Sophia Scriptura

Trinity

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and their relations. Part of God.

Passages that substantially address this topic, in date order.

  • Didache 7.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in running water.
  • Didache 7.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · If there is not enough water, pour water on the head three times.
  • 1 Clement 46.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · One God, one Christ, one Spirit, one calling.
  • 1 Clement 58.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · An oath by God, Christ, and the Spirit: the humble and obedient will be saved.
  • Ascension of Isaiah 8.18Anonymous · late 1st–2nd century
  • Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5.6.5 (59.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · God made the pre-existent Holy Spirit dwell in chosen flesh, which served the Spirit purely.
  • Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.1.1 (78.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The Spirit who spoke as the church is the Son of God.
  • To the Magnesians 13.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Stand firm in the teaching of the Lord and the apostles, with the bishop, presbyters, and deacons.
  • Apology 15Aristides of Athens · ca. 125–145 · The Christians descend from Christ, the Son of God born of a virgin, crucified, risen, and ascended; they know the true God and live by his commandments in purity, justice, and love.
  • First Apology 6Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians are “atheists” only toward false gods; they worship the true God, his Son, and the prophetic Spirit.
  • First Apology 13Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians worship the Creator with prayer and thanksgiving, and honor Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, in the second place and the prophetic Spirit in the third.
  • First Apology 60Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Plato's “world soul set crosswise” and his threefold order came from Moses' bronze serpent and Genesis; even the unlettered among Christians know these things.
  • First Apology 61Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin describes baptism: instruction, prayer and fasting, then washing in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, called “illumination.”
  • First Apology 63Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The one who spoke to Moses from the bush was the Son, the Word, who is also God; the Jews wrongly think it was the Father.
  • Evening hymn (Phos hilaron)Anonymous · second or third century · An ancient evening hymn praises Jesus Christ as the joyful light of the Father's glory and gives glory to the Trinity at lamp-lighting.
  • Second Apology 5Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · God the Father has no proper name; the Son is called Christ and Jesus, and in his name Christians cast out demons.
  • Second Apology 13Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · Justin strives to be a Christian; whatever truth any philosopher spoke belongs to Christians, since the philosophers had only seeds of the Word, while Christians have the Word himself.
  • Sibylline Oracles 7.61ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl laments Syria for not knowing its God, the Word who was baptized in the Jordan, author of creation with the Father and the Spirit, who took flesh and returned to the Father.
  • Sibylline Oracles 8.261ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl tells how the serpent deceived Adam, and how the Almighty, taking the Son as counsellor, said "Let us make" man, and how the Son came, mindful of that purpose, through a holy virgin.
  • Sibylline Oracles 8.431ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · A hymn praises the self-begotten, eternal God who rules thunder, lightning, rain, and hail, and his Child, begotten before all creation, counsellor and creator.
  • Sibylline Oracles 8.441ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The hymn tells how God said to the Word, "Let us make man in our form," and how all the elements obeyed his command.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 50.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho asks Justin to prove there is “another God” besides the Creator.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 55.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho asks for proof of “another God,” not merely the use of “gods” for idols.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 56.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Moses shows that the God who appeared to Abraham at Mamre was sent by another, the unseen Father.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 56.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin will prove there is another God and Lord, under the Creator, called Angel because he announces the Father's will.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 56.11Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The God who appeared to the patriarchs is distinct from the Father in number, but not in will.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 56.12Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Gen 19:23–25: “the Lord rained … from the Lord.”
  • Dialogue with Trypho 56.14Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · David too calls another “Lord” and “God” besides the Father.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 56.15Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin will prove that the Lord of Gen 19:24 is the one who appeared to Abraham.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 56.22Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The one of the three who is God and Lord remained with Abraham while the two angels went to Sodom.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 56.23Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Lord on earth brought judgment on Sodom “from the Lord” in heaven.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 60.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Even so, the one who spoke was not the Father, who does not leave heaven to appear in a corner of the earth.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 60.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho concedes that the God of the bush is the one who appeared to Abraham and Jacob.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 60.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · In each case the “angel” is also Lord and God, serving the Father.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 61.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Before all creation God begot from himself a rational Power, called Glory, Son, Wisdom, Angel, God, Lord, Word, and Captain.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 61.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · As a word is spoken without diminishing the mind, and fire kindles fire without loss, so the Son is begotten without division of the Father.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 62.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · “Let us make man” (Gen 1:26–28) shows God speaking to another.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 62.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin rejects the explanations that God spoke to himself or to the elements.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 62.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Gen 3:22, “one of us,” indicates at least two; not angels, as some teach.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 62.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Offspring begotten before creation is the one the Father addresses.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 65.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho cites Isa 42:8: God gives his glory to no other.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 68.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin asks whether anyone besides the Creator and Christ is called God and worshipped in Scripture.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 114.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Jewish teachers take God's “fingers” literally and think the Father himself appeared to the patriarchs.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 126.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The one who appeared to the patriarchs serves the Father's will.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 127.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The unbegotten God does not literally come down or go up.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 127.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Father is everywhere present by power, uncontained by any place.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 127.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Not even the glory of the one sent could be endured; how much less the Father?
  • Dialogue with Trypho 127.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · No one saw the Father; the patriarchs saw his Son.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 127.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Otherwise the Father would not have been in heaven during these events.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 128.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Some teach that the power that appeared is only a name for the Father's activity.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 128.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · They compare the Son to sunlight, drawn back when the Father wills.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 128.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Son is distinct in number from the Father, begotten without division, as fire from fire.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 129.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Gen 19:24 indicates two in number: the Lord on earth and the Father in heaven, the cause of his being.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 129.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Gen 3:22 indicates plurality.
  • Dialogue with Trypho 129.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The begotten is distinct in number from the one who begets.
  • Martyrdom of Polycarp 14.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp ended his prayer with praise to God through Christ, the eternal High Priest.
  • Oration to the Greeks 5Tatian · ca. 165–172 · Tatian's doctrine of the Word: begotten from the Father's power without diminishing him, like a torch lit from a torch, and the maker of the world; matter itself was created, not eternal.
  • To Autolycus 2.10Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · God made all things from nothing through his Word, whom he had within himself and “uttered” with his Wisdom before creation; this Word spoke through the prophets, and Genesis begins with “In the beginning.”
  • To Autolycus 2.15Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · The sun and moon are types of God and humanity; the three days before the lights are types of the “Triad” of God, his Word, and his Wisdom; the stars represent the prophets, the righteous, and the apostate.
  • To Autolycus 2.18Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Humanity alone was made by God's own hands, in his image; God's “Let us make” was spoken to his Word and his Wisdom; the first humans and animals ate only plants.
  • To Autolycus 2.22Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · It was the Word, God's Son, who walked in the garden: always within God's heart, “uttered” before creation as the firstborn of all creation, and sent by the Father to appear in a place.
  • A Plea for the Christians 6Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Pythagoreans, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics all in effect teach one God; the Christian God is the one who made all things by his Word and holds them together by his Spirit.
  • A Plea for the Christians 10Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians worship one God, together with his Son, the eternal Word, and the Holy Spirit, distinct in order yet one in power; there are also angels who serve God.
  • A Plea for the Christians 12Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians live pure lives because they expect God's judgment and know the Father, Son, and Spirit; those who deny judgment are called pious, but Christians are not.
  • A Plea for the Christians 24Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · As there are Father, Son, and Spirit, so there are angels; some angels fell, among them the ruler of matter and those who lusted after women and fathered the giants.
  • Adumbrations on 1 John, paragraph 2Clement of Alexandria · original ca. 200; Latin translation 6th century · On 1 John 1:1–5: ‘was from the beginning’ signifies the Son's eternal generation and equality with the Father; the handling signifies the incarnation, with a tradition that John's hand passed into the Lord's body; ‘God is light’ declares his majesty, not his essence.
  • The Instructor 1.6.42Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The church is the one virgin mother who nurses her children with the Word; Christ bore her in the travail of his flesh and swaddled her in his blood, and is everything to his little ones.
  • The Instructor 1.8.62Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Against those who say the God who threatens and punishes is not good, Clement answers that he became man out of love and hates nothing that he has made.
  • The Instructor 1.8.71Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Christ's prayer in John 17 shows the one God to be both good and righteous: the Father is called good and the Son, his Word in the Father, just.
  • The Instructor 1.9.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Like a mirror or a physician, God's reproof only reveals sin; God is good in himself and just for our sake, and his justice came to us in the law and in the incarnate Word.
  • The Instructor 3.12.101Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The work ends with a prayer to the Word, Instructor and Teacher, and a hymn to Christ the Savior as shepherd, fisher of men, and nourishing milk of his children, praised with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
  • Against Heresies 1.22.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The rule of truth confesses one God who made all things by his Word and Spirit, the God of Abraham and Father of Jesus Christ; against it the heresies are easily shown to err.
  • Against Heresies 2.28.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Calling the Creator a product of ignorance is blasphemy; the heretics wrongly ascribe human processes of thought and speech to God.
  • Against Heresies 2.28.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God is wholly Mind and Word without parts; those who describe the Word's generation like human speech know neither God nor man.
  • Against Heresies 2.28.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Even the Son left the day of judgment to the Father; the generation of the Son is unspeakable, known only to Father and Son.
  • Against Heresies 2.28.8Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Son left the knowledge of the day to the Father to teach us that the Father is above all and that some questions belong to God.
  • Against Heresies 2.30.9Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · There is one God, Creator and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, revealed through his Son, and no Pleroma or second God.
  • Against Heresies 3.6.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Scripture calls only the true God, the Father and the Son, God and Lord in the proper sense; others called gods are the adopted children.
  • Against Heresies 3.6.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Only the God who said “I am who I am”, and his Son who makes believers God's children, are called God and Lord.
  • Against Heresies 3.6.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Irenaeus prays to the God of Abraham, Father of Jesus Christ, that every reader may know him as the only God and avoid heresy.
  • Against Heresies 3.6.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul too distinguishes the so-called gods from the one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ.
  • Against Heresies 3.8.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · All creatures, including the angelic powers, were made by God through his Word; only the Creator with his Word is properly called God and Lord.
  • Against Heresies 3.9.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Matthew shows that John the Baptist preached the God of Abraham, who sent his Word incarnate to be seen by all flesh.
  • Against Heresies 3.11.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The invisible Father is made known by the Son; so Nathanael and Peter came to know Christ as Son of God.
  • Against Heresies 3.13.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The apostles to whom the Lord revealed the Father, and Peter to whom the Father revealed the Son, knew the truth as Paul did.
  • Against Heresies 3.15.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The apostles and their disciples confessed only the true God, the Creator who gave the law, and his Word.
