On the Trinity 2.13–2.16

… the saying, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit.” But these men, hunting for words, and belittling to their own hurt what concerns the Holy Spirit, say: “So then water is equal in power and glorified together with the Holy Spirit, since it is written: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit.” But this is to accuse themselves, as men who find fault with Christ, who spoke these things well, and who slander what not even Momus could slander; it is certainly not proper to Christians. For the water was not mentioned as ranked together with the Holy Trinity, but as the discourse required, and as elsewhere mortal things were mentioned together with the immortal God. For it is written: “I have sinned against heaven and before you”; and again: “The people believed God and Moses his servant”; and again: “All the people feared God and Samuel”; and again: “And there was a sword for the Lord and for Gideon.” And the reflection to be woven onto these is timely and worthy of the right faith. For if, according to Paul, we are baptized into the death of Christ and into Christ, the water was rightly joined in speech with the Spirit. For from the side of the Savior water and blood flowed together, as the spear and the soldier well know. Besides, if, as Paul wrote, to the Corinthians: “All ate the spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed, and the rock was Christ”; and again: “And all were made to drink one Spirit”; and to the Hebrews: “For it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God” (and the Holy Spirit has been extolled as the word of God the Father): then fittingly Christ and the Holy Spirit are in the water, and never with anyone are Christ and the Holy Spirit without the baptismal water. Where, then, the divine mystery has been ordained as of the Son of God, so also of the divine Spirit, and both these blessed and self-complete hypostases have borne equal witness, how are these things too not an abundance of proofs of their consubstantiality? I think, then, that it was for this reason too that he changed water into wine, and wine better [than the first], and supplied gladness to the wedding feast: wishing to teach in a hidden way that he also transferred water to the immortal use of baptism, and through baptism filled up for men what was lacking of faith, with the divine Spirit, in concord with God and the Father. For [those who had] the shadow of the divine … of the Son and of the Spirit of God, because of the knowledge of these pure hypostases, the righteous barely obtained after much toil. For the font of the Trinity is a workshop for the salvation of all believing men; and it frees those who wash in it from the serpent’s bite, and becomes the mother of all, remaining a virgin by the Holy Spirit. For in it, as has been said, we receive all the gifts of the distribution, and there the gifts of paradise are signed over, and he who made our soul takes it as a bride for himself, according to Paul, who writes: “I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” And what, in brief, … [to call] the Father in the heavens, we learn to call [him so] on earth, fearing no one. And this is what is sung in Psalm 26: “My father and my mother have forsaken me” (for, he says, Adam and Eve did not remain immortal), “but the Lord has taken me up.” And he gave me, he says, the font as mother, the Most High as father, and as brother the Savior who was baptized for us. Now, then, I know that I have truly been born and saved together, when I no longer hear, “Weep for the dead, for the light has failed,” but the longed-for voice: “[Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-lade]n, and I will give you rest,” having anointed, washed, and clothed each one with my whole self, undivided, and fed him with my body and blood.

On the waters’ having been sanctified by the Holy Spirit from the foundation of the world, and the salvation through baptism having been prepared beforehand for us. And on the Israelites’ having obtained salvation from what was once the image of baptism; and much more those who are now bap[tized] …

And indeed the time has come for the discourse to gather, in part, proofs proper to the divine Spirit and to immortal baptism from the older covenant too, and to write them as best I can. I shall begin a little further back. The undivided and ineffable Trinity, foreseeing from eternity the slipperiness of human life, together with bringing the liquid substance out of nothing, prepared for men the … in the waters … and what lies above imparts its own quality, so to speak, to what lies beneath, and all underlying matter is wont somehow to seize on the property of what lies upon it. Hence baptism takes place indiscriminately in any water, even in the sea, when necessity requires, since the nature of waters is one and all of it has been sanctified. How sea water is found salty, though it belongs to the one kind of waters, I shall, God willing, set out in another treatise. It is enough for the heading now in hand to mention both Moses, the writer of the world’s making, who explains word for word thus: “And the Spirit of the Lord was borne upon the waters”; and David, bearer of the Spirit, who sings: “The Lord upon many waters.” This is shown too, in no small way, by the Holy Spirit’s having come upon the streams of the Jordan when the Master was baptized, and having remained upon him. And he appeared at that time in the form of a dove, since this creature is innocent and lacks gall. “For be innocent,” it says, “as doves.” And if some help must also be provided for this argument from the number gathered from the name of the bird mentioned, it too indicates somehow the uncircumscribed nature of the Holy Spirit … [letters,] which are shown by alpha and omega; and these letters are the beginning and end of all the letters.

