On the Trinity 1.27–1.31

Likewise the theology concerning the Son: that in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead; and that he is great God and over all, beside whom no other shall be reckoned; and true God; and eternal life; and only Master; and only worker of wonders; and Most High; and King; and Ruler; and Christ all in all; and the rest. So much was enough on these matters. But the initiates of divine things, zealous for what belongs to the all-provident Trinity, do not rest; they speak of the Son in terms still lofty and such as they use of the Father: that in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead; that he is great God and over all, beside whom no other shall be reckoned; and true God; and eternal life; and the true light; and only Master; and only Most High; and only worker of wonders; and great King; and Lord of all; and Creator; and Ruler; and of his peace there is no limit; and Savior; and Christ all in all; and blessed for ever; and that great is the … only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he … among whom Christ is praised as uncreated God); and that he acquires the people for himself by his own Godhead, because he is consubstantial with the Father. Thus, then, speak about these things the saints whom we shall now mention, to whom God, according to the 15th psalm, has made known the paths of life. David, praying in the 7th psalm: "Arise, Lord my God, by the command you have given, and an assembly of peoples shall surround you; and over it return on high." You perceive that the prophet knows him as Lord and God, and entreats him, saying: Arise for your becoming man, in the way you foreordained when you said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." For "over this", he says, the assembly that surrounds … in the 45th: "God, the great Lord, and a great King over all the earth"; in the 49th: "From the rising of the sun to its setting; out of Zion, the perfection of his beauty; God will come manifestly"; in the 67th: "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"; in the 81st: "Arise, O God, judge the earth." Observe how each word kindles his glory and suffices to persuade us that he is of the substance of the Father's Monad; and that the great writer calls God the one who was laid in the tomb, not without life, so that together with the living he might save also those who had departed from human affairs, and prophesies that he rises from the tomb to judge those who after so much and such great benefaction … he calls the last times. For in them he appeared manifestly in this visible world. And in the 76th: "Your way is in the holy place; what god is great like our God? You are the God who alone works wonders." Here too he praises the incarnate God the Word, who loved to spend his time in the temple of the Jews, and taught, and worked wonders. And in the 117th: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; God is the Lord, and he has shone upon us." If with reason the Lord who appeared to us (and this is the Son) is, in the prophet, great God, and blessed, that is, glorified, and great King, and only worker of wonders, then without reason is he supposed by the heretics to be less than his own Father. For it is not possible that the same one should in truth hold the first place according to the prophecy and the second according to them. And if we inquire of the same psalmist, we shall learn that he knows that the Son, like the Father, is the God of the forefathers. For in the 46th psalm he cried: "God reigns over the nations; God sits upon his holy throne; the rulers of the peoples are gathered with the God of Abraham." They were assembled with the God who became man, of whom it is sung in the 2nd psalm: "Why did the nations rage, and the peoples plot vain things? The kings of the earth stood by, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Christ." And Isaiah, praising him as incomparable, like God the Father, cries: "From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen a God besides you." For we have seen no other God than the one born of the Virgin Mary in his saving becoming man; nor have we heard any other than the one to whom God the Father bore witness: "This is my beloved Son"; and again, as was said before: "A child is born to us, a son also is given, whose government is upon his shoulder; and his name is called Mighty God, Ruler, Prince of peace, Father of the age to come." And after other things he adds: "And of his peace there is no limit." The Son of God, he says, having become man, was born a child and given to us, himself bearing upon his shoulder the beginning of this his birth below; that is, being himself his own beginning, in that he was born without flux of a Virgin and ineffably made flesh from her, with no intercourse with a man supplying the beginning. And his name is Mighty God, Ruler. He did not say "subject", but revealed his nature, his power, his sovereign authority. Knowing this name, David sings: "Let them know that your name is Lord; you alone are Most High over all the earth", saying "alone" because of the one Godhead. And he called him Father of the age to come, though he is also the Creator of the past ages, because from the time of the dispensation he became widely known to men. He called him Father, then, of the created nature, not of the uncreated; for the Father of the uncreated and consubstantial Son is one. And showing the measurelessness of his Godhead he said: "Of his peace there is no limit." And Jeremiah, or Baruch (for the book of the two is one), speaks of him with solemnity: "This is our God; no other shall be reckoned beside him. He found out every way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel whom he loved. After this he appeared on earth and lived among men." If, then, it is not understood in a way fitting to God that the present scripture was spoken thus because of the sameness of the Godhead of both the ineffable hypostases, it remains … is not compared with his Son. The argument of those who slander God the Word as less and as a servant has therefore fallen and vanished altogether. For how could another be incomparable with the Son, "beside whom