  • Against Heresies 3.18.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul knows only one Christ, the one born, crucified, buried and risen; the very name Christ implies the Father who anoints, the Son anointed, and the Spirit who is the anointing.
  • Against Heresies 4 pref. 4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Like the serpent with Eve, the heretics promise secret knowledge and lead people into death, blaspheming the Creator and denying the salvation of the flesh.
  • Against Heresies 4.4.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The law ran from Moses to John and Jerusalem’s legislation ended with the new covenant, for God does all things by measure; the Son is the Father’s measure.
  • Against Heresies 4.6.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Father is known only through the Son, whose manifestation is the knowledge of the Father, so no Father other than the one he reveals may be accepted.
  • Against Heresies 4.6.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Creation, the law and the prophets, and the incarnate Word all reveal the Father; even demons named the Son, but not all believe.
  • Against Heresies 4.6.7Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · All, friend and foe, testify that Christ is truly man and truly God; the Son has revealed the Father from the beginning, not only since his birth from Mary.
  • Against Heresies 4.7.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Jews erred in seeking the Father without the Word, who spoke to Abraham and Moses; the Son and the Spirit, not angels, serve the Father in creation.
  • Against Heresies 4.9.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · “Greater than the temple” implies the same kind of thing, not a different God; the fuller gifts of the new covenant come from the same Father, Christ, and Spirit.
  • Against Heresies 4.20.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God cannot be known in his greatness but is known through his love; he made man with his own hands, the Son and the Spirit, not through angels.
  • Against Heresies 4.20.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Son and Wisdom, that is, the Spirit, were with the Father before all creation, as Proverbs testifies.
  • Against Heresies 4.20.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The one Creator, unknown in his greatness, is known in his love through his Word, who became man to join man to God, as the prophets foretold.
  • Against Heresies 4.20.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God, invisible in his greatness, is seen through his love: prophetically through the Spirit, adoptively through the Son, and paternally in the kingdom; to see God is life.
  • Against Heresies 4.20.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets saw God in figures, through the Spirit’s gifts, the Lord’s coming, and the Father’s glories; God is invisible in his nature but known through his Word.
  • Against Heresies 4.20.7Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Word reveals the Father in due order, keeping the Father’s invisibility yet showing God to men; the glory of God is a living man, and man’s life is the vision of God.
  • Against Heresies 4.20.11Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Father is invisible; the Word showed his glory in many forms: in the furnace, as the stone, as the Son of Man, and in John’s visions of the glorified Christ and the Lamb.
  • Against Heresies 4.20.12Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets foretold Christ by actions: Hosea’s marriage, Moses’ Ethiopian wife, and Rahab, figures of the Church gathered from sinners and gentiles.
  • Against Heresies 4.33.7Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The spiritual man will judge schismatics who divide Christ’s body and all outside the Church; his own faith in Father, Son, and Spirit is consistent throughout.
  • Against Heresies 4.33.15Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The truly spiritual man interprets all the prophecies by the one dispensation of the one God, Word, and Spirit, judging all and judged by none.
  • Against Heresies 4.38.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Created man grows by stages toward the uncreated God, the Father planning, the Son forming, the Spirit nourishing, until he sees God and receives incorruption.
  • Against Heresies 5.18.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Father over all, the Word through all, and the Spirit in us all show one God; John’s prologue proves the world was made by the Word, not by angels or a Gnostic power.
  • Against Heresies 5.36.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The elders teach that the saved receive different dwellings according to their fruitfulness and ascend through the Spirit to the Son and through the Son to the Father, until God is all in all.
  • Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
  • Prophetic Extracts 13.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The two or three witnesses are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who witness and help us keep the commandments.
  • Prophetic Extracts 21.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · No thought of God is worthy of him, but we may think of him as unapproachable light, all-good, compassionate, impassible, and all-knowing.
  • Prophetic Extracts 26.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · When God is called a consuming fire,
  • Prophetic Extracts 26.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · it signifies his power, not evil: as fire is the strongest element, God is almighty over all.
  • Prophetic Extracts 26.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Fire has two powers, life-giving like the sun and destructive like earthly fire.
  • Prophetic Extracts 26.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · God as consuming fire means a strong, irresistible power that can destroy.
  • Prophetic Extracts 29.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Knowledge of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and the soul is necessary for salvation.
  • Excerpts from Theodotus 8.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Clement's view: the Word is God in God, in the Father's bosom, undivided, one God.
  • Excerpts from Theodotus 24.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Clement answers that the Spirit at work in the church is the same Spirit who worked in the old covenant.
  • Excerpts from Theodotus 76.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Christ commands the apostles to preach and to baptize believers in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
  • Excerpts from Theodotus 80.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Sealed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the baptized is beyond all hostile powers and bears the heavenly image.
  • Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 6.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Called “good,” Jesus turns the questioner to God, the only Good, who gives eternal life through the Son.
  • Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 34.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The humble body hides from death and the devil the treasure within, guarded by the Father, the blood of the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
  • Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 37.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Contemplate the mysteries of love and you will see the Father's bosom, revealed by the only-begotten God; God is love and became visible to us out of love.
  • Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 37.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · In God, the ineffable is Father, and his compassion toward us is motherly: in loving, the Father became like a mother.
  • Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.20Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Doxology to the Father through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
  • Miscellanies 2.2.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Christian philosophy is perfect: Wisdom speaks of knowledge of nature and of hidden things; it leads to God, who is far in essence but near in power, seeing all things.
  • Miscellanies 2.2.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Moses, knowing God cannot be known by human wisdom, entered the darkness, that is, the formless thoughts about God, who is beyond place and time and cannot be contained.
  • Miscellanies 2.4.14Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Only faith reaches the first principle of all things, which the Greek philosophers never knew; knowledge is demonstrative, but faith is a grace that rises to the simple, immaterial God.
  • Miscellanies 3.10.68Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · “Where two or three are gathered” may mean husband, wife, and child, since God joins them; the heretics set the Creator with the many and the Savior with the one elect, but the same God is with the married and the celibate.
  • Miscellanies 4.25.156Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God the Father is beyond demonstration, but the Son is wisdom, knowledge, and truth, open to demonstration; all the Spirit's powers are united in him, not as parts but as one, a circle of all powers.
  • Miscellanies 5.1.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Book 5 opens on faith: faith and knowledge cannot be separated, as the Father cannot be without the Son; we believe the Son to know the Father; Christians believe and know what most disbelieve and do not know.
  • Miscellanies 5.6.38Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The high priest's headdress signifies that God is head of Christ; the breastpiece's parts signify work and the Word; its twelve stones the zodiac or the righteous of both covenants; the Name on the gold plate is the Son, image of the invisible God, beginning of all things.
  • Miscellanies 5.14.102Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Democritus, Pindar, and Plato all hint at one supreme God, the Father and Maker, and Plato even seems to speak of the Father and the Son.
  • Miscellanies 5.14.103Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement reads Plato's “king of all” with a second and a third as a hint of the Trinity, and Plato's tale of Er, whom he identifies with Zoroaster, as a hint of the resurrection or the soul's ascent; Empedocles speaks of a final change of all things into fire.
  • Miscellanies 5.14.116Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement finds hints of the Father and the Son in lines of Homer, in Orpheus, and in Xenocrates' highest and lowest Zeus.
  • Miscellanies 6.7.58Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The first teacher of all, men and angels alike, is the first-begotten Son, God's Wisdom and counselor, who has taught in many ways from the beginning; so Christ says to call no one on earth teacher.
  • Octavius 18.7Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · As nature has single rulers, so the one eternal God rules all by his word.
  • Apology 21Tertullian · ca. 197 · Tertullian explains the relation of Christians to the Jews and sets out who Christ is: the Word and Son of God, God from God, born of a virgin, crucified, risen, and ascended.
  • On Baptism 6Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Baptism in water prepares for the Holy Spirit, as John prepared Christ's way; faith is sealed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the church, the body of the three, is confessed with them.
  • On Prayer 2Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · In calling God “Father” we honor him, fulfill Christ's command, and acknowledge the Son and the church, our mother, while rebuking those who do not know the Father.
  • On Prayer 25Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Though no hours of prayer are commanded, it is good to pray at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, as the apostles did, besides morning and evening prayer and prayer before meals and bathing.
  • Acts of Thomas 27Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas anoints the king and his brother with an invocation of the name of Christ and the Spirit, a radiant young man appears, and at dawn he gives them the Eucharist.
  • Acts of Thomas 121Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas anoints Mygdonia with oil, baptizes her in a spring in the name of the Trinity, and gives her the Eucharist of bread and a cup of water; Marcia too receives the seal.
  • Acts of Thomas 132Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas speaks of baptism as forgiveness of sins and new birth, anoints and baptizes Siphor's household in the name of the Trinity, and gives them the Eucharist with a prayer over the bread of life.
  • Acts of Thomas 157Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas blesses the oil, invoking the power of the olive tree akin to the tree of the cross, anoints Vazan and the women, and baptizes them in the name of the Trinity.
  • Acts of Thomas 170Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas's bones are gone, taken to Mesopotamia, but dust from his tomb heals the king's son; Misdaeus believes and joins the brothers under the presbyter Siphor; the Acts close with a doxology.
  • Bruce Codex, untitled work 21Anonymous · ca. 200–300 · A damaged section describes the unknowable Father, who made himself a place for his members and was praised as three who are one, and who formed the Man, member by member, after the pattern of the Pleroma.
  • Against Noetus 1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · Noetus of Smyrna taught that Christ was the Father himself; examined twice by the presbyters, he was expelled and founded a school.
  • Against Noetus 2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · The Noetians argue from texts on the one God that Christ, being God, is the Father, and so the Father suffered.
  • Against Noetus 3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · Like Theodotus, who made Christ a mere man, Noetus reads Scripture one-sidedly; one God does not abolish the economy.
  • Against Noetus 4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · Read 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.
  • Against Noetus 5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · Baruch's "Jacob" and "Israel", to whom God gave all knowledge and who appeared on earth, is the Son.
  • Against Noetus 6Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · Christ is God over all and Almighty because the Father has handed all things to him, yet he goes to his Father and God.
  • Against Noetus 7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · "I and the Father are one" shows two persons but one power; whoever has seen the Son, the image, knows the Father through him.
  • Against Noetus 8Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · Scripture compels confession of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three, while God is one in power.
  • Against Noetus 9Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · God is known only from the Scriptures, which must be believed as the Father wills, not by private choice.
  • Against Noetus 10Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · God, alone and yet never without his Word, begot the Word as Light from Light and made him visible to the world for its salvation.
  • Against Noetus 11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · The Word is "another" beside God not as a second God but as light from light; even the heretics must admit one cause of all.
  • Against Noetus 12Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · The 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.