And the flood, then, which cleansed the world of ancient injustice, foretold, as it were in a hidden way, the cleansing of sins from the divine font; and the ark itself, which saved those who entered it, was an image of the venerable Church and of the good hope we have from it; and the dove, which brought an olive branch into the ark and announced the appearance of the land, signified the visitation of the Holy Spirit and the reconciliation from above; for the olive is a symbol of peace. But also the Red Sea, which received the Israelites and freed them from the evils … inflicted on them in Egypt by Pharaoh and his army, and indeed the whole account of their journey from Egypt, was a type of the salvation in baptism. For Egypt signified the world, in which, living not well, we fare badly; the people, those now being enlightened; the waters, which mediated safety for the people [omega and alpha; for its number is eight hundred and one], signified baptism; Pharaoh and his soldiers, Satan and his servants; and Moses, by making the bitter water useful with the rod, foretold universal salvation. For he bore the type of Christ; the rod, of the cross; the bitter water, of the blessed water of the font, which once seemed unprofitable to unbelievers, but was found by believers to be for every refreshment, and “like the dew of Hermon that comes down on the mountains of Zion.”

And the book of the Kingdoms too gives us an abundance of testimony for this, itself hinting in a mystery at things like those before us, in the saying and account written below: “Elisha,” it says, “went with them; and they came to the Jordan, and cut down trees. And behold, as one was felling the beam, the iron fell into the water; and he cried out: Alas, master, and it was borrowed. And the man of God said: Where did it fall? And he showed him the place. And he broke off a stick and threw it there, and the iron floated; and he said: Lift it up for yourself. And he stretched out his hand and took it.” For by Elisha, the man of God, who asked, “Where did the axe fall?” was shown God who came to be with men, who long ago said, “Adam, where are you?”; by the one person who was felling the wood and showed the place where the axe fell, Adam, who answered the God who cannot be eluded, “I am naked, and I hid,” and by such a word showed the place where he hid in shame; and further the plant was shown that he touched when he should not have; by the iron that fell into the unseen depth was signified the strength of human nature, which fell from the light because it laid its hand on the tree of life; by saying that it was borrowed, that the first-formed man had by God’s gift the strength that he let go, and that he had to give back to the giver such as he had received it; by the wood that was taken and thrown down at the place that held what was sought, the much-hymned cross; by the Jordan, immortal baptism; for in the Jordan he who made the Jordan deigned to be baptized for us. By the iron’s floating on the waters and coming to the one who had lost it, that through enlightenment one is carried up to the heavenly height, receives the former grace, and recovers the ancient homeland; by “He stretched out his hand and took it,” that one must know that he who comes to enlightenment must believe himself, and lift up, that is, glorify, in the way in which he has been commanded to be baptized, and stretch out his hands rightly now to God, which once, by reason of the common natural union with Adam, he laid not rightly on the plant of life. And of one who wishes to deny that this passage too is a prophecy about baptism, it is right to demand what is the use of such words and narratives, with a view to which the sacred writer set them down.

