner of opinion one must hold concerning him, and setting forth a common doctrine for all mankind, declared:

'In the beginning was the Word' — that is, without beginning, which is to say, unoriginate.

The word 'was' admits of no going beyond, allowing no non-existence prior to it to be conceived, just as has also been said in the first book.

'And the Word was with God' — instead of, 'He was, incomparably and unoriginately, on a par with the Father, and continued looking within his own unattainable Godhead.'

For 'he was with such-and-such a one' is understood not merely as 'he was together with him,' but also, comparatively, as 'he was equal to him.'

'And the Word was God' — that is, without cause;

for there is no cause of God — it is unattainable, it is impossible.

'All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being' — instead of meaning, he himself is unoriginate;

for once and for all he has declared that every created thing was brought forth through him, as an uncreated maker.

In addition to these irrefutable points, there is also another counter-argument, to which no one will be able to say anything else in rebuttal, even as far as mere reflection.

For Aquila, one of the translators, rendered this text — which in Hebrew reads 'Adonai qanani' — as follows:

'The Lord acquired me' — though even he did not speak with strict precision of meaning;

for, translated with exactness, it means:

'The Lord hatched me forth' — that is, 'he brought me forth as offspring.'

For strictly speaking, 'it hatched forth,' or 'it sprang forth,' and 'it is hatching,' and 'it is springing forth,' are said of things that spring forth from an egg, not of things that are created; and that which springs forth is not of a different substance from that which it springs forth from.

So that, both in wording and in meaning, their objection departs from the truth.

But some have rightly understood that 'The Lord created me, the beginning of his ways,' was spoken concerning the Church;

in which the way of truth and wisdom is proclaimed;

writing thus to the Colossians;

'And I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, on behalf of his body, which is the Church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God given to me.' And to the Corinthians, in the first Epistle:

'Our members are members of Christ.'

'Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!' And again:

'For as the body is one, and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body';

'so also is Christ.' So that, even if, according to a certain economy hard to look upon directly, Scripture knows the Church as his body and us, who are created beings, as his brothers, nevertheless, as only-begotten and true Son of the Most High God, he is in no way included in the composition of the multitude of created things.

Nor does any other scripture contain such an expression.

Rather, all Scripture is entirely filled with witness concerning him, that he is true God and truly the only-begotten Son.

But indeed, as if swept along by force by some current,

the discourse must now be turned to another chapter.

A second problem, raised by heretics of an intractable and unexamined disposition, attempts, on the basis of the Scriptures — understood by them contrary to the theological sense — to show the orthodox faith unpersuasive, and by means of the very same Scriptures to declare their own teaching more venerable.

'For it is shown,' they say, 'that he is a creature, and that the name only-begotten Son and God is, as it were, contrived and spurious';

from what Paul wrote to the Colossians concerning him:

'For if he is, as alleged, firstborn, he is not only-begotten, but firstborn only in relation to those created after him;

but if he is the only-begotten Son, how is he firstborn?' Having said beforehand, then, that the depth of this saying lies beyond their comprehension, and that Paul spoke things he did not fully know yet believed the very things he spoke, since it was a prompting of true Wisdom, and made all this manifest, we shall set out this whole passage, and thus proceed to its interpretation, needing no conjectures, but relating through credible proofs things more luminous than light itself, and saying whatever these men, whether willingly or unwillingly, have overlooked, but which we see able to fight alongside our argument.

And the Epistle reads thus:

'Giving thanks to God the Father, who has called us into the portion of the inheritance of the saints, who delivered us from the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;

for in him all things were created, things in the heavens and things on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers;

all things were created through him and unto him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together;

and he is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence;

for it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, 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.' Now behold with understanding how Scripture has been prepared to be interpreted in a manner contrary to the heretics, and how every single phrase sends forth, as it were, rays of thoughts concerning the incarnation of God;

and that Scripture first calls 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 through the blood of his cross for things visible and invisible, and having inherited the whole fullness of the divinity that surpasses even what is bodiless, colorless, and uncontainable;