no other shall be reckoned"? And again: "Gods who did not make the heaven and the earth, let them 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 by whom the heavens too were brought forth together with the whole world. And Paul, the most eminent of men, keeping the same sequence as the prophets, renders the words fitting to him, writing … "hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works." For by declaring "of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ" he shows that he does not hold second place in substance, and that he is without beginning in relation to the great God the Father. For even from what is plain one can see that if the Son is small, how will the Father be great? If there was a time when God the Word was not, there was a time when the name of Father did not exist. May he be gracious to us, who dare to say such things because of the folly of others; for reverence, they say, is a good habit for those who practice it. And through … the consubstantial and good Godhead, the cause of all, to have been allotted. For it is proper to a creator and not to a thing created to die for his own work, if one must speak so; and proper to a beloved Son, who has Godhead and kingdom not different from the Father's, to acquire the people for himself. And this great and true interpreter, bringing his argument to show at once that he is a loving and saving God, and at the same time that it was by his own entreaty, and not by yielding to a superior Godhead, that he came to be with us as one of us, without change and without sin, says: "But when the kindness and love for mankind of God our Savior appeared, not because of works which we had done, but according to his great mercy." And to the Colossians he both reproves and lays the foundation of the first theology concerning him, writing, as has already been said in the chapter On the Consubstantial: "Why according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ Jesus? For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily", that is, substantially. For he is by nature fullness, being in substance the Father's Godhead itself. "For he did not count being equal to God a thing to be grasped"; but we, out of his fullness, through his goodness, received the grace that we did not have by nature, as slaves; according to John, who says: "And from his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace"; that is, the grace of regeneration in place of the grace we lost when we disregarded the first law given about the one tree. "For you are no longer under law," he says, "but under grace"; and again: "For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things to him." These words too follow from what went before. For since the Father is in the Son and the Son is by nature in the Father, as everything akin is in some way inseparable from that to which it is joined, well is it said in the passage under discussion, though very deeply and not in a way easily grasped by all, that all things are reconciled through him and to him; so that what was declared of the Father, "from whom are all things", fits the Son as well, if indeed both what has now been said and "in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead" are sound. And writing to Timothy he spoke of him in the highest terms of theology, and from both expressions taught that in Godhead he is not of a nature other than the Father's. For he spoke thus: "Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory." For this Creator and benefactor of all would not yet have been clearly evident to all; he was found manifest when, for the salvation of all, he became so of his own will, and as one of all. Hence he was "justified in the Spirit", that is, declared, or rather confirmed, even by those who had not known him in the time before, to be true God; and he says this not without testing, but by the very movement of our soul, as common usage is to say: "So-and-so was justified as being truly the son of this man, having given proof of his descent"; and at another time: "So-and-so was justified in governing well." And so that the word may appear more credible, he holds that he was seen also by angels, to whom, because of his divine infinity and formlessness, he was invisible before that time, like the only invisible God; and that he was hymned by them: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men"; and that he was preached in this whole universe and believed: that he who shone forth timelessly from the ineffable light was born ineffably, in the later times, of the Ever-Virgin, out of love for mankind, displaying in himself all that is the Father's; and that he who encompasses all things ascended in glory, in which he always was with God. And worthy of belief too is he himself of whom the word speaks, bearing witness to his own Godhead and lordship, and saying in Matthew to the devil, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God", and in John to the apostles, "You call me Lord and Teacher, and you say well, for so I am." And Thomas, having touched the marks of the nails, which the Savior in his love for mankind had received for us from us, was not troubled, nor did he lower his supreme opinion of him. For he knew that it belonged only to the … nature, and not to a created one, not only to suffer for its own creatures, but also to grant what we call universal and general salvation, and that eternally. So, taking greater courage from this, he offers him firm faith and acclaims him: "My Lord and my God." And in the Catholic Epistles too they wrote, speaking of the Son in terms equal to and in the same words as the Father, as was said before: John, great among theologians: "And we know," he says, "that the Word of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know the true God; and we are in the true one, in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." "Seek no other God in substance," he means, "nor Son of God. For I have twice said to you of him 'true': that he is 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 …" … who has been allotted the Father's Godhead that is over all and through all and in all, writing somewhere thus to those everywhere: "For