And the same prophet, having made the bitter and barren water of the spring in Jericho gentle and fruitful, by [ordering] salt and water to be put into a new jar, [signified] faith and the profit from it; and by the water that had no quality having become fruitful and pleasant to all, he foretold that those who come to baptism … and lay down their burdens, and put on the gift of the new grace, and enjoy participation in the saving Spirit and adoption. It seems to me well [said] that the same [prophet], teaching beforehand the most ineffable wealth and propitiation of the Holy Spirit in the baptismal waters, and that the spiritual providence over all extends to all who turn back and to all human lives, so that none who is willing is found rejected, sent Naaman the Syrian, the leper, the foreigner, who begged him to visit him, to be immersed seven times in the Jordan; so that by the voice of the Lord upon the waters the affliction might be dissolved from him, and he might return wholly to the pure and holy form of the soul. He told him to be baptized seven times either so that the foreigner might know that on the seventh day God rested from his works and blessed what he had made in the six (hence the seven-branched lamp was one of the treasures of the synagogue), and that the number seven is a number of fullness and perfect; or rather because it hinted at the divine Spirit. For Isaiah listed the completeness and … in words like these: “A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall come up from it; and there shall rest upon him the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and godliness, the Spirit of the fear of God.” One might rightly refer to these also the hidden meanings of Zechariah, which say thus: “For behold, I bring my servant the Dawn; for the stone that I have set before the face of Joshua, upon the one stone are seven eyes.” God said these things to Joshua the high priest: [I will bring], he says, my servant Zerubbabel to the power of the kingdom, from which he will be like the Dawn, shin[ing] … just as also the third utterance, to look to what is more perfect and more divine? so that we may learn … making the discourse continuous and unbroken, he names Zerubbabel a stone, on which the face of Joshua was fixed, giving him the help of his prayers, and receiving from him in return the peace that comes from the kingdom. And having said in the middle, “I dig a pit, says the Lord Almighty, and I will search out all the iniquity of that land in one day; and each will call his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree,” that is, “I bring death on the enemies through the generalship of Zerubbabel, so that all, freed from every disturbance and living in abundant plenty, may invite one another to feasts”; and having mentioned also a golden lampstand, that is, … from us, but raised even to the things above us (for by the gold the pure and precious is understood, for gold does not rust); and having said that there is a bowl on top of it, that is, the divine grace that shines on all things from on high, and seven lamps, meaning the abundance and perfection of the spiritual gift; besides these, seven pourers above, that is, the unquenchable and lasting character of the flow from there; and two olive trees, which are understood either as priesthood and kingship, or as two peoples, or houses of God, that of the Israelites once and that of the Christians; and having roused the prophet, and for a more exact understanding of what was to be shown … “nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. Who are you, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel, to make straight? And he will bring out the stone of the inheritance, equality of grace.” Here he calls the enemy, to whom he speaks, a mountain, [saying] that such spiritual grace will surround the stone of the inheritance, Zerubbabel, against whom you rush face to face as an adversary, as he succeeds in the battles, that he will seem to be wholly grace itself. And shortly after, confirming this further, he prophesies thus: “And they shall rejoice, and shall see the stone of tin in the hand of Zerubbabel. These seven are the eyes of the Lord that look upon all the earth.” The seven eyes, then, that look upon all creation are the wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned before. He called it a stone of tin, since with tin damaged vessels, of iron and bronze, are mended and filled up, and tin is a uniting thing. Some say too that with skill it separates in the crucible the genuine from the counterfeit in gold, silver, or bronze. I think that what was likewise said in a mystery by Solomon, “Wisdom built herself a house, and set up seven pillars,” seeks to indicate what was announced to the Virgin by Gabriel, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,” which also shows that the angels minister to him; and that the divine Spirit is the one who gives subsistence to the universe, and illumines lives with ineffable enlightening, together with the Father and the Son, in inexpressible union and concord. Teaching us, then, that those being enlightened are deemed worthy of him, the Apostle engraved a letter to the Galatians with words like these: “This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” Nor does David pass these things by in silence. For plainly joining the nature and concord of the Son, begotten light from light, and of the Holy Spirit, proceeding truth from truth, he sings, in Psalm 42: “Send forth your light and your truth”; and in 147: “He will send forth his Word and melt them; he will breathe his Spirit, and waters will flow.” To which Paul’s saying corresponds: “We were all made to drink one Spirit.” … and should we marvel the more? I shall remind [you] of his very words, which run thus: “In those days living water shall go out from Jerusalem.” And the “living water,” which goes forth from the Jerusalem above, surely also begets living men.

Besides those mentioned, we would find also the pool in Jerusalem called in Hebrew Bethesda, admittedly an image of baptism, but not itself the truth; for the image is judged for a time, but the truth for eternity. Therefore the water in it was moved by an angel once a year, and healed only the one who went down first, and a bodily affliction, not one of the soul as well; … the appearance of the Son and the Holy Spirit, both every day, or rather every hour, and more truly unceasingly, frees all who go down, and from every sin, for ever; and for the many, varied, irregular, and hard-to-loose conditions of soul and body the cure is found to be one, and no old pain, within or without, follows any longer in any way. Besides this, it shows all to be brothers and firstborn by grace; and to those very ones to whom, by worldly law, earthly property is not entrusted because of the insecurity of their years, whether few or many, the whole divine wealth is found securely deposited … “and I shall lack nothing; in a place of green pasture, there he made me dwell; by the water of rest he nourished me”; and, “You prepared a table before me, in the face of those who afflict me. You anointed my head with oil, and your cup that inebriates me is most excellent.” And the angel himself who stirred the water was a forerunner of the Holy Spirit; in the likeness of which angel John was called the messenger of the Lord, and became the forerunner of the Master, and baptized in waters. And the anointing too, with which Aaron was anointed by Moses, and indeed all of the priestly horn, who were called “anointed” from the anointing, bore a type of the sanctified anointing which we receive. For even if this runs over the body, still it profits the soul. For only let faith in the thrice-blessed Trinity come into our heart, and a spiritual word into our mouth, and the seal of Christ on our forehead; only let [one] receive baptism, and let the anointing strengthen [him]: at once the Trinity, which by nature gives good things, is found gracious; … worldly things depart, and bodily passions of every kind are put out of the way; all faults are forgiven, our names [are written] in books that cannot be blotted out, the heavenly goods are entrusted to us; so that, through its unspeakable readiness and forethought and its will always to be first in all good things, even such a resolve of ours is anticipated by it, or begun beforehand.