  • Against Noetus 13Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · The Word that Jeremiah says was seen is the Word sent, as Peter says, in Jesus Christ.
  • Against Noetus 14Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · God 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.
  • Against Noetus 15Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · The 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.
  • Against Noetus 16Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · The 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.
  • Against Noetus 17Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · According to the apostles' tradition, God the Word came down into the Virgin Mary, took flesh and a rational soul, and truly became man.
  • On Proverbs, fragment 25Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · On Prov 30:21–23: the earth is shaken by the threefold coming through law, prophets and gospel, and cannot bear the fourth, the coming of the judge.
  • On Proverbs, fragment 48Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · A running interpretation of Prov 30:17–31 (LXX 24:52–66): the ways of the man in youth, the adulteress, the four things the earth cannot bear, the lizard, the locust, and the four stately things all point to Christ, the church, and the nations.
  • On the Holy Theophany 9Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · The Spirit who moved over the waters at creation, inspired the prophets, came on Christ and the apostles, and established the church is sent to make the believer a child of God.
  • Arabic Pentateuch fragment XXIHippolytus of Rome · unknown (transmitted in a medieval Arabic catena) · The catena reads the three cities of refuge as a figure of the Holy Trinity, and recounts legends of how the land east of the Jordan passed from people to people until Israel took it from Sihon.
  • Against All Heresies 7Anonymous · early 3rd cent. (disputed) · The author describes Tatian, who denied Adam's salvation, and the Montanists (Cataphrygians) in their two branches, those of Proclus and those of Aeschines.
  • Against All Heresies 8Anonymous · early 3rd cent. (disputed) · The author ends with Blastus, who kept the Passover on the fourteenth, the two Theodoti, who held Christ to be a mere man (one ranking him below Melchizedek), and Praxeas, who identified the Son with the Father.
  • Against Hermogenes 18Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · If God needed any material, he had his own Wisdom, born within him before creation; but Hermogenes, by making matter unborn, ranks it above the Son, God's Word.
  • Prescription against Heretics 13Tertullian · ca. 203 · Tertullian states the rule of faith: one Creator God, his Word and Son born of the virgin Mary, crucified, risen, ascended, sending the Spirit, and coming to judge, with the resurrection of the flesh.
  • Prescription against Heretics 28Tertullian · ca. 203 · If the churches had erred, their errors would differ; the agreement of so many churches in one faith shows it is tradition, not error.
  • Fragment 45 on Genesis (Gen. 49, 24%)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-235 · The persecutors' strength has been undone by the power of the Father and the Son.
  • Commentary on Daniel 4.11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 7:13–14: the Son of Man receives an everlasting kingdom from the Ancient of Days, the Father; he is firstborn from God, before the angels, from the virgin, and from the dead.
  • On the Flesh of Christ 18Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · The Son of God needed no human father, having God as Father, but took real flesh from his human mother; as he said, what is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
  • Against Marcion 2.27Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · God's human-like actions in the Old Testament belong to the Son, the Word who from the beginning dealt with patriarchs and prophets and was preparing to become man; the invisible Father is never seen, and God's humility is the means of human salvation.
  • On Modesty 21Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Forgiving grave sins belongs to God's power, not to church discipline; Christ's word to Peter was personal to him, and the church that forgives is the church of the Spirit acting through spiritual men, not the bishops.
  • Against Praxeas 1Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Praxeas brought to Rome the heresy that the Father himself was born and suffered, and also turned the bishop of Rome against the New Prophecy; Tertullian announces his refutation.
  • Against Praxeas 2Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Against Praxeas, Tertullian sets out the rule of faith: one God under an “economy,” Father, Son, and Spirit, three in degree, form, and aspect but one in substance, condition, and power.
  • Against Praxeas 3Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Simple believers fear that the Trinity divides God's “monarchy,” but a monarchy is not destroyed by being administered through a son or through officers; it is overthrown only when a rival god is set against the Creator.
  • Against Praxeas 4Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Because the Son comes from the Father's substance and will hand the kingdom back to the Father, as Paul says, the Trinity preserves the monarchy; the same passage shows that Father and Son are two.
  • Against Praxeas 5Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Before creation God was never alone, for he had within himself his Reason, which is also his Word; as reason and inner speech in the human mind, the Word was a second with God.
  • Against Praxeas 6Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Scripture calls the Word “Wisdom,” begotten before creation and present with God in making the world; when God willed to create, he first put forth the Word, through whom all things were made.
  • Against Praxeas 7Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The Word, conceived in God's mind as Wisdom, was fully born when God spoke at creation; he is not an empty sound but a real substance and person, the Son, second to the Father.
  • Against Praxeas 8Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The Son was “put forth” from the Father, not separated as in Valentinus' system, but as a shoot from a root, a river from a spring, a ray from the sun; the Spirit is third, and the Trinity preserves the monarchy.
  • Against Praxeas 9Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct but not divided: the Son is “another” by distinction, not separation; Christ himself calls the Paraclete “another Advocate.”
  • Against Praxeas 10Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · No one can be his own father or son; the Monarchians' claim that God made himself his own Son abolishes both Father and Son, and God's omnipotence proves nothing unless Scripture shows he did it.
  • Against Praxeas 11Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Praxeas must show from Scripture that God is his own Son; instead Scripture everywhere distinguishes the one who speaks, the one spoken to, and the one spoken of, showing the three persons.
  • Against Praxeas 12Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · God's plural “Let us make man” and “one of us” show that the Word and the Spirit were with him; in creation one person commands and another makes, one substance in three persons, distinct but not divided.
  • Against Praxeas 13Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Scripture calls both Father and Son “God” and “Lord,” yet Christians do not speak of two gods: the one name was used in the Old Testament so that Christ might be recognized as God, and it is now kept as one, as sun and ray are one substance.
  • Against Praxeas 14Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · God said no one could see his face and live, yet patriarchs and prophets saw God and lived: the invisible one is the Father, while the Son was seen, in visions and figures, before his incarnation.
  • Against Praxeas 15Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The New Testament too distinguishes the invisible Father, whom no one has seen, from the visible Son, whom the apostles saw and touched; the Son was always the one seen and always acted by the Father's will.
  • Against Praxeas 16Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · From the beginning it was the Son, not the Father, who acted in history, judged, appeared to Adam, Abraham, Moses, and in the furnace, and took on human feelings; the invisible Father did none of these things.
  • Against Praxeas 17Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The divine names, God Almighty, Most High, Lord of hosts, King of Israel, He Who Is, belong to the Son too, since he came in the Father's name and received all things from him.
  • Against Praxeas 18Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · When Scripture says there is only one God, it excludes idols and false gods, not the Son, who is included in the Father as the ray in the sun.
  • Against Praxeas 19Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · God “alone” stretched out the heavens in contrast to angels and other powers, not to his Wisdom and Word, the Son, who made all things with him; Father and Son are two by arrangement, not separation, and remain one God.
  • Against Praxeas 20Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Monarchians rely on three sayings of Jesus against the whole of Scripture; but the few must be read in the light of the many and the earlier.
  • Against Praxeas 21Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · John's Gospel from its first verse distinguishes the Word from God the Father; throughout, Jesus speaks of the Father as another who sent him, loves him, gives him judgment and life, and draws believers to him.
  • Against Praxeas 22Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Throughout John 7–10 Jesus speaks of the Father who sent him as another witness; “I and the Father are one” uses the neuter “one thing,” not “one person,” and so shows two united, not one.
  • Against Praxeas 23Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · At Lazarus' tomb and in the voice from heaven, Son and Father speak to each other, the Son on earth and the Father in heaven; they are two persons, not one God changing roles, and it was the Son, not the Father, who was betrayed and glorified.
  • Against Praxeas 24Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · When Jesus tells Philip “he who has seen me has seen the Father,” he means that the invisible Father is known through the Son's works and words, not that he himself is the Father; he says “I am in the Father,” not “I am the Father.”
  • Against Praxeas 25Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · In John's Gospel Christ promises “another” Paraclete, calls the Father the vinedresser, and after the resurrection speaks of ascending “to my Father and your Father”; the Gospel itself says it was written so that we might believe that Jesus is the Son.
  • Against Praxeas 26Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The other Gospels confirm that Christ is the Son: the angel announces the Spirit and power of the Most High coming upon Mary, and Jesus throughout speaks of the Father as another, ending with baptism into three names, by triple immersion.
  • Against Praxeas 27Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Praxeas' followers split Jesus (the flesh, the Son) from Christ (the Spirit, the Father); Tertullian answers that the Word did not change into flesh but put it on, so that Jesus is one person with two substances, God and man, unconfused, each acting in its own way.
  • Against Praxeas 28Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · “Christ” means “anointed,” a title, not a proper name; Scripture shows that the Father anointed the Son, and if Christ were the Father there would have to be another God above him.
  • Against Praxeas 29Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Christ died in his human, not his divine, substance; the Monarchians blaspheme by making the Father suffer and be accursed, and even their claim that the Father “suffered with” the Son makes him passible.
  • Against Praxeas 30Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Christ's cry “My God, why have you forsaken me?” shows that the Son, not the Father, suffered and died; the Son rose, ascended, sits at the Father's right hand, and poured out the Holy Spirit, the third person.
  • Against Praxeas 31Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · To believe in one God without the Son and the Spirit is the Jewish faith; the gospel reveals one God in three persons, and those who confuse Father and Son deny both, like the antichrists John condemns.
  • On First Principles 0.0.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Rufinus says that Origen's books were corrupted by heretics, and that he has passed over or recast statements on the Trinity and added explanations drawn from Origen's other works.
  • On First Principles 1.0.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The apostolic teaching affirms one God, Creator and giver of both Testaments; Jesus Christ, born of the Father before creation, truly incarnate, dead and risen; and the Holy Spirit, equal in honour and the same in both Testaments.
  • On First Principles 1.1.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Holy Spirit is shared by many saints not as a divided body but as a sanctifying power, an intellectual subsistence that truly exists.
  • On First Principles 1.1.8Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Scripture confirms that God is by nature invisible; between Father and Son there is not seeing but knowing.
  • On First Principles 1.2.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Wisdom, the Son, is a real subsistence, begotten of the Father without any beginning in time or thought, and contains beforehand the forms of all creation.
  • On First Principles 1.2.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Wisdom is also the Word, the interpreter of the Father's mind; to give the Word a beginning is to deny that the Father was always Father.
  • On First Principles 1.2.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Son is the truth, life, way and resurrection of all things, and his generation from the Father is eternal and beyond comparison with any bodily begetting.
  • On First Principles 1.2.6Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Son is the invisible image of the invisible Father, begotten as will proceeds from mind, without division of the divine nature; whoever understands him understands the Father.
