On the Trinity 12.16–12.38

And human births have it that they did not exist in time: first, because all are born from all those who did not exist before. For although each one born has his origin from one who existed, yet that very one from whom he is born did not exist before he was born. Then he who was born was born after not existing, the time remaining before he is born. For one born today did not exist in what was yesterday; and he began into what he is from what he was not; and it is within our understanding that what is born today did not exist yesterday. And so his birth, through which he is, remains after what he was not; because today must first be after yesterday's time, so that it belongs to him not to have existed in time. And these things are common in the origin of human things, that all receive their beginning when they had not existed before: first, as we have taught, through time, then through cause. Through time, there is no doubt that the things which have now begun did not exist before; through cause, because their being, by which they remain, does not stand from a cause. For go over all the causes of origins and turn your understanding back to earlier things: you will find that nothing began through a cause, since all things are created into what they are through the power of God, and are not born from anything. Hence it is natural to every kind, through the very succession, that it did not exist and began, since it is in time after time; and since all things are always after time, they also take the cause of themselves from things not previously existing, since they are born from things which did not exist before: Adam himself, the first parent of the human race, being formed from earth, which is from nothing, and after time, that is, after heaven, earth, day, sun, moon, and stars; who had no origin of birth and began when he had not existed.

But for the only-begotten God, whom no earlier time precedes, there is no room for his once not having been: because that very "once" is already prior, and then "not to have been" belongs already to time; and it will not be that time begins after him, but that he begins to be after time, when, in his not having been before he was born, the very thing in which he was not will be put before him. Then, he who was born from him who is cannot be understood to have been born from what was not: because he who is is the cause of his being, not that which is not the origin of his birth. He, then, for whom it is neither in time that he once was not, nor in the Father, that is, the author, that he subsists from nothing, has left no occasion concerning himself for saying either that he was born from nothing or that he was not before he was born.

I am not unaware that many of those whose mind, dulled by impiety, does not grasp the mystery of God, or whose madness, prone to disparage God under the appearance of religion, is under the dominion of a hostile spirit, are accustomed to affirm this to the ears of the simpler: that we, since we say that the Son always was, and that there was not at any time anything that was not, preach him without birth through his always having been; because, in the opinion of human sense, what always was does not allow itself to have been born; "the cause of being born is that what was not may be; and to be what was not is, in common sense, nothing other than to be born." And they add these clever words, pleasing to the ear: "If," they say, "he was born, he began; and when he began, he was not; and when he was not, it does not allow that he was." And therefore they maintain that it is the language of pious understanding to say, "He was not before he was born; because one who was not, not one who was, was born so that he might be." Nor did he who was need birth, since he was born so that one who was not might be.

And first, men who put forward a religious knowledge of divine things ought, where the truth of the gospel and apostolic preaching was set before them, to have cast away the twisting questions of cunning philosophy and rather to follow the faith which is in God: because the sophism of a syllogistic question would easily strip a weak sense of the protection of its faith, since a captious proposition would at last despoil, by questioning its own sense, a simple answer that went along with the question according to things, so that what it had lost in profession it would no longer hold in conscience. For what will go along with a question so necessarily as this: when we are asked, "Is anything before it is born?", that our profession should be that what is born was not before? For it is neither in nature nor in necessity that what is should be born, since it is necessary that something be born only so that it may be, not because it was. When this has been conceded by us, since it is rightly conceded, stripped of the consciousness of faith, already captured, we acquiesce in impious and foreign pursuits.

The blessed apostle Paul, foreseeing this, as we have often shown, warned us to beware, saying: "See that no one despoils you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ, in whom dwells all the fullness of divinity bodily." We must, then, beware of philosophy, and the pursuits of human traditions are not so much to be avoided as refuted. Nor are we to yield to them as though they conquer rather than deceive: because, preaching Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, it is right for us not so much to flee human teachings as to refute them, and both to block them and to instruct the simpler, so that they may not be despoiled by them. For since God can do all things, and in all those things can do them wisely, and reason does not stand apart from his power nor power from his reason, those who preach Christ to the world must oppose the irreligious and imperfect teachings of the world through the knowledge of a wise omnipotence, according to the saying of the blessed apostle: "For our weapons are not fleshly but powerful for God, for the destruction of strongholds, destroying reasonings and every height raised against the knowledge of God." The apostle did not leave faith bare and poor in reason: though it is most powerful for salvation, yet unless it is instructed through teaching, it will indeed have among adversities a safe retreat for flight, but will not keep a steady security for resisting; and it will be like a camp after flight for the weak, not the undaunted courage present to those who hold the camp. Insolent disputes against God, then, must be crushed, the fortifications of deceitful reasonings destroyed, and wits raised up to impiety broken; not with fleshly weapons but with spiritual ones, not with earthly teaching but with heavenly wisdom; so that as great as the distinction is between divine and human things, so far heavenly reason surpasses earthly pursuits.