And to speak in sum, keeping of course the reverence [due] between truth and shadow, the image of baptism itself always enlightened all the Israelites of that time, and saved them, and showed that the salvation given is common to the consubstantial Trinity, as Paul, learned in the law, wrote in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: “For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed, and the rock was Christ”; and as they prophesy, Ezekiel: “Thus says the Lord: I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your sins; and I will give my Spirit in you, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” And David: “You will sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; you will wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.” For by the sprinkling of hyssop he means the Jewish purification, which is customary among them to this day; and by “whiter than snow,” the enlightenment of Christians, baptism. And Isaiah: “All who are written for life in Jerusalem shall be called holy; for the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst.” And so that Peter might show in the first Epistle that, if the baptism that once took place in shadow saved, how much more does that which takes place in truth make us immortal and divine, he wrote thus: “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you also, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.” By “pledge toward God” he means the confession of [faith and being baptized] into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, according to the Lord’s word. Isaiah, then, again cries out to those who do not believe in the Holy Spirit, and through … “you shall be righteous, says the Lord. You who thirst, go to the water; and as many as have no money, go and buy, and eat without money and price wine and fat.” He called the Holy Spirit and the streams of his font water; by wine and fat he signified then the things of the Jewish offering, but now the immortal communion of the Lord’s body and blood; which, together with the renewal, we at once buy, laying down faith and not money, and at once receive as a gift. And that he calls the Holy Spirit water, and indeed the water of his baptism, John also testifies from the Savior, saying: “He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” And immediately he added to the saying: “This,” he says, “he said about the Spirit, which those who believed were to receive.” And that we are justified freely, though unworthy, through the surpassing goodness of the Trinity, Paul’s word to the Romans has shown: “For all have sinned,” he says, “and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Blessing those deemed worthy of this gift, the Lord said to the disciples in Luke: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you have heard, and did not hear it.” But we spiritual men not only see and hear, but are also freely enlightened by the Holy Spirit and enjoy [the gift], partaking of the body of Christ and tasting the immortal spring.

In many places, then, Scripture is seen, not least in the case of holy baptism, to mention the Holy Spirit alone and his saving …, because of the identity of substance and operation with the Father and the Son … to the first image … Proofs of these are such as when the Savior says: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth”; and again: “You will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.” And as when Paul writes, to the Corinthians: “We were all baptized in one body into one Spirit, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free; and we were all made to drink one Spirit”; and to the Ephesians: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption”; and again: “In whom, having believed, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”; which David prophesied when he sang: “The light of your face has been marked upon us, O Lo[rd] …” … so he who is baptized in the Holy Spirit [is] wholly … For the sign on the forehead [is] the communion of the Godhead … reaching … And understand the light of God’s face also as the stamp of his hypostasis, and the image of the invisible God himself. Which light … If, then, we are sealed and baptized equally into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, then the Trinity is in one Godhead and kingdom. For we do not receive these things in the case of creatures, nor does God take up the name or seal of a creature together with his own, as though he could not save alone.

Those, then, who come over to orthodoxy, even if they happen to have been baptized, are baptized (for we do not say re-baptized, since they do not have the true baptism): the Eunomians, because they make one immersion, saying that they are baptized only into the death of the Lord; and the Phrygians, because they do not baptize into the three holy hypostases, but believe that the same one is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And those who come over from every heresy are anointed, since they do not have the holy chrism. And the bishop alone, by grace from above, performs the anointing.

We find that, just as the Israelites kept the day of Unleavened Bread as a type, in honor and glory of the holy and thrice-longed-for Pascha of Christ, so they also celebrated in an image the day of Pentecost among them, in honor and glory of the saving and venerable coming of the Holy Spirit. And not only this, but by the feast of Tabernacles they mystically foretold the assemblies of the holy churches and of the martyrs’ shrines, which lead us through faith and good conduct to the heavenly tents; of which he who pitched them said: “Make friends for yourselves by the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when you fail they may receive you into the heavenly tents.” For the boundless brightness of these feasts has never ceased. And looking to it the Singer sang to God on the all-harmonious ten-stringed [harp]: “You will bless the crown of the year of your goodness.” For the crown, being round, circles back on itself from every side, having neither beginning nor end.