certain men have crept in (who were long ago marked out for this condemnation), ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ." And Peter too, the chief among the apostles, is seen in the Acts saying: "The Word that he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ: he is Lord of all." Where, then, or how, or when, with so many … [ch. 28] On the fact that the Son makes every good thing rise; and that he is the sun of righteousness, and healing, and the treasure of wisdom and knowledge, and light; and that those who believe in him and are not offended at him become sons of light. Those, at any rate, who have sung of him, showing us in various ways his Godhead and that he presides perfectly over his own works, teach that he is the giver of every good, and a light good in form and doing good, and an intelligible sun, brightening with the unceasing light that comes from himself the eyes of souls that do not wander and are able to receive it, and leading them into the intelligible watchtower, and making them see what before, because of sin, they could not see by themselves; or even making the whole complete man like light, as the sun makes like itself the bodies it comes upon; and further that he is healing, and a treasure of wisdom and knowledge, inexhaustible and all-sufficient. And those who are sincerely disposed toward him, as toward his Father, become sons of light, as they become sons of God the Father; as when they proclaim it: Malachi, "For you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, and healing in its wings"; Peter in his second epistle, "until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." He meant, I think, the illumination that is to rise upon souls from his second appearing, and to brighten all that is held fast by darkness. And elsewhere: "And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." And Zechariah prophesied: "If there is anything good, it is his; and if anything fair, it will come from him." And Paul said of him to the Colossians, "In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"; and to the Romans, "For the Scripture says: Everyone who believes in him will 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 on the name of the Lord will be saved." What name of the Son, then, do they call upon, who say that he, the glorious victor, the Savior of heaven and earth and sea, is neither uncreated God nor Son consubstantial with the Father? And John … "believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." For after death, he means, there is no repentance; as David too sings, "In Hades who will confess you?"; and again, from the Savior: "Go and tell John what you see and hear: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, and the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them; and blessed is whoever is not offended in me." And what does he say of those who are led astray and those who lead astray? Isaiah foretold it: "My people, those who call you blessed lead you astray and confuse the path of your feet. But now the Lord will stand up for judgment, and will set his people for judgment. The Lord himself will come into judgment with them; but you, why have you set fire to my vineyard?" The Lord himself will come into judgment with the teachers and rulers, not as one to be judged by another, but as one who will convict them, as he declares in another place: "Come, and let us reason together, says the Lord": what things, he means, came to you from me, and what things have been done by you to me and to my servants. For he calls the world, or the people, his vineyard, which the expounders among the heretics and the Jews have made liable to the fire of Gehenna through blasphemous teaching; and the rulers, not making his concerns their own but misusing their authority, have wronged it in various and diverse ways. For something of the same kind was said by the same prophet in the person of the Master: "Who is it that contends with me? Let him stand against me. And who is it that contends with me? Let him come near to me"; that is, if anyone has just things to say, fortified by works, let him oppose me, for I wish it, and let him come near with his words. Some read it thus: "Who is it that contends with me? Opposite"; that is, let him stand opposite me and far off, as one who has no good provisions and is therefore unworthy to be compared with me and to touch the most pure judgment seat. For to the worthy, if they obtain good things, there is no grudging; for it has been prepared for them.

On the fact that the Son of God is judge of the living and the dead, granting forgiveness of sins; and that in no one else is there salvation. For he 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 saves us by his own glory and gift; and in no one else is there salvation; since he is by nature merciful and Savior, in nothing inferior to the merciful and saving God and Father, as the other Scriptures declare, and in particular Micah, saying: "Who is a God like you, taking away iniquities and passing over unrighteousness?" And Peter in the Acts, thus: "And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be 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." We have him, then, praised as "appointed by God" because of his saving becoming man, in which he came to seek and to save the lost; because of which it is also written: "For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." And he is called judge as one exalted above creatures. For a creature does not judge, but is subject to law and to judgment. And again: "This is the stone … the head of the corner; and there is salvation in no one else." He also sends a second catholic letter, which contains among other things this about him: "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature." Therefore James too said in his general letter: "There is one lawgiver and judge, who is able to save and to destroy." And what need is there of a multitude of Scriptures for this, when even Samaritans, in John, that exact speaker of God, simple men only, utter such words? "For they say: the Savior of the world, the Christ"; he who says gently, "Take heart, child; your sins are forgiven."

