On the Trinity 1.12–1.13

["But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32).] For he is ignorant of this in that he makes others ignorant of it; that is, he did not know it in such a way as to show it to the disciples at that time; as it was said to Abraham, "Now I know that you fear God," that is, "Now I have made you know it," because in that trial Abraham, being tested, came to know himself. For he was certainly going to tell this too to the disciples at the right time; speaking of that future as though it were past, he says, "I no longer call you servants, but friends. For the servant does not know the will of his master; but I have called you friends, because all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you"; which he had not yet done, but because he was certainly going to do it, he spoke as if he had already done it. For he says to them, "I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Among these is understood also "the day and the hour." For the Apostle too says, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Christ Jesus, and him crucified." For he was speaking to those who could not grasp higher things about the deity of Christ. To them he also says a little later, "I could not speak to you as spiritual, but as carnal." Among them, then, he did not know what they could not know through him; and he said that he knew only what it was fitting for them to know through him. In short, he knew among the perfect what he did not know among little ones; for there he says, "We speak wisdom among the perfect." For by that manner of speaking a person is said not to know what he hides, by which a ditch that is hidden is called blind. For the Scriptures use no manner of speaking that is not found in human usage, since they certainly speak to human beings. According to the form of God it is said, "Before all the hills he begot me," that is, before all the heights of created things; and, "Before the morning star I begot you," that is, before all times and temporal things. But according to the form of a servant it is said, "The Lord created me in the beginning of his ways." For according to the form of God he said, "I am the truth"; and according to the form of a servant, "I am the way." For because he himself, the firstborn from the dead, made a way for his Church to the kingdom of God, to eternal life, being its head unto the immortality even of the body, therefore he was created in the beginning of the ways of God for his works. For according to the form of God he is the beginning, who also speaks to us, the beginning in which God made heaven and earth; but according to the form of a servant, "a bridegroom coming out of his chamber." According to the form of God, "the firstborn of every creature, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together"; according to the form of a servant, "he is the head of the body, the Church." According to the form of God, he is the Lord of glory. From this it is plain that he himself glorifies his saints. For "those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified." For of him it is said that he justifies the ungodly; of him it is said that he is just and the justifier. If, then, those whom he justified he also glorified, he who justifies also glorifies, he who is, as I said, the Lord of glory. Yet according to the form of a servant, when the disciples were busy about their own glorification, he answered: "To sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to give you, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." But what has been prepared by his Father has also been prepared by the Son himself, because he and the Father are one. For we have already shown, by many modes of divine speech, that in this Trinity what belongs to all is said even of each, because of the inseparable working of one and the same substance. So too he says of the Holy Spirit, "When I go, I will send him to you." He did not say, "We will send," but spoke as though the Son alone were to send him and not the Father; whereas in another place he says, "These things I have spoken to you while remaining with you; but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will make all things plain to you." Here again it is said as though the Son were not to send him too, but only the Father. As with these, then, so also with what he says, "but for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father": he wished it to be understood that he, together with the Father, prepares seats of glory for whom he wills. But someone says: "There, when he was speaking of the Holy Spirit, he said that he would send him without denying that the Father would send him; and in the other place he spoke of the Father without denying that he himself would send him; but here he says openly, 'It is not mine to give,' and so went on to say that these things had been prepared by the Father." But this is what we laid down beforehand: that it was said according to the form of a servant, so that we should understand "It is not mine to give" as if it were said, "It is not in human power to give this," so that it may be understood that he gives it by that in which, as God, he is equal to the Father. "It is not mine," he says, "to give," that is, "I do not give these things by human power, but they are for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father; but now understand that if all that the Father has is mine, this too is certainly mine, and I have prepared these things together with the Father." For I also ask how it is said, "If anyone does not hear my words, I will not judge him." For perhaps