Let the anxiety of unbelief cease, then, and let it not think that we deny what alone is both well understood and believed by us, merely because it does not understand. For in the very wording, when we profess him born, we still do not preach him as unborn. For to be unborn and to be born are not the same: because the one is from another, the other from no one. And it is one thing to be always eternal without an author, another to be co-eternal with the Father, that is, the author. For where the Father is author, there is also birth; but where the author is eternal, there is also the eternity of the birth: because as birth is from an author, so from an eternal author there is an eternal birth. And everything that always is is also eternal. Yet not everything that is eternal is also unborn. For what is born from the eternal has it that what is born is eternal. But what is unborn is unborn together with eternity. And what is born from the eternal, if it is not born eternal, the Father will no longer be an eternal author either. If, then, anything of eternity was lacking to him who was born from the eternal Father, there is no doubt that this very thing was lacking to the author: because what is infinite for the one begetting is infinite also for the one born. For neither reason nor sense admits anything between the birth of God the Son and the generation of God the Father: because there is birth in the generation and generation in the birth. Both are without interval from each other, because without both neither is. What, then, does not stand except from both does not remain in all things except as both: because in nothing is one left so that that other could be in anything without the other.

But someone incapable of this divine mystery will say: "Everything that is born was not, because it was born in order to be."

And who will doubt that the things born among human affairs once were not? But it is one thing to be born from one who was not, another to have been born from one who always is. For all infancy, not having existed before, began from time. And growing again into boyhood, it later drove even youth into fatherhood. And he is not always father who earlier advanced into youth through boyhood, and into boyhood through infancy once begun. He, then, who is not always father has not always begotten. But where there is always a father, there is always a son too. If, then, you have in thought or sense a God, in the mystery of whose knowledge it is proper that he is Father, who is not always Father of the Son begotten, you have also in understanding and knowledge that he who was begotten is not always Son. But if it is always proper to the Father that he is always Father, it must always be proper to the Son that he is always Son. And how will it fall within our speech and understanding that he was not before he was born, to whom it is proper always to be what he was born?

The only-begotten God, then, containing in himself the form and image of the invisible God, is made equal, through the fullness of true divinity in him, in all the things that are proper to God the Father. For, as we taught in the earlier books, by power and veneration he is both to be honoured and powerful as the Father is; so also, in that the Father always is, it is common to the Son too, in that he is Son, always to be. For according to the saying to Moses, "He who is has sent me to you," the sense does not doubt that "that which is" is proper to God: because what is cannot be understood or said not to be. For to be and not to be are contraries; and these different meanings do not come together into one and the same, because while one remains, the other will not be. Where, then, it is, "not to be" cannot enter sense or speech. When our sense is driven back and always called back to the understanding of him who is, only this, that he is, is always prior about him: because what is infinite in God always withdraws itself from the going back of our sense, though infinite; so that before what is proper to God, always to be, our backward-reaching effort grasps nothing else; because nothing other ever meets the understanding of God, however far one proceeds into eternity, than that God always is. What, then, was signified about God through Moses, and what common sense allows us to understand as nothing else, the Gospels testify to be proper to the only-begotten God: since "in the beginning was the Word," and this "was with God," and "was the true light," and "the only-begotten God is in the bosom of the Father," and "Jesus Christ is God over all."

He was, then, and is: because he is from him who always is what he is. And to be from him, that is, to be from the Father, is birth. And always to be from him who always is, is eternity: an eternity not from himself but from the eternal. And from the eternal nothing but the eternal. But if not eternal, then neither is the Father, who is the author of the generation, eternal. And since it is proper to the one always to be Father and to the other always to be Son, and eternity is signified in "that which is," through this too the eternal is proper to him to whom "that which is" is proper. No one doubts that generation signifies birth, and that birth teaches one who remains, not one who does not remain. Again, it cannot be doubted that no one who was is born. For the cause of being born does not serve one who remains eternal through himself. But the only-begotten God, who is the Wisdom of God, the Power of God, and the Word, since he was born, testifies to the Father as author. Since he was born from one who remains, he was not born from nothing. Since he was born before eternal times, he must by being born precede every sense. He has left nothing in words for saying that he was not before he was born. For if it falls under our sense that he was not before he was born, then both our sense and time are prior to his birth: because everything that was not is already subject both to sense and to time in the very meaning in which it was not; because "not to have been" is a part of time. But he who is from the eternal and always was is neither without birth nor did he not exist; since both always to have been is above time, and to have been born is birth.