On the fact that, because of the equal honor of the Trinity, the Father reveals the Son to us and draws us to him; and again the Son himself and the Holy Spirit bring us to the Father. At the same time, also on Peter's confession; and that there is repentance. For in order that it may be shown in every way that the blessed Trinity … the Father reveals 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 another substance, or greater, nor to things lower than his own, like scepters. The New Testament, then, has perfected the Old, through faith in the Son and the divine Spirit. And they speak thus: God the Father in Isaiah, to the Son: "Behold, proselytes will come to you through me, and will sojourn with you, and will flee to you for refuge"; and the Son in John: "No one can come to me unless the heavenly Father draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." … "the Christ, the Son of the living God", he said: "Blessed are you, Peter Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on 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 do! even the confession that the only-begotten God the Word is the true Son of God and not a creature. Peter did not hesitate when he saw God dwelling on earth in flesh and blood; for this is the meaning of "Flesh and blood has not revealed it to you." He recognized the branch of God, of one nature and co-eternal with him; in it he honored the self-existent and beginningless root that had revealed it to him; he believed in his oneness of Godhead with the Father; he was called blessed by the only blessed Master. On this rock the churches were built, against which the gates of Hades, that is, the reasonings of heretics … of the heavens; so that for those who believe (as Peter himself is seen to have just 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 way into the kingdom of God; and for those who do not so believe, he might shut the thrice-blessed and most longed-for entrance. For by this very confession for which he was called blessed, he himself was approved for this belief, just as those who say the opposite were blamed and cast out. Having spoken the truth, then, and confessed him to be the Son of God, that is, genuine and consubstantial, he heard a like name in return: "Bar-Jonah", which is interpreted "son of Jonah". And Peter was certainly not of another substance from the one who begot him. Besides this he received authority, or rather all received it through him, not to give up on those who fall, but to receive them when they repent. For no one is without sin except the one who entrusted this authority to Peter; for this is the meaning of "Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in the heavens" … inhumanity. And Paul too follows what has been set out, writing to the Galatians: "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 inheritance of the saints in light; who has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins"; and to the Corinthians: "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord"; and to the Ephesians: "And he came and preached 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."

On the fact 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 to hand over the kingdom to the Father may be put to shame, the Scriptures proclaim that the Son's rule is without end, thus: Gabriel, in Luke, bringing the good news to the Theotokos: "And the Lord God," he says, "will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Israel for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." And very truly; for if he gives it back, in what kingdom of his, and when, shall we reign with him? And Paul, writing to the Ephesians: "Every sexually immoral or impure or covetous person, that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in …" … he means the kingdom after the resurrection. When, then, according to them, does he hand over the kingdom? And to Timothy, in the second epistle: "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word." It is clear that he speaks of the kingdom that he holds undivided and without succession with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and into the age to come. And to the Hebrews: "Of the angels he says: He who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire; but of the Son: Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever." And David in the 44th psalm: "… lawlessness; therefore, O God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." Observe again that his kingdom is without end and his Godhead without beginning. And because of his ineffable becoming man he added "your God". And in the 144th: "Your kingdom is a kingdom of all the ages, and your dominion is in every generation and generation." And in the 10th psalm: "The Lord will reign for ever and ever." And the Son, as Lord, gave Peter the keys of the kingdom (not of the present age, for we have not yet obtained it, but of the age to come, in which the heretics conjecture that he hands it over), so that those who believe his kingdom to be without beginning and without end might be received, and those might be thrust out, as was said a little before, who do not cry out with Nathanael: "You are the Son of God, you are the King of the Christians." And the prophecy of Isaiah that says, "My eyes have seen the King, the Lord Sabaoth", Paul ascribed to the Spirit of God, and John to the Only-begotten, as was said before, because the Godhead and the one kingdom without succession are shared. For how is it possible that one should rule and the other, as among men, be at leisure, when the Father is in the Son, and the Son remains in the Father, and when the Spirit proceeds from the Father and remains with the Son in a divine manner?