he said, "I will not judge him," here in the same way as there, "It is not mine to give." But what follows here? "For I did not come to judge the world," he says, "but to save the world." Then he adds and says, "He who despises me and does not receive my words has one who judges him." Here we would now understand the Father, had he not added and said, "The word that I have spoken will itself judge him on the last day." What then? Will neither the Son judge now, since he said, "I will not judge him," nor the Father, but the word which the Son has spoken? Rather, hear further what follows: "For I," he says, "have not spoken from myself, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak; and I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me." If, then, the Son does not judge, but the word which the Son has spoken, and if the word which the Son has spoken judges for this reason, that the Son has not spoken from himself, but the Father who sent him gave him a commandment what he should say and what he should speak, then surely the Father judges, whose word it is that the Son has spoken; and the Word of the Father is himself the very Son. For the commandment of the Father is not one thing and the Word of the Father another; for he has called it both word and commandment. Let us see, then, whether by saying, "I have not spoken from myself," he perhaps wished this to be understood: "I was not born from myself." For if he speaks the Word of the Father, he speaks himself, since he is himself the Word of the Father. For he very often says, "The Father has given me," by which he wishes it to be understood that the Father begot him: not that he gave something to one already existing and not having it, but that to have given him to have is to have begotten him to be. For the Son of God, the only-begotten through whom all things were made, before the incarnation and before he took the creature, is not, as a creature is, one thing and has another; but he is the very thing that he has. This is said more plainly, if anyone is able to grasp it, in that place where he says, "As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself." For he did not give him, as one already existing and not having life, to have life in himself, since by the very fact that he is, he is life. This, then, is "he has granted the Son to have life in himself": he begot the Son to be unchangeable life, which is eternal life. Since, then, the Word of God is the Son of God, and the Son of God is true God and eternal life, as John says in his Epistle, what else do we recognize here too, when the Lord says, "The word that I have spoken will itself judge him on the last day," and says that this word is the Father's word and the Father's commandment, and that commandment itself eternal life? "And I know," he says, "that his commandment is eternal life." I ask, therefore, how we are to understand "I will not judge, but the word that I have spoken will judge," which from what follows appears to be said as if he said, "I will not judge, but the Word of the Father will judge." But the Word of the Father is the Son of God himself. Are we, then, to understand it thus: "I will not judge, but I will judge"? How can this be true except in this way: "I, that is, will not judge by human power, because I am the Son of Man; but I will judge by the power of the Word, because I am the Son of God"? Or if "I will not judge, but I will judge" seem contrary and conflicting, what shall we say of that place where he says, "My teaching is not mine"? How is it mine, how not mine? For he did not say, "This teaching is not mine," but "My teaching is not mine": the same that he called his own he called not his own. How is this true unless he called it his own in one respect and not his own in another: his own according to the form of God, not his own according to the form of a servant? For when he says, "It is not mine, but his who sent me," he makes us go back to the Word itself. For the teaching of the Father is the Word of the Father, who is the only Son. What also does this mean: "He who believes in me does not believe in me"? How in him, how not in him? How can a saying so contrary and opposed to itself be understood, "He who believes in me," he says, "does not believe in me, but in him who sent me," unless you understand it thus: "He who believes in me does not believe in what he sees," so that our hope may not be in a creature, but in him who took the creature in which he might appear to human eyes, and so cleanse hearts by faith to contemplate him as equal to the Father? And so, in directing the attention of believers to the Father and saying, "does not believe in me, but in him who sent me," he certainly did not wish to be separated from the Father, that is, from him who sent him, but that he should be believed in just as the Father, to whom he is equal. He says this openly in another place: "Believe in God, believe also in me"; that is, "As you believe in God, so also in me, because I and the Father are one God." Just as here, then, he seemed to take men's faith away from himself and transfer it to the Father, saying, "does not believe in me, but in him who sent me," though he certainly did not separate himself from him, so also with what he says, "It is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father," I think it is clear in what respect each is to be taken. Such too is "I will not judge," though he himself is to judge the living and the dead; but because he will not judge by human power, he goes back to the deity and so lifts up the hearts of men, for whose raising up he came down.