  • On First Principles 1.2.9Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Wisdom is the vapour of God's power, subsisting in its own right and having no beginning but God himself, so that Christ is power from power.
  • On First Principles 1.2.10Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · God has always been almighty, so there have always been beings over whom he rules; the Son shares the glory of omnipotence, by which all things are subjected through reason, not force.
  • On First Principles 1.2.11Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Wisdom as the brightness of eternal light shows that the Son comes from the Father without any beginning in time.
  • On First Principles 1.2.12Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Wisdom as the spotless mirror of God's working shows that the Son does the very same works as the Father, without any dissimilarity.
  • On First Principles 1.2.13Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Son is the image of the Father's goodness, with no second goodness in him; “No one is good but God” does not deny goodness to the Son or Spirit, who derive it from the Father as its fountain.
  • On First Principles 1.3.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Philosophers know of God and even of his Word, but the Holy Spirit is known only from Scripture; the Father is known from creation, the Son from both Testaments.
  • On First Principles 1.3.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Scripture teaches the Spirit's existence and dignity: he is named with the Father and the Son in baptism, and blasphemy against him is unforgivable.
  • On First Principles 1.3.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · All things were created by God, as Hermas also says; but no Scripture calls the Holy Spirit a creature, and the Spirit over the waters is the Holy Spirit.
  • On First Principles 1.3.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Like the Son, the Holy Spirit reveals the Father; he did not come from ignorance to knowledge, but was always the Holy Spirit within the unity of the Trinity.
  • On First Principles 1.3.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Salvation requires the whole Trinity: the Father and the Son work in all things, but the Holy Spirit only in those who turn to the good and walk in Christ's ways.
  • On First Principles 1.3.7Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Holy Spirit is given to the saints alone, yet this does not make him greater than the Father and the Son; the one power of the Trinity works in the different gifts.
  • On First Principles 1.3.8Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Rational beings receive existence from the Father, reason from the Word and holiness from the Spirit, and so advance toward the blessed life; but even the perfect may, through satiety, gradually slip.
  • On First Principles 1.4.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Trinity, the good and creative power, was never idle, so it seems there were always creatures on whom God bestowed his benefits.
  • On First Principles 1.4.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Since creatures cannot be coeternal with God, Origen proposes that the creation was always present, as a prefiguration, in God's Wisdom, the eternal Son.
  • On First Principles 1.4.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · So creatures are neither coeternal with God, nor did God begin to create after doing nothing: all things existed always in Wisdom by prefiguration, as Ecclesiastes suggests.
  • On First Principles 1.8.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Every rational creature, even the devil, is capable of good and evil; only God, Christ and the Holy Spirit are good by nature, while creatures hold holiness, righteousness and wisdom as accidents.
  • On First Principles 2.2.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Some ask whether bodily matter is joined to rational natures as eternally as the Son and the Spirit are to the Father, or will cease when its service is over.
  • On First Principles 2.4.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The heretics' claim that the Creator was seen while the Father is invisible fails: God is incorporeal and invisible, and between Father and Son, as for Moses, there is knowing rather than seeing.
  • On First Principles 2.7.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The same Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, was in the prophets and the apostles; not even the heretics who divide God and Christ claim two Holy Spirits.
  • On First Principles 2.7.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Holy Spirit gives different gifts to each; some who misunderstood his title Paraclete compared him to base spirits and forbade marriage.
  • On First Principles 2.7.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Spirit is called Paraclete from consolation, teaching what cannot be uttered, while the Saviour is called Paraclete as advocate with the Father.
  • On First Principles 3.5.8Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The subjection of all to God will come about not by force but by teaching, persuasion and fitting threats, in ways known only to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
  • On First Principles 4.2.7Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Spirit revealed to the prophets and apostles the mysteries of God, of the incarnation, of rational creatures, of the world and of evil, and they wrote them down figuratively for those who seek with discipline.
  • On First Principles 4.3.14Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The divine meaning lies hidden in the humble letter, and no created mind, not even the highest powers, can fully grasp God's ways; only the Son and the Spirit, figured by Isaiah's two seraphim, know the beginning and end of all things.
  • On First Principles 4.3.15Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Meaning matters more than words: the Greeks' “incorporeal” is Scripture's “invisible,” and the Trinity is wholly incorporeal; Scripture must be judged by the Spirit who inspired it, not by its humble language.
  • On First Principles 4.4.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The recapitulation begins: the Son is begotten of the incorporeal Father without emission or passion, as will from mind and radiance from light, so there was never a time when he was not; and he is contained in no place.
  • On First Principles 4.4.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · All things were created through the Son, as Colossians, John and Psalm 33 show; in the incarnation his divinity was neither confined to his body nor separated from the Father, as the Baptist's words 'among you stands one' imply.
  • On First Principles 4.4.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Some apply Philippians 2 to Christ's soul; all rational beings, souls and angels alike, need participation in the one incorporeal Trinity; Origen turns to the question of 'matter'.
  • On First Principles 4.4.9Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Since rational beings share, in differing degrees, in the intellectual light of the eternal Trinity, the human soul is of one nature with the heavenly powers and is immortal, always keeping seeds of renewal.
  • Fragments on Genesis, column 109Origen · ca. 220-254 · Why Canaan, not Ham, was cursed; God's mercy toward the young after the flood; Noah's drunkenness; Nimrod the hunter; “one lip” answers those who deny the Son's own hypostasis.
  • Fragments on Luke, column 353Origen · ca. 220-254 · Martha and Mary stand for action and contemplation, or for Jewish and free believers; the Lord's Prayer and the parable of the friend at midnight are expounded.
  • Fragments on Luke, column 357Origen · ca. 220-254 · God forgets no sparrow, though the soul that sinks to earthly things falls like one; the leaven hidden in three measures is the Holy Spirit given through Wisdom to body, soul and spirit.
  • Fragments on Proverbs, column 195Origen · ca. 220-254 · Wisdom's nests are the churches and the virtues; life is the holy Trinity; the devil, the crooked and lawless man, tries to separate the saints from God through the demons.
  • Fragments on Proverbs, column 203Origen · ca. 220-254 · Wisdom's river is the grace of the Spirit and the one Godhead; the sluggish are cast down by the fear of demons; only those who have heard from God should teach others.
  • Fragments on Proverbs, column 221Origen · ca. 220-254 · Be ready to give an account of your hope; the boundaries of the faith, above all of the Trinity, must not be moved; Scripture must be read spiritually, for the sense of the letter flies away from those who cling to it.
  • PG 12:1229 (Ps 17 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 18:11–15 (LXX 17:12–16): God’s tent is the flesh of Christ, or bodily nature through which the Creator is seen; his arrows, lightnings and rebukes are healing, revealing the springs of living water and the foundations of the world, which are the holy Trinity or the saints on whom believers are built.
  • PG 12:1265 (Ps 22–23 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of Ps 22 LXX (23) and beginning of Ps 23 LXX (24): the earth filled by Christ’s coming, the church as the inhabited world, and the ascent to the mountain of the Lord.
  • PG 12:1279 (Ps 26 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 26 LXX (27):4–5: the house of the Lord as the church, the tent as progress and the house as perfection, and the rock as Christ.
  • PG 12:1385 (Ps 38 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 38 LXX (39):5–14: the knowledge of the Trinity as the end of rational nature, walking in God’s image or a beast’s, and life on earth as sojourning.
  • PG 12:1457 (Ps 52–53 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of Ps 52 LXX (53) (who is a men-pleaser; salvation out of Zion) and Ps 53 LXX (54): the structure of the prayer and its thanksgiving, and the Father and the Son as helpers.
  • PG 12:1461 (Ps 54 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 54 LXX (55):4–9: sins of thought kept within, the passions that remain in human nature, the dove’s wings as contemplation, and flight into the desert.
  • PG 12:1477 (Ps 60 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 60 LXX (61):2–6: Christ the rock and guide, the hope of the nations, the eternal tent and the state beyond it in the Trinity, and the inheritance of those who fear God.
  • PG 12:1649 (Ps 135 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 136:2–16 (LXX 135): God of gods by love and by creation, the Saviour God by essence and not by participation, the wonders of goodness, and the psalm read as the soul's journey from Egypt to knowledge.
  • PG 12:1667 (Ps 144–145 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 145 (LXX 144) and the beginning of Psalm 146 (LXX 145): the boundless greatness of God, the knowledge of the Trinity without limit, the destruction of the sinner as the destruction of his sin, and flesh in good and bad senses.
  • PG 12:1671 (Ps 147–148 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 147:13–18 (LXX 147) and Psalm 148:1–3: the bars of Jerusalem and Zion, the borders of peace, the Saviour as the grain of wheat, the Son in the flesh, and the Word who melts the snow of the rational nature.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 8.19.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Some Montanists side with the Noetians, saying the Father himself is the Son who was born and died.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 9.10.10Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Noetians say one God is invisible and visible, unbegotten and begotten, immortal and mortal, just as Heraclitus paired opposites.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 9.10.11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Noetus taught that the Father, by being born, became his own Son, so that Father and Son are one person under two names at different times.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 9.10.12Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Cleomenes and his followers say that the one crucified, buried, and raised is himself the God and Father of all.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 9.11.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Callistus had Zephyrinus make ambiguous public statements; when Hippolytus resisted, Callistus called his party “worshippers of two gods.”
  • Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.16Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Callistus devised a new teaching: the Word is the Son, and the same is called Father, one indivisible Spirit.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.17Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Callistus said Father and Son are one and the same, and that the Spirit incarnate in the virgin is the Father, citing John 14:10.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.18Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · For Callistus the visible man is the Son and the Spirit in him is the Father; they are one God and one person, so the Father co-suffered with the Son.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.19Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus says Callistus avoids saying the Father suffered but wavers between Sabellius and Theodotus.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 10.26.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Some Montanists follow Noetus, saying the Father of all is himself the Son, visible and invisible, mortal and immortal.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 10.27.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Summary of Noetus: the one Father and God of all made everything and was invisible or visible as he willed.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 10.27.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · For Noetus the one God is invisible or visible, unbegotten or born, impassible or suffering, and is called Son at different times.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 10.27.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Summary of Callistus: one God, Father and Son by name, one Spirit in substance; God is not other than the Word.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 10.27.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Callistus called the Word one God who became flesh, the visible flesh being the Son and the indwelling God the Father.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The one God first begot the Word, not a spoken word but the inner reason of all things, from his own being.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Word, the Father's firstborn, carried the Father's will and ideas and made the world at his command.
  • Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.8Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Word alone is from God himself and so is God; the world, made from nothing, is not God, and God made nothing evil.
