Against the Heresy of Noetus

Contents

Reading pages: 1–17 · 18

1. 1Noetus of Smyrna taught that Christ was the Father himself; examined twice by the presbyters, he was expelled and founded a school.
2. 2The Noetians argue from texts on the one God that Christ, being God, is the Father, and so the Father suffered.
3. 3Like Theodotus, who made Christ a mere man, Noetus reads Scripture one-sidedly; one God does not abolish the economy.
4. 4Read in full, Isa 45 speaks of the Son in whom God is, the Word made flesh, who was in heaven as the Word before he took flesh.
5. 5Baruch's "Jacob" and "Israel", to whom God gave all knowledge and who appeared on earth, is the Son.
6. 6Christ is God over all and Almighty because the Father has handed all things to him, yet he goes to his Father and God.
7. 7"I and the Father are one" shows two persons but one power; whoever has seen the Son, the image, knows the Father through him.
8. 8Scripture compels confession of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three, while God is one in power.
9. 9God is known only from the Scriptures, which must be believed as the Father wills, not by private choice.
10. 10God, alone and yet never without his Word, begot the Word as Light from Light and made him visible to the world for its salvation.
11. 11The Word is "another" beside God not as a second God but as light from light; even the heretics must admit one cause of all.
12. 12The Word who spoke through the prophets is the Word made flesh, through whom the Father is known; the Son is believed and the Spirit worshipped.
13. 13The Word that Jeremiah says was seen is the Word sent, as Peter says, in Jesus Christ.
14. 14God is one, but there are two persons, Father and Son, and a third economy, the grace of the Holy Spirit; through this Trinity the Father is glorified.
15. 15The Word is rightly called Son because of the flesh he was to take; the impassible Word suffered in the flesh, and Word and flesh are one perfect Son.
16. 16The Father's power, the Word, came down from heaven; how he was begotten is not to be pried into, for the Father keeps it to reveal later.
17. 17According to the apostles' tradition, God the Word came down into the Virgin Mary, took flesh and a rational soul, and truly became man.
18. 18Being God, Christ showed all the human weaknesses that were his own, from hunger to death, and through them wrought our salvation.