Yet unless the same one were the Son of Man on account of the form of a servant which he took, who is the Son of God on account of the form of God in which he is, the apostle Paul would not say of the rulers of this age, "For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory." For he was crucified in the form of a servant, and yet it was the Lord of glory who was crucified. For such was that taking up, which made God man and man God. Yet what is said on account of what, and what is said according to what, the prudent, diligent, and devout reader understands with the Lord's help. For see, we have said that according to that by which he is God he glorifies his own, that is, according to that by which he is the Lord of glory; and yet the Lord of glory was crucified, because God too is rightly said to have been crucified, not by the power of the divinity but by the weakness of the flesh. In the same way we say that according to that by which he is God he judges, that is, by divine power, not by human; and yet the man himself will judge, just as the Lord of glory was crucified. For so he says plainly: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then all nations will be gathered before him," and the rest that is foretold in that place about the coming judgment, up to the final sentence. And the Jews, those of them, that is, who persevere in malice and are to be punished in that judgment, "will look on him whom they pierced," as it is written elsewhere. For since both the good and the wicked will see the judge of the living and the dead, without doubt the wicked will not be able to see him except according to the form by which he is the Son of Man; yet in the brightness in which he will judge, not in the lowliness in which he was judged. But that form of God, in which he is equal to the Father, the ungodly will without doubt not see. For they are not pure in heart; and "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." And that vision is face to face, which is promised to the righteous as the highest reward; and it will take place when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, in which he wishes the vision of his own form also to be understood, the whole creation being subjected to God, including the very creature in which the Son of God was made the Son of Man. For according to this the Son himself will then be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all. Otherwise, if the Son of God as judge, in the form in which he is equal to the Father, will appear even to the ungodly when he is to judge, what is it that he promises as something great to the one who loves him, saying, "And I will love him and will show myself to him"? Therefore the Son of Man will judge, yet not by human power but by that by which he is the Son of God; and again the Son of God will judge, yet not appearing in that form in which he is God equal to the Father, but in that by which he is the Son of Man. And so both can be said: "The Son of Man will judge" and "The Son of Man will not judge": the Son of Man will judge, so that what he says may be true, "When the Son of Man comes, then all nations will be gathered before him"; and the Son of Man will not judge, so that what he says may be true, "I will not judge," and "I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges." For in this respect, that in the judgment not the form of God but the form of the Son of Man will appear, not even the Father himself will judge; for in this respect it is said, "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." Whether this is said in the manner of that expression we recalled above, where he says, "So he has granted the Son to have life in himself," to signify that he so begot the Son; or in the manner of that of which the Apostle speaks, saying, "Therefore he raised him up and gave him the name that is above every name." For this is said of the Son of Man, according to which the Son of God was raised from the dead. For he who in the form of God is equal to the Father, from the time he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, in that very form of a servant both acts, and suffers, and receives what the Apostle goes on to set out in order: "He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross; therefore God also exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." Whether, then, "has given all judgment to the Son" is said according to the former or according to the latter expression is clear enough from this: that if it were said in the sense in which it is said, "He has granted the Son to have life in himself," it would certainly not be said, "The Father judges no one." For in this respect, that the Father begot the Son equal to himself, he judges together with him. It is said, therefore, in this respect: that in the judgment not the form of God but the form of the Son of Man will appear. Not that he who has given all judgment to the Son will not judge, since the Son says of him, "There is one who seeks it and judges"; but "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son" is said as if it were said, "No one will see the Father in the judgment of the living and the dead, but all will see the Son"; because he is also the Son of Man, so that he can be seen even by the ungodly, since they too will look on him whom they pierced. Lest we seem to conjecture this rather than to show it plainly, let us bring forward a certain and clear statement of the same Lord, by which we may show that this was the very reason he said, "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son": because the judge will appear in the form of the Son of Man, which form is not the Father's but the Son's, and not that form of the Son in which he is equal to the Father, but that in which he is less than the Father, so that in the judgment he may be visible to both good and wicked. For a little later he says: "Truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but passes from death to life." This eternal life is that vision which does not belong to the wicked. Then it follows: "Truly, truly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." And this is proper to the godly, who so hear of his incarnation as to believe that he is the Son of God; that is, they so accept him, made for their sake less than the Father in the form of a servant, as to believe that he is equal to the Father in the form of God. And so it follows, and commending this very point he says: "For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself." Then he comes to the vision of his brightness, in which he will come to judgment; and this vision will be common to the ungodly and the righteous. For it follows and he says: "And he has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man." I think nothing is plainer. For because he is the Son of God, equal to the Father, he does not receive this authority to execute judgment, but has it with the Father in secret; but he receives it so that the good and the wicked may see him judging, because he is the Son of Man. For the sight of the