  • Fragment 1 on John 1:1Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 1:1: the Son is called Word as maker of all; ‘was’ (not ‘became’) signifies his eternal existence before the incarnation; he was in the beginning of all creatures, and is the Wisdom ‘created as the beginning of God's ways’ in relation to creation.
  • Fragment 2 on John 1:4Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 1:3–4: the Word is not originate but is life by essence, begotten of the living Father; by relation he gives life and light to rational creatures, as the word of the Lord ‘came’ to the prophets.
  • Fragment 9 on John 1:14Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 1:14: ‘only-begotten from the Father’ means that the Son is from the Father's essence; he is full of grace and truth because he forgives all sins and fulfills every shadow of the law.
  • Fragment 14 on John 1:18Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 1:18: ‘in the bosom of the Father’ expresses the Son's intimacy with the Father in human terms, as the faithful rest in Abraham's bosom; no one sees God by his own power, but God reveals himself as creatures can receive him.
  • Fragment 18 on John 1:31Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 1:31–33: John knew Christ only by revelation; his seeing the Spirit descend as a dove and the heavens open was an intellectual, not sensible, vision; the Spirit remained on Jesus alone because he alone was sinless; and divine things must be understood spiritually.
  • Fragment 34 on John 3:5Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 3:5: to be born of water and Spirit is to be born from above; the water may be the Spirit itself, or cleansing teaching, but the body too is sanctified by the washing of regeneration, water made holy by invocation and joined to teaching and the Trinity; and ‘kingdom of God’ and ‘kingdom of heaven’ name the same reality.
  • Fragment 35 on John 3:8Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 3:8: the Spirit visits only the virtuous; it is a willing, acting essence, not merely an activity of God, as the Scriptures show; one who reads Scripture without understanding hears only its voice.
  • Fragment 48 on John 3:35Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 3:35–36: the Father loves the Son as Father, not as he loves the world; he gives all things into the Son's hand not to add to the Son but to heal creatures who strayed through sin, a gift fulfilled when every knee bows to him.
  • Commentary on John 1.57Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ is God the Word, second after the Father; blessed are those who receive these good things.
  • Commentary on John 1.89Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen prays for help and begins the commentary on John 1:1.
  • Commentary on John 1.93Origen · ca. 230–248 · No one yet fully knows the Father; that knowledge comes when all become one as the Son and the Father are one.
  • Commentary on John 1.102Origen · ca. 230–248 · God the Father is the beginning of the Son and of all things; the Word is “in the beginning” because he is in the Father.
  • Commentary on John 1.119Origen · ca. 230–248 · God is simple, but the Savior becomes many things according to creation's needs.
  • Commentary on John 1.151Origen · ca. 230–248 · Some treat the Word as a mere spoken utterance of the Father, denying him distinct subsistence.
  • Commentary on John 1.152Origen · ca. 230–248 · A spoken word cannot be a son; the Word must either lack subsistence or be a distinct divine being.
  • Commentary on John 1.204Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son's begetting is eternal, since for God it is always “today.”
  • Commentary on John 1.243Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ as God's wisdom is a real subsisting being, not a mere idea in God's mind.
  • Commentary on John 1.249Origen · ca. 230–248 · As the Father is Christ's head, perhaps he is also the sanctification of Christ, who is ours.
  • Commentary on John 1.252Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen asks whether the Father is righteousness for Christ as Christ is for us.
  • Commentary on John 1.253Origen · ca. 230–248 · The heretics' distinction between a just Creator and a good Father can be rightly applied to the Son as righteousness and the Father as goodness.
  • Commentary on John 1.277Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son is the Word because, as speech reveals the mind, he reveals the Father whom no creature can reach without him.
  • Commentary on John 1.283Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Father “belches forth” the Word as he breathes out the truths of his mind, making their imprint in the Son.
  • Commentary on John 1.289Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Word is always “in the beginning,” that is, in Wisdom, and so is with God and is God.
  • Commentary on John 1.291Origen · ca. 230–248 · Scripture speaks of many rational “powers,” and Christ is the highest, which shows that the Word is a distinct living being.
  • Commentary on John 1.292Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ is the Word as a distinct subsisting being in Wisdom, unlike the word in us.
  • Commentary on John 2.8Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Word “came” to the prophets but always “was” with God.
  • Commentary on John 2.9Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Word always was, both in the beginning and with God, before all time.
  • Commentary on John 2.12Origen · ca. 230–248 · The order of the clauses shows that the Word is God because he is with God.
  • Commentary on John 2.14Origen · ca. 230–248 · “The God” with the article means the Father; “God” without it is said of the Word.
  • Commentary on John 2.15Origen · ca. 230–248 · As the Father is “the God,” so Christ, the source of all reason, is “the Word.”
  • Commentary on John 2.16Origen · ca. 230–248 · The distinction between “the God” and “God” resolves the dilemma of those who either merge Father and Son or deny the Son's divinity.
  • Commentary on John 2.17Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Father alone is God in himself; the Son is God by being with him and shares divinity with other beings made divine.
  • Commentary on John 2.18Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son is the archetypal image of God and remains God by unceasing contemplation of the Father.
  • Commentary on John 2.19Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen will add a further distinction so that the Son's glory is not made equal to that of other “gods.”
  • Commentary on John 2.20Origen · ca. 230–248 · As the Father is the source of divinity, the Son is the source of reason in every rational being.
  • Commentary on John 2.24Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Father is God of the elect and of the true gods; the Word is God of those who rest wholly in him.
  • Commentary on John 2.72Origen · ca. 230–248 · If all things were made through the Word, they were made by one greater, the Father.
  • Commentary on John 2.73Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen asks whether the Holy Spirit came to be through the Word, since all things did.
  • Commentary on John 2.74Origen · ca. 230–248 · A third view denies that the Holy Spirit has its own being distinct from Father and Son.
  • Commentary on John 2.75Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen holds three subsistences, Father, Son, and Spirit, with the Spirit first of all that came through the Word.
  • Commentary on John 2.76Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Spirit is not called Son, since only the Only-begotten is Son by nature; the Spirit receives its qualities through Christ.
  • Commentary on John 2.77Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Spirit supplies the “material” of God's gifts, worked by the Father and ministered by Christ.
  • Commentary on John 2.78Origen · ca. 230–248 · Paul's words on gifts, ministries, and workings support this view.
  • Commentary on John 2.79Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen raises the difficulty that Scripture sometimes seems to rank the Spirit above Christ.
  • Commentary on John 2.80Origen · ca. 230–248 · Sin against the Spirit is unforgivable not because the Spirit is greater than Christ, but because those who have received the Spirit have no excuse.
  • Commentary on John 2.81Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Spirit's sending Christ reflects the lowliness of the incarnation, not a higher nature.
  • Commentary on John 2.83Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen suggests the Spirit, unable itself to undertake the incarnation, joined the Father in sending the Son and promised to descend on him.
  • Commentary on John 2.84Origen · ca. 230–248 · At Jesus' baptism the Spirit descended like a dove and remained on him, as it had not remained on others.
  • Commentary on John 2.85Origen · ca. 230–248 · The sign given to John was the Spirit's remaining on Jesus, not only its descent.
  • Commentary on John 2.86Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen concludes that the Spirit came to be through the Word and is lower than him.
  • Commentary on John 2.87Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Gospel according to the Hebrews calls the Holy Spirit Christ's mother, which raises a question.
  • Commentary on John 2.88Origen · ca. 230–248 · Whoever does the Father's will is Christ's mother, so the Spirit may be called his mother above all.
  • Commentary on John 2.127Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Spirit is taught by the Son, but whether it receives all the Son knows needs inquiry.
  • Commentary on John 2.149Origen · ca. 230–248 · Some infer from both being called “light” that Father and Son are one in being; Origen distinguishes the two lights.
  • Commentary on John 2.150Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son's light contends with darkness; the Father's light has no contact with it.
  • Commentary on John 2.151Origen · ca. 230–248 · As the Father is greater than truth and wisdom, he surpasses the Son as “true light.”
  • Commentary on John 2.152Origen · ca. 230–248 · Psalm 36 speaks of two lights, Father and Son; the Son is the light of the world.
  • Commentary on John 2.163Origen · ca. 230–248 · Because Christ was made sin for us, “no darkness at all” belongs strictly to the Father alone.
  • Commentary on John 2.205Origen · ca. 230–248 · The prophets teach much about the Father and the Son, as the apostles do.
  • Commentary on John 2.217Origen · ca. 230–248 · The fifth testimony is John's witness to the Spirit's descent on Jesus.
  • Commentary on John 6.38Origen · ca. 230–248 · Truth itself, the Son, was begotten by God, not made through anyone.
  • Commentary on John 6.68Origen · ca. 230–248 · As God is called God of Abraham, the Holy Spirit can be called the spirit of Elijah.
  • Commentary on John 6.166Origen · ca. 230–248 · Baptism, like Christ's healings, is both a symbol of cleansing and, through the invocation of the Trinity, a real source of divine gifts.
  • Commentary on John 6.188Origen · ca. 230–248 · “Among you stands one you do not know” refers to the Word, who as Wisdom pervades all creation.
  • Commentary on John 6.193Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Father stands unchanging; the Word also stands, saving and teaching, inviting all to drink from him.
  • Commentary on John 6.200Origen · ca. 230–248 · Heracleon made the world's Creator inferior to Christ; Origen answers that the Creator is the Father, the only good God, greater than the Son he sent.
  • Commentary on John 6.202Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen asks whether God fills the world through the Word pervading it, or whether the Father, who encompasses creation, granted this to the Son.
  • Commentary on John 6.203Origen · ca. 230–248 · The power that moves the heavens can only be the Father and the Son; the next verse reads “These things took place in Bethabara.”
  • Commentary on John 6.249Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Nile is the dragon's (the devil's) place, while God is in the river that gladdens his city, since the Father is in the Son.
  • Commentary on John 6.295Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ did the Father's will, as the image of his goodness, reconciling the world step by step until all his enemies are subdued.
  • Commentary on John 10.47Origen · ca. 230–248 · After the end, the Son in his prior glory is with them until all enemies are subdued; then the Father himself will be with them.
  • Commentary on John 10.216Origen · ca. 230–248 · Against Heracleon: Jesus calls the Jerusalem temple his Father's house, so his Father is the Creator of heaven and earth.
  • Commentary on John 10.217Origen · ca. 230–248 · The angel sent the apostles into this temple to preach.
  • Commentary on John 10.218Origen · ca. 230–248 · The apostles prayed at the temple because they knew its God was theirs.
  • Commentary on John 10.219Origen · ca. 230–248 · The apostles proclaim that the God of their fathers, whom Jesus called the God of Abraham, raised him.
  • Commentary on John 10.220Origen · ca. 230–248 · The disciples' recalling Psalm 69 shows the temple belonged to Christ's God; the psalm has the past tense.