We confess, then, that the only-begotten God was born, but born before eternal times; because we must confess that within which the sayings of the apostolic and prophetic preachings enclose us: although human sense does not grasp the understanding of a timeless birth, because it does not fit earthly natures that anything should be born before times. Since this will be preached so by us, how again, in the embrace of the same understanding, shall we say that he was not before he is born, when, according to the apostle, the only-begotten God is before eternal times? If, then, "born before eternal times" is not a reasoning of human understanding but the profession of faithful prudence, because birth is through an author, and what exceeds times is eternal, and what was born before eternal times is outside earthly sense: we are surely now exalting, with impious will, the sense of human reason, so that by the understanding of the world he was not before he is born, when the eternal is born beyond human sense and the understanding of the world. And eternal is whatever exceeds time.

For we grasp all times either by opinion or by knowledge: since we know that what is now did not also exist the day before, because what was the day before is not now, and what is now is only now and did not exist the day before. By opinion we so measure the past that there is no doubt that before some city was founded there was a time when the city had not been founded. Since, then, times are subject either to our knowledge or our opinion, we judge by the sense of human understanding, so that we are thought to have said with reason of something, "it was not before it is born," because times always set before precede the origin of each thing. But since in the things of God, that is, in God's birth, there is nothing that is not before eternal time, it does not fit that he, before whom eternal life was promised before eternal times, according to the blessed apostle's saying, "in hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before eternal times," should be said once not to have been before he was born: because he cannot be understood to have begun after anything who is to be confessed to be before eternal times.

If, then, for anything to be born before eternal times is neither in human natures nor in understanding, and yet in this case it is believed from God's professions about himself: how, when the apostolic faith has spoken of what was born without the sense of understanding as eternal always, that is, as being before eternal times, does the unbelief of our time again declare, through the sense of human understanding, that he was not before he is born? Since what was born before time was always born, because what is before eternal time always is. And what was always born does not admit that it once was not, because once not to have been is no longer always to be. And always to be excludes not always having been. And when "not always having been" is excluded through his having always been born, it does not fall within sense that he was not before he was born: because he who was born before eternal times is always in sense as having been born; although to have been born before times does not enter sense. For if, as is surely fitting, he is to be confessed to have been born before every creature, invisible or bodily, and before all ages and eternal times, and before every sense, who through being so born always is, it is permitted by no sense to conceive that he was not before he is born; because he who was born before eternal times is before every sense, and it is never in sense that he, who is to be confessed always to be, was not.

But the slander of a clever question is put forward: "If," he says, "it does not fall within sense that he was not before he is born, it remains for sense that he who was was born."

And I will answer the slanderer: Will he remember that anything other than "born" was said by me? Or is being before eternal times the same thing as "he who was is born"? Because for what was to be born is no longer to be born, but to change oneself by being born. But always to be born is to outrun the sense of times by being born, and not to lie open to the understanding that he was once not born. It is not, then, the same thing to be always, having been born before eternal times, and to be before being born. But always to be, having been born before eternal times, excludes his not having been before he is born.

For the rest, it does not leave room for being before being born, because what is beyond sense is in nothing subject to sense. For if always being born is beyond sense, it is no longer permitted to be after sense that he was not before he is born. Since, then, always to be born is to be confessed as nothing other than born, it is not subject to sense either to have been or not to have been before he is born, because nothing other than having been born before eternal times always comes before sense. He was born, then, and always is, who allows nothing else to be understood and said of him except that he was born. For since he is prior to the very time of the senses (because before sense there is eternal time), he does not admit sense judging of him that he either was or was not before he is born: because both to be before being born does not belong to birth, and not to have been already belongs to time. So both the infinity of eternal times consumes what belongs to time, that is, not to have been, and birth does not allow what is not its own, that is, to be before it is born. But if either being or not having been is subject to sense, then birth itself is after time: because what is not always must have begun to be after something.

The end, then, of faith, speech, and sense is that the Lord Jesus was both born and always is: because if the mind, going back, searches anything about the Son, nothing will ever meet the sense of the searcher except that he was born and always is. As, then, it is proper to God the Father to be without birth, so it is owed to the Son always to be through birth. And birth will declare nothing other than a Father, nor will a Father declare anything other than birth. For neither these names nor nature permits anything in between. For either the Father is not always, if the Son is not always too; or, if the Father is always, the Son is always too: because as much time as is denied to the Son, so that he was not always Son, so much is lacking to the Father, so that he was not always Father; so that, though always God, he would not also have been Father in that infinity by which he is God.

The profession of impiety stretches even so far as to ascribe times not to the Son's birth but to the Father's generating, on the ground that the manner of generation is set within the times of birth.