Son of Man will be shown to the wicked too; but the sight of the form of God only to the pure in heart, for they shall see God; that is, only to the godly, to whose love he promises this very thing, that he will show himself to them. And so see what follows: "Do not marvel at this," he says. What does he forbid us to marvel at, except that at which everyone who does not understand does in fact marvel, that he should say the Father gave him authority to execute judgment also for this reason, that he is the Son of Man, when one might rather have expected him to say, "because he is the Son of God"? But since the wicked cannot see the Son of God according to that in which, in the form of God, he is equal to the Father, and yet it is necessary that both the righteous and the wicked should see the judge of the living and the dead when they are judged before him, "Do not marvel at this," he says, "for the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and will come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, but those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment." For this purpose, then, it was necessary that he should receive that authority for this reason, that he is the Son of Man, so that all who rise might see him in the form in which he can be seen by all, but some to condemnation, others to eternal life. And what is eternal life but that vision which is not granted to the ungodly? "That they may know you," he says, "the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." And how know Jesus Christ himself, except as the one true God who will show himself to them, not as he will show himself, in the form of the Son of Man, even to those who are to be punished? According to that vision he is good, the vision in which God appears to the pure in heart; for "How good is the God of Israel to the upright in heart!" But when the wicked see the judge, he will not seem good to them, because they will not rejoice in heart toward him, but then "all the tribes of the earth will mourn," that is, in the number of all the wicked and unbelieving. For this reason too, to the man who had called him "good teacher" and asked his advice on gaining eternal life, he answered: "Why do you ask me about the good? No one is good but God alone"; although in another place the Lord himself calls a man good: "A good man," he says, "brings forth good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and an evil man brings forth evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart." But because that man was seeking eternal life, and eternal life is in that contemplation in which God is seen not to punishment but to everlasting joy, and he did not understand with whom he was speaking, thinking him only a son of man, he says, "Why do you ask me about the good?" that is: "Why do you ask this form that you see about the good, and call me, according to what you see, good teacher? This is the form of the Son of Man; this form was taken; this form will appear in the judgment, not only to the righteous but also to the ungodly; and the sight of this form will not be for the good of those who do evil. But there is a sight of my form in which, when I was in it, I did not think it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied myself in order to take this one." That one God, then, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who will not appear except to the joy that will not be taken from the righteous, for which future joy he sighs who says, "One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord"; that one God, then, alone is good, for this reason, that no one sees him to grief and lamentation, but only to salvation and true joy. "If you understand me according to that form, I am good; but if only according to this one, why do you ask me about the good?" if you are among those who "will look on him whom they pierced"; and that very sight will be an evil to them, because it will be a punishment. That the Lord said "Why do you ask me about the good? No one is good but God alone" in this sense is probable from the proofs I have recalled: because that vision of God, in which we shall contemplate the unchangeable substance of God, invisible to human eyes, which is promised to the saints alone; which the apostle Paul calls "face to face"; of which the apostle John says, "We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is"; of which it is said, "One thing I have asked of the Lord, that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord"; of which the Lord himself says, "And I will love him and will show myself to him"; for the sake of which alone we cleanse our hearts by faith, that we may be blessed, the pure in heart, for they shall see God; and whatever else has been said of that vision, which anyone who turns the eye of love to seeking it finds scattered most abundantly through all the Scriptures; that vision alone is our highest good, for the sake of attaining which we are commanded to do whatever we rightly do. But that sight of the Son of Man which has been foretold, when all nations will be gathered before him and will say to him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and thirsty?" and the rest, will neither be a good to the ungodly, who will be sent into the eternal fire, nor will it be the highest good for the righteous. For he still calls them to the kingdom that has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world. For as he will say to the former, "Go into the eternal fire," so to the latter, "Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you." And as the former will go into eternal burning, so the righteous into eternal life. And what is eternal life but "that they may know you," he says, "the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent"? But by then in that brightness of which he says to the Father, "which I had with you before the world was." For then he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father, so that the good servant may enter into the joy of his Lord, and he will hide those whom God possesses in the hiding place of his face from the disturbance of men, that is, of those who will then be disturbed on hearing that sentence. The righteous man will not fear that evil hearing, if only he is protected in the tabernacle, that is, in the right faith of the catholic Church, from the contradiction of tongues, that is, from the false charges of heretics. But if there is another understanding of the Lord's words when he says, "Why do you ask me about the good? No one is good but God alone," provided only that it is not believed on that account that the substance of the Father is of greater goodness than that of the Son, according to which he is the Word through whom all things were made, and it in no way departs from sound doctrine, let us use it without anxiety, and not one only but as many as can be found. For the heretics are the more forcibly refuted the more ways out lie open for escaping their snares. But let us now seek what still remains to be considered from another beginning.