  • Commentary on John 10.246Origen · ca. 230–248 · Against those who merge Father and Son into one subject, Origen insists that Scripture shows them distinct, as Father of a Son and Son of a Father.
  • Commentary on John 10.247Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son raised his own body because the Father, who primarily raised Christ, granted it, for the Son does what he sees the Father do.
  • Commentary on John 13.19Origen · ca. 230–248 · The spring may leap even beyond eternal life to the Father, who is greater than Christ, the life.
  • Commentary on John 13.105Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Jews offered their sacrifices to the Creator of all.
  • Commentary on John 13.106Origen · ca. 230–248 · Since salvation is from the Jews, the heretics cannot deny the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
  • Commentary on John 13.123Origen · ca. 230–248 · Philosophers dispute whether God is bodily, incorporeal, or beyond being; what does Scripture say?
  • Commentary on John 13.124Origen · ca. 230–248 · Scripture calls God spirit, consuming fire, and light.
  • Commentary on John 13.125Origen · ca. 230–248 · Taken literally, these texts would make God a body, with absurd consequences that those who hold it cannot answer.
  • Commentary on John 13.127Origen · ca. 230–248 · If God were a material body, he would be changeable, since matter can take any quality.
  • Commentary on John 13.128Origen · ca. 230–248 · Some even say God is a perishable body who never perishes only because nothing can destroy him.
  • Commentary on John 13.129Origen · ca. 230–248 · If God were literally fire or breath, he would be perishable or changeable, which is absurd.
  • Commentary on John 13.130Origen · ca. 230–248 · We must either accept absurdities about God or interpret these words spiritually.
  • Commentary on John 13.131Origen · ca. 230–248 · As we read God's bodily features figuratively, so we must read “spirit,” “fire,” and “light.”
  • Commentary on John 13.132Origen · ca. 230–248 · “Light” is either bodily or spiritual, which Scripture calls invisible and the Greeks incorporeal.
  • Commentary on John 13.135Origen · ca. 230–248 · Does God as light illumine bodily eyes or the eyes of the mind?
  • Commentary on John 13.136Origen · ca. 230–248 · God, as light, illumines the minds of the worthy, not bodily eyes like the sun.
  • Commentary on John 13.137Origen · ca. 230–248 · God as light is intelligible and incorporeal; so too as consuming fire, which burns wood, hay, and stubble.
  • Commentary on John 13.139Origen · ca. 230–248 · God is called light and consuming fire by transferring these bodily terms to spiritual realities.
  • Commentary on John 13.140Origen · ca. 230–248 · God is called spirit because he gives true, divine life, as breath gives bodily life; the letter kills by separating the soul from God.
  • Commentary on John 13.141Origen · ca. 230–248 · Without God's Spirit one becomes earthly; receiving it, one is created anew.
  • Commentary on John 13.143Origen · ca. 230–248 · God's Spirit dwells in the souls of the holy, as the promise says.
  • Commentary on John 13.144Origen · ca. 230–248 · We need trained spiritual senses to understand how God is light, fire, and spirit.
  • Commentary on John 13.145Origen · ca. 230–248 · Elijah's vision (the Lord not in wind, earthquake, or fire but in a gentle breeze) also bears on how God is spirit and fire.
  • Commentary on John 13.146Origen · ca. 230–248 · Only the Son reveals the Father; through him we learn to worship in Spirit and truth, like the angels led by Christ, high priest after Melchizedek.
  • Commentary on John 13.149Origen · ca. 230–248 · It is impious to call worshipers “of the same substance” as the unbegotten God, especially when Heracleon says one of them fell into immorality.
  • Commentary on John 13.150Origen · ca. 230–248 · If a nature of God's substance could sin, their doctrine implies blasphemies about God himself.
  • Commentary on John 13.151Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ and the Holy Spirit surpass all created things beyond comparison, yet the Father surpasses them as much or more, as Jesus said, “The Father is greater than I.”
  • Commentary on John 13.152Origen · ca. 230–248 · Though the Son surpasses all beings, he is not comparable with the Father.
  • Commentary on John 13.153Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son is the image, radiance, and mirror of the Father's goodness, glory, and power, through whom we see God. Next lemma: John 4:25.
  • Commentary on John 13.219Origen · ca. 230–248 · Even Christ is nourished by the Father, who alone is self-sufficient.
  • Commentary on John 13.220Origen · ca. 230–248 · The crowds are fed by the disciples, the disciples by Jesus, and the Son by the Father alone.
  • Commentary on John 13.228Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son's food is doing the Father's will so fully that their wills are one, which is why he says, “I and the Father are one.”
  • Commentary on John 13.229Origen · ca. 230–248 · Doing the Father's will means sharing his very willing, not merely doing outward tasks.
  • Commentary on John 13.230Origen · ca. 230–248 · The whole of the Father's will is done when God's willing is present in the Son.
  • Commentary on John 13.231Origen · ca. 230–248 · Only the Son receives and does the Father's whole will, and so is his image; other holy beings do God's will but not all of it.
  • Commentary on John 13.232Origen · ca. 230–248 · Holy beings receive God's will in varying degrees; only Christ does all of it.
  • Commentary on John 13.233Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son does only what he sees the Father do.
  • Commentary on John 13.234Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son is the image of the invisible God: his will images the Father's will, his divinity the true divinity, his goodness the Father's goodness.
  • Commentary on John 13.235Origen · ca. 230–248 · The will concerns inner disposition; completing the work follows it.
  • Commentary on John 13.321Origen · ca. 230–248 · Perhaps “one” and “another” are the people of the law and the people of the gospel, who share one end in one God.
  • Commentary on John 19.26Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen asks whether one can know God without knowing him as Father.
  • Commentary on John 19.27Origen · ca. 230–248 · One may concede that Moses and the prophets, as servants, knew God as Lord rather than as Father, while holding it is the same God.
  • Commentary on John 19.28Origen · ca. 230–248 · No one in the Old Testament prays to God as “Father”; that belongs to the spirit of adoption Christ gives, though the perfect may have known it in secret.
  • Commentary on John 19.32Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Creator, God of the prophets, and Father of Christ is our God and Father.
  • Commentary on John 19.34Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen asks whether knowing the Father would imply knowing the Son, as the reverse holds.
  • Commentary on John 19.35Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Father is known only by ascending from the Son; one cannot see God except through the Word.
  • Commentary on John 19.36Origen · ca. 230–248 · Through Wisdom, created for God's works, one ascends to her Father.
  • Commentary on John 19.37Origen · ca. 230–248 · Likewise one first knows Christ as Truth, and so comes to see God's being, or what is beyond being.
  • Commentary on John 20.46Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son alone is an eyewitness of the Father; others know him by the Son's revelation.
  • Commentary on John 20.47Origen · ca. 230–248 · Now we see the Father in the Son, his image; one day some may see the Father directly, as the Son does.
  • Commentary on John 20.153Origen · ca. 230–248 · Before emptying himself, the Son was in the Father, and God was, as it were, his place.
  • Commentary on John 20.155Origen · ca. 230–248 · By taking the form of a servant the Son came forth to us, yet the Father remains with him and in him.
  • Commentary on John 20.156Origen · ca. 230–248 · Otherwise “coming forth” and “remaining in God” would contradict each other.
  • Commentary on John 20.157Origen · ca. 230–248 · Some take “came forth” to mean begotten from the Father's substance, as if God were diminished like a mother giving birth.
  • Commentary on John 20.158Origen · ca. 230–248 · That view makes Father and Son bodies and divides the Father, ignoring God's incorporeal nature.
  • Commentary on John 20.159Origen · ca. 230–248 · They make the Son's coming a change of place, not of state.
  • Commentary on John 20.263Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Holy Spirit does not speak from its own but from Christ.
  • Commentary on John 20.272Origen · ca. 230–248 · Or believing in the Creator but not as the Father of Jesus.
  • Commentary on John 20.351Origen · ca. 230–248 · But John 5:22 says the Father judges no one.
  • Commentary on John 20.352Origen · ca. 230–248 · John 5:30 helps: the Son judges as he hears from the Father.
  • Commentary on John 20.353Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son's judgment is really the Father's, since he judges as he hears.
  • Commentary on John 20.354Origen · ca. 230–248 · All that is the Son's is the Father's, including his judgment.
  • Commentary on John 20.355Origen · ca. 230–248 · So the difficulty is resolved.
  • Commentary on John 20.420Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son has life from the Father; he did not make himself what he is.
  • Commentary on John 28.69Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Father raised Lazarus; the Son woke him with his cry.
  • Commentary on John 28.71Origen · ca. 230–248 · Or the raising was the joint work of Father and Son, as John 11:25 and 5:21 show.
  • Commentary on John 28.123Origen · ca. 230–248 · Can the Spirit dwell in sinners, since only by the Spirit can one call Jesus Lord?
  • Commentary on John 28.127Origen · ca. 230–248 · On the other hand, the Spirit was “not yet” given before Jesus' glorification.
  • Commentary on John 28.128Origen · ca. 230–248 · If not even the apostles had the Spirit before the resurrection, Caiaphas surely did not.
  • Commentary on John 32.32Origen · ca. 230–248 · Paul says all things are subjected to Christ, except the Father who subjected them.
  • Commentary on John 32.187Origen · ca. 230–248 · The first article of faith: one God, creator of all from nothing.
  • Commentary on John 32.189Origen · ca. 230–248 · One must believe in the Holy Spirit and in free will with judgment.
  • Commentary on John 32.212Origen · ca. 230–248 · Receiving Christ's messenger means receiving Christ and the Father.
  • Commentary on John 32.213Origen · ca. 230–248 · Receiving Christ directly, not through human messengers, brings the Father to dwell in the soul too.
  • Commentary on John 32.321Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ cannot be glorified without the Father being glorified in him.
  • Commentary on John 32.345Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son is glorified by his perfect knowledge of the Father.
  • Commentary on John 32.349Origen · ca. 230–248 · God is glorified in the Son; Origen ventures a bold inquiry into this.
  • Commentary on John 32.350Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen asks whether God is glorified even more in himself, delighting in his own self-knowledge.
  • Commentary on John 32.351Origen · ca. 230–248 · Human words cannot properly describe God; only God and his Son can speak of him properly.
  • Commentary on John 32.352Origen · ca. 230–248 · God is glorified also in the Holy Spirit and in all who see his glory.
  • Commentary on John 32.359Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son reveals the Father, who is seen in him as the original is seen in its image.
  • Commentary on John 32.363Origen · ca. 230–248 · In return the Father glorifies the Son in himself, a greater gift.
  • Commentary on John 32.364Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Father's glorifying of the Son surpasses the Son's glorifying of the Father.