Do you think it pious and religious, heretic, to confess God as always, but not always Father? If you think it pious to hold this, you must condemn Paul for impiety, who says the Son is before eternal times; you must also accuse Wisdom herself, testifying of herself that she was founded before the ages, who was present with the Father when he was preparing the heaven. But you, in order to give God a beginning by which he is Father, first decide on a beginning for times by which they began: and if they began, the apostle is a liar, who professed them eternal. For you are accustomed to count times from the creation of the sun and moon, because it is written of them: "And let them be for signs and times and years." But he who is before heaven, which on your view is also before time, is the same who is before the age. And he is not only before the age, but also before the generations of generations that go before the ages. Why do you shut divine and infinite things inside frail, earthly, and narrow ones? Paul knows nothing in Christ but an eternity of times. Wisdom says that she is not after anything, but before all things. With you, times were established from the sun and moon; but David signifies that Christ abides before the sun, saying: "Before the sun is his name." And so that you would not think the things of God began with the origin of this world, he says also: "And before the moon, generations of generations." Times are here looked down on by such great men, worthy of the Spirit of prophecy; and nothing is left to human sense into which it may stretch itself before the birth that surpasses eternal times: but let the faith of a religious opinion have only this measure, that it remember the Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten God, as born, for the confession of a perfect birth, and not be ignorant that he is eternal, in the veneration of divinity.

But we are accused of lying, and together with us the teaching of the apostolic preaching is charged, which confessed a birth but professed the eternity of the birth: so that the birth would testify to an author, and the eternity, in the mystery of the divine birth, would surpass the sense of human opinion. For the declaration of Wisdom about herself is brought forward against us, which taught that she was created, in these words: "The Lord created me for the beginning of his ways."

O wretched heretic, who seize the weapons granted to the church against the synagogue and turn them against the faith of the church's preaching, and snatch the best-fortified understanding of saving teaching against the salvation of all, contending through these words that Christ is a creature, rather than destroying through these words of subsisting Wisdom the Jew who denies the divinity of Christ before the eternal ages and his effective working in all the works and teachings of God! For Wisdom now said that she was created for the beginning of the ways of God and for his works from the age, so that she would not perhaps be thought not to exist before Mary; and yet she did not refer her being created to the understanding of her birth, since she was created for the beginning of the ways and for the works; but so that no one would count this beginning of the ways, which surely is the beginning of human knowledge of divine things, as subjecting her infinite birth to time, she professed that she was founded before the ages: so that, since to be created for the beginning of the ways and for the works is one thing, and to be founded before the ages another, the founding would be understood as prior to the creation; and the very fact that she was founded for the works before the age would show the mystery of the creation, because the founding is before the age, and the creation for the beginning of the ways and for the works is after the age.

And so that creation and founding would not offend faith in the divine birth, there follows: "Before he made the earth, before he established the mountains, before all the hills he begot me." He who was founded before the age was begotten before the earth; and not only before the earth, but also before the mountains and hills. And in these words, because Wisdom speaks of herself, she says more than is heard. For all things signified for the understanding of infinity must be such as not to be second in time to any thing or kind. But temporal things will in no way be fitted to show eternity: because, through being later than others, they do not of themselves show the beginning of infinity, since they themselves have received a temporal beginning. For what great thing is it that God begot the Lord Christ before the earth, when the origin of the angels is found to be older than the creation of the earth? Or why would he who is said to be begotten before the earth be shown to have been born also before the mountains, and not only before the mountains but also before the hills, when the meaning of hills comes after the mountains, and the understanding of mountains after the earth? Through this it cannot be thought that these things were said so that he might be understood to be before hills, mountains, and earth, he who surpasses by the eternity of his infinity the things that are before earth, mountains, and hills.

But the divine word did not leave our sense without reason; for it shows the cause of the saying through what follows: "God made the regions, and the uninhabitable places, and the heights that are inhabited under heaven. When he was preparing the heaven, I was with him, and when he was setting apart his throne. When he was making strong clouds above the winds on high, and when he was setting sure fountains under heaven, and when he was making strong the foundations of the earth, I was with him, setting in order." What place is there here for times? Or how far is the sense of human understanding allowed to stretch beyond the infinite birth of the only-begotten God? For his generation cannot be comprehended through these things whose creation we conceive in our minds, as though he were prior to all these in such a way that, though in time, he would not be infinite, to whom only this would be granted, that he was born before temporal things. For since they are subject to time in their constitution, he, though prior to all these, would not be free from time: because the temporal constitution of these would show the time of the birth of him who was born before them, since this very thing would be time for him, that he is set before temporal things.