  • Commentary on John 32.365Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Father repays the Son by glorifying him in himself, and soon.
  • On Prayer 15.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen argues that prayer in the strict sense should be addressed only to the Father, not to Christ, but always through Christ the High Priest.
  • On Prayer 15.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer is to be addressed to the Father, but always through and in the name of Jesus, as he taught.
  • On Prayer 15.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen imagines Christ saying: do not pray to me but to the Father, through me as your High Priest and brother.
  • On Prayer 16.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christians should not be divided by praying some to the Father and some to the Son, but should pray to God through Christ, serving him out of love rather than fear.
  • On Prayer 33.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen outlines the parts of prayer: begin with praise of God through Christ in the Holy Spirit, then thanksgiving, confession, requests for heavenly things, and end with praise.
  • On Prayer 33.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer should begin and end with praise of the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.
  • Homily on Luke 25Origen · ca. 233–250 · The people’s suspicion that John was the Christ shows the danger of love without measure, seen also in excessive claims made for Paul and for Origen himself; God alone is to be loved with the whole heart, and Christ is loved in the Father and the Father in him.
  • Homily on Isaiah 1Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen reads Uzziah's death as the death of sin's rule in the soul, interprets the two seraphim as the Son and the Holy Spirit covering God's beginning and end, and applies the cleansing of Isaiah's lips to the hearers.
  • Homily on Isaiah 3Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen reads the seven women of Isa 4:1 as the sevenfold Spirit of Isa 11:2, reproached by false wisdom, which rested fully only on Jesus, the shoot of Jesse, whose name they take.
  • Homily on Isaiah 4Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen returns to Isaiah's vision: God's beginning and end are hidden, the seraphim proclaim the threefold holiness, God's glory fills the earth through holy lives, and the burning coal from the altar is Christ's purifying word.
  • Homily on 1 Samuel 1.13Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · We may speak lofty things only of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; pagans with many gods and heretics who invent a higher god than the Creator “multiply lofty things.”
  • Homilies on Exodus 6.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Persecutors are horses ridden by demons, as Judas was once ridden by the Lord and then by Satan; “the God of my father” is the God of Christ, who calls the Father his God to safeguard the oneness of God.
  • Homilies on Exodus 6.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · No one called “god” by grace is like God, for none but the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit is invisible, incorporeal, unchangeable, without beginning or end, and Creator of all.
  • Homilies on Exodus 8.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Serving and worshipping differ and both are forbidden; at baptism we renounce all other gods, and a soul that returns to Christ, its lawful husband, must keep wholly faithful lest the unclean spirit return.
  • Homilies on Exodus 9.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Each believer can build the tabernacle within himself, with silver pillars of patience, an inner altar for sacrificing pride, anger, and lust, a lampstand of watchfulness, and a ruling mind that serves as high priest.
  • Homilies on Ezekiel 4.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Daniel, a eunuch, had sons only in a spiritual sense; so too believers become sons of the saints, of Christ, and of the Father by imitating their virtues.
  • Homilies on Joshua 3.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The two and a half and nine and a half tribes show that the faithful under the law knew the Trinity only in part, and that perfection comes only with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
  • Homilies on Leviticus 7.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The 'breast of segregation' is knowledge of the Trinity, set apart from all creation, which Christ possesses and reveals to the apostles; the 'shoulder of separation' is surpassing works, such as Christ's doing the Father's will.
  • Homilies on Leviticus 7.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Paul's calling the law's food and drink 'spiritual' and 'a shadow', and Peter's vision at Joppa, interpreted by him as meaning that no human being is common or unclean, show that the clean and unclean animals signify people.
  • Homilies on Leviticus 13.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Each loaf of 'two tenths' figures the confession of Father and Son as one substance yet two distinct persons, against heretics who separate them; the twelve loaves stand for the orders of rational creation.
  • Homilies on Numbers 10.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Priests must keep both the outward commands and the hidden mysteries within the veil, and in each person the inner sanctuary is the heart, where prayer, the knowledge of the Trinity, and God's law written on the mind are to be guarded.
  • Homilies on Numbers 11.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Only the Trinity is holy by nature; creatures are “sanctified holy,” and the firstfruits we offer are the highest forms of the Spirit's fruits, such as loving God with the whole heart and rejoicing in God's word.
  • Homilies on Numbers 12.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The many wells and one spring of Proverbs signify the three persons and one substance of the Trinity; the soul's wells must be dug clear of earth, and the law gathers us to the well that is Christ.
  • Homilies on Numbers 18.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen reads “I give you counsel” as “I make known to you God’s counsel,” comparing Paul’s “who has been his counsellor?”, which he applies to the Son and the Holy Spirit as sharers in the Father’s counsel.
  • Homilies on Psalms 36-38 4.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · From Moses “going aside” to see the burning bush, Origen teaches that one must pass beyond worldly things and each vice to see the “great sight” of God; the Lord directs our steps on the middle way, Christ, so that we turn neither to the left with literalist heretics nor to the right with those who abandon the apostolic rule of truth.
  • Homilies on Jeremiah 8.1Origen · ca. 240 · God made the earth by strength, the world by wisdom, the heaven by understanding; the soul is an inhabited world when Father, Son, and Spirit dwell in it, and the fallen world is set upright by God's wisdom in Christ.
  • Homilies on Jeremiah 18.9Origen · ca. 240 · The three waters of the text, from the rock, from Lebanon, and driven by the wind, are Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit; Jews, heretics, and despisers of prophecy each fail to drink because they thirst for only one or two, and God never withdraws from us, but we from him.
  • Lines 73–96Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The poet warns the hard-hearted, sets before them the choice between poison and life, and begins to tell who God is.
  • Lines 261–284Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The prophets foretold Christ's crucifixion (David, Solomon, Jeremiah, Moses); the one God came as the Son and was born in the flesh.
  • Lines 357–380Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The crucifixion of the Creator seems folly, but God came thus by his own counsel, calling himself the Son, as the prophets foretold that God would appear on earth.
  • Lines 789–812Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · At the end of six thousand years the dead will rise incorrupt and see what was promised; the end will begin with the seventh persecution, the Goths' invasion, and King Apollyon.
  • Declaration of FaithGregory Thaumaturgus · 3rd century · A creed confessing one God the Father, one Lord the Son, and one Holy Spirit, a perfect and undivided Trinity in which nothing is created.
  • To Philagrius on the Consubstantiality, section 1Gregory Thaumaturgus · if authentic, ca. 240-275 · Gregory answers Philagrius's question whether the divine nature of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is simple or compound, and sets out to show from Scripture how three names fit one simple being.
  • To Philagrius on the Consubstantiality, section 2Gregory Thaumaturgus · if authentic, ca. 240-275 · God is a simple, indivisible and incorporeal substance.
  • To Philagrius on the Consubstantiality, section 3Gregory Thaumaturgus · if authentic, ca. 240-275 · The three names do not divide God's one essence: as the soul and the word it begets remain one, so the Son is never separated from the Father.
  • To Philagrius on the Consubstantiality, section 5Gregory Thaumaturgus · if authentic, ca. 240-275 · The Spirit is no more separated from the Father than thought from mind; the Son and the Spirit are like twin rays of the Father, the sun.
  • To Philagrius on the Consubstantiality, section 6Gregory Thaumaturgus · if authentic, ca. 240-275 · As one spring feeds two rivers without losing anything, the Father sends grace through the Son and the Spirit without diminution, for the divine essence is indivisible.
  • On the Trinity 1Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The rule of truth begins with faith in God the Father, the Creator of heaven, earth, sea, and man, whom he made free and gave a command, and of unseen realms above and below.
  • On the Trinity 12Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Hosea, Isaiah, and Habakkuk speak of God saving, coming, and working signs, which Christ fulfilled; so those who call Christ a mere man must either confess him God the Son or fall into Sabellianism.
  • On the Trinity 15Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Christ's sayings that he came from above, proceeded from God, gives immortality, existed before Abraham, and is one with the Father prove him God, yet the Son and not the Father.
  • On the Trinity 16Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Christ's promises of eternal life to believers, the Paraclete's receiving from him, his joining himself to the Father as object of faith, and his glory before the world prove him God, not a mere man or only predestined.
  • On the Trinity 17Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Moses agrees with John: the Word through whom God created all things, and who made man in God's image and came down at Babel, is the Son, Christ, who is therefore God.
  • On the Trinity 18Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The God who appeared to Abraham at Mamre and the Angel who spoke to Hagar, called both angel and God, cannot be the invisible Father or a mere angel; he is the Son, who accustoms human eyes to see God.
  • On the Trinity 22Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Philippians 2 shows Christ in the form of God, obedient to the Father, emptying himself by taking a servant's form and receiving the name above every name; a mere man is not emptied by being born, so Christ is God.
  • On the Trinity 23Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Even heretics who call Christ the Father, or who deny his flesh, testify by their error to his evident divinity; the Scriptures show him God as the Son and man as the Mediator who unites God and man.
  • On the Trinity 26Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Against those who say Christ is the Father because he is God, many texts show the Son as a second person after the Father, sent by him, obedient to him, and receiving all things from him.
  • On the Trinity 27Novatian · ca. 240–250 · “I and the Father are one” means one in concord, not one person: Christ says “one thing,” “we are,” and calls himself the Son sanctified and sent by the Father, as Paul and Apollos are two yet one.
  • On the Trinity 28Novatian · ca. 240–250 · “He who has seen me has seen the Father” does not make Christ the Father: Scripture speaks of the certain future as done, and whoever sees the Son, the Father's image, is on the way to seeing the invisible Father.
  • On the Trinity 29Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The rule of faith next requires belief in the Holy Spirit, promised by the prophets and given by Christ, who adorns the church with gifts, gives the new birth in baptism, sanctifies believers, and guards the church's truth.
  • On the Trinity 30Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Both Sabellians and adoptionists err by thinking “one God” excludes Christ's divinity; but as calling Christ Lord, Paul teacher, and Christ good does not undo the one Lord, Teacher, and Good, so Christ's being God does not undo the one God.
  • On the Trinity 31Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The one God is the Father, without origin; the Son, the Word born from him before all time, is God and a second person, yet, having his origin from the Father and returning all things to him in obedience, he does not make two Gods.
  • Commentary on the Song of Songs 0.69Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Scripture uses 'love' openly only where no misunderstanding is possible; love and charity mean the same, and God, Father and Son, is charity.
  • Commentary on the Song of Songs 0.70Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The charity that is God loves only incorruptible things, makes every person our neighbour as in the parable of the Good Samaritan, and is misnamed when applied to money or vice.
  • Commentary on the Song of Songs 0.74Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Perfect charity endures all things; the Song is the church's wedding song to Christ, and only the Son knows charity, which the Spirit reveals to worthy souls.
  • Commentary on the Song of Songs 2.146Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The deeper self-knowledge belongs to the gift of knowledge, whose first object is the Trinity and second the creation; the soul should ask about its own substance and origin, whether transmitted with the body or coming from outside.
  • Commentary on the Song of Songs 2.158Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The church already existed in the saints before Christ, who loved her and came to her; angels and prophets ministered to her, as at Mamre and the burning bush, where the angel is the Lord himself, against heretics who belittle the God of the law.
  • Commentary on the Song of Songs 2.165Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The Word, with the Father and the Spirit, rests and feasts in the perfect soul on peace, humility and charity; in verse 12 the bride's nard, touching the Bridegroom, gives back his own fragrance.
  • Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.174Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The repeated praise may refer to the Church now and in the age to come; the dove-eyes may signify the Son and the Spirit; the Bride now sees the Bridegroom's beauty.
  • Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.214Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Christ is a 'young stag' because he was born a child of the saintly 'stags', his forebears; the high mountains for the stags are the persons of the Trinity; the roe is named from keen sight.
  • Against Celsus 1.46Origen · ca. 248 · The Spirit who came on Jesus at his baptism still works among Christians in exorcisms, healings, prophecies, and sudden conversions; Isaiah foretold that the Father would send both Christ and the Spirit.
  • Against Celsus 2.9Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not call Jesus' visible body or human soul God, but the divine Word who spoke in him, who created all things at the Father's command and is not confined to Jesus' body, though united with it.
  • Against Celsus 2.71Origen · ca. 248 · Origen says Jesus revealed the Father who sent him, as John's Gospel and letters show, and that the purposes of his mission are set out by prophets, evangelists, and apostles.
  • Against Celsus 4.5Origen · ca. 248 · God fills heaven and earth, so his coming in Jesus does not mean leaving his place; he “departs” only from the wicked soul and fills the virtuous one, and the only change he brings is moral transformation.
  • Against Celsus 6.17Origen · ca. 248 · Against Plato's lofty words Origen sets the Scriptures' teaching that God hides in darkness and depth, known fully only by the Son and by those to whom the Son reveals him.
  • Against Celsus 6.64Origen · ca. 248 · God has no shape, colour, or motion; he is not a partaker of being but is partaken of, and Origen raises the question whether God is even beyond being, with the Son as the being of beings.
  • Against Celsus 6.69Origen · ca. 248 · The Son shares the Father's greatness and is as hard to see as the Father, who can be seen only by the pure in heart; the Son did not come as an easier substitute for an invisible God.
  • Against Celsus 6.70Origen · ca. 248 · God's Spirit is not a body but is shared with the worthy; Scripture calls God fire and spirit figuratively, and Jesus taught worship in spirit and truth rather than through bodily rites.
  • Against Celsus 7.27Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus attacks the idea that God has a human-shaped body, but Christians hold that God is incorporeal, as Scripture says.
  • Against Celsus 8.4Origen · ca. 248 · Scripture distinguishes the one God and one Lord from the many so-called gods and lords; Christians ascend to the God of gods through the Son alone, while Plato's picture of a host of gods and demons following Zeus came from the devil.
  • Against Celsus 8.12Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus charges Christians with worshipping a recent man; Origen answers that Father and Son are one, two in subsistence but one in concord and will, and the Son who is the Truth existed before Abraham.
  • Against Celsus 8.13Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not serve the pagan gods, who are servants of the devil, not of God; they reverence the one God and his Son, offering prayer to the Father through the Son as high priest.
  • Against Celsus 8.14Origen · ca. 248 · Christians know from Scripture that Jesus is truly the Son of the Father, the radiance of his glory; he is the leader of peace, not sedition, and the Father is greater than the Son.
  • Against Celsus 8.15Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus quotes an obscure “heavenly dialogue” claiming the Son of Man is lord of God; Origen replies that no Christian he knows says this, since the Son is inferior to the Father and rules only those who willingly obey him.
  • Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 7Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The “sitting at the right hand” of Psalm 110 must be understood figuratively of the Son's kingdom, since a bodily reading leads to absurdities.
  • Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 55Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Origen offers explanations of why the Son is said not to know the day and hour: his human growth before his exaltation, the Father's not fixing the times in advance, and the Son's sharing the ignorance of his body the Church until all know together.
  • Commentary on Matthew 12.20Origen · ca. 246–248 · Jesus had to suffer in the earthly Jerusalem so as to make the firstfruits of the resurrection in the heavenly one, ending the earthly worship; his rising on the third day frees believers from a triad of evil powers, so that they may be baptized into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the three eternal days.
  • Commentary on Matthew 12.42Origen · ca. 246–248 · God answers Peter’s three tents with a better tent, the bright cloud, a pattern of the resurrection; Origen suggests it may be the Father’s power, the Holy Spirit, the Saviour, or the shared light of Father, Son, and Spirit over the true disciples.
  • Commentary on Matthew 13.18Origen · ca. 246–248 · As a further interpretation, offered “as doctrine or for exercise,” Origen suggests that the child Jesus set among the disciples is the Holy Spirit, who humbled himself for human salvation.
  • Commentary on Matthew 13.19Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen compares Mark and Luke on the dispute about greatness, reads the child Jesus took as the Holy Spirit, and discusses receiving the kingdom “as a child.”
  • Commentary on Matthew 17.14Origen · ca. 246–248 · The crowds rightly but inadequately held Jesus to be a prophet; he is the Son and Wisdom of God, and those who teach falsely about him, though they gather in his name, scatter.
  • Commentary on Romans 1.5Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Christ was 'made' of David's seed according to the flesh but 'destined', not predestined, Son of God, for he always existed; his soul, united to the Word, is one spirit with him; his Davidic descent and his being Son of God from the resurrection are discussed.
  • Commentary on Romans 1.16Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · The philosophers knew the truth by God's revealing but suppressed it; God's wrath is the power that punishes, revealed 'from heaven' against those who sin knowingly; God's knowable works are manifest, his nature unknown save as the Son reveals.
  • Commentary on Romans 3.11Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Paul does not destroy the law through faith but confirms it, because believing in Christ fulfills what Moses wrote, while Marcion, the Ebionites, and unrepentant sinners destroy it; the law's glory is not abolished by anyone but eclipsed by the greater glory of Christ, as a pedagogue's office ends when the child comes of age.
  • Commentary on Romans 5.8Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen teaches that only one who has first died to sin is truly buried with Christ in baptism, explains baptism “from above,” why Paul names Christ alone, and the daily renewal of the new life.
  • Commentary on Romans 6.11Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains that no condemnation remains for those wholly in Christ, a state reached gradually as each virtue claims its share, and that the Spirit of life and Christ set free with one freedom.
  • Commentary on Romans 6.13Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen identifies the Spirit of God with the Spirit of Christ, explains what it is to have the Spirit of Christ, how the Spirit is received in various ways and increased by merit, and how the virtues that Christ is show his Spirit in us.
  • Commentary on Romans 7.1Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Opening Book 7, Origen distinguishes the many senses of “spirit” in Scripture: the Holy Spirit, the spirit of servitude, the human spirit, angelic and evil spirits, and winds.
  • Commentary on Romans 7.5Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains the groaning of those who have the “firstfruits of the Spirit,” offering three readings of the phrase (the Holy Spirit above ministering spirits, the apostles’ highest gifts, or the Spirit as firstfruits of many spirits), and teaches that adoption and redemption are now held in hope.
  • Commentary on Romans 7.6Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains how the Spirit helps our weakness in prayer, like a teacher stooping to a beginner, interceding with unutterable groanings, and warns against praying for worldly prosperity.
  • Commentary on Romans 7.13Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains Paul’s wish to be anathema for Israel as Christlike self-offering that was heard (all Israel will be saved), lists Israel’s privileges, and argues from Rom 9:5 that Christ is God over all and that the Trinity is one in nature and substance.
  • Commentary on Romans 8.5Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Calling on the Lord presupposes faith, and since Christ is called upon he is to be prayed to and honored with the Father; preachers speak only by the power of the one who sends them, and their beautiful feet are spiritual, announcing the one good of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which heretics announce but not well.
  • Commentary on Romans 8.13Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Israel, an enemy as regards the gospel but beloved for the fathers, will obtain mercy after the fullness of the Gentiles; God permits evil, even from its origin, so that others may profit from it, and Paul's cry 'O the depth' and 'from him, through him, in him' points to the Trinity, whose counsels no creature can search.
  • Commentary on Romans 10.9Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Paul calls on the 'God of hope' because the Gentiles hope in Christ, whose blood made peace in heaven and earth; fullness of peace belongs to those reconciled to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, believing in the fullness of the Trinity.
  • Commentary on Romans 10.38Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · The grace of the Father and of Christ is one; everything creatures have from God is grace, not debt.
  • To Quirinus 3.33Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The Father has given all judgment to the Son, and whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father.
  • Letter 27.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The confessors' letter has already sparked riots against bishops; Lucian presumes to forgive sins in Paulus's name, though sins are remitted in the name of the Trinity and martyrs are made by the gospel, not the gospel by martyrs.
  • Letter 73.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Marcion does not confess the Trinity, the Creator, or Christ's true incarnation and bodily resurrection, so his baptism, given in a false faith, conveys nothing true.
  • Letter 73.12Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · If heretical baptism sanctified, the baptized would be a temple of God; but a heretic who denies the Creator or Christ's divinity cannot be the temple of the one God, Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • Letter 73.17Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Baptism “in the name of Jesus Christ” in Acts was for Jews who already knew the Father; saving knowledge requires both Father and Son, which heretics who blaspheme the Creator lack.
  • Letter 73.18Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Christ commanded baptism in the name of the whole Trinity; one who blasphemes the Father cannot receive from the Son a forgiveness the Father has not given.
  • Letter 75.9Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The bare invocation of the Trinity does not make baptism valid when the minister lacks the Spirit; a heretic deceives with baptism as a false prophet does with Christ's name.
  • Letter 75.11Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · If correct words sufficed, the demon-possessed woman's baptisms would be valid, which is absurd; heretics' baptisms are equally the work of deceit.
  • On the Lord's Prayer 23Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God forgives us only as we forgive others; the greatest sacrifice is peace and a people united in the unity of the Trinity.
  • On the Lord's Prayer 30Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christ prayed for us, and above all that his people might be one as he and the Father are one.
  • On the Lord's Prayer 34Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Praying at the third, sixth, and ninth hours was a figure of the Trinity, fulfilled at Pentecost, in Peter's vision, and at the cross.
  • Oxyrhynchus hymn (P. Oxy. 15.1786), lines 1–5Anonymous · late 3rd cent. · The end of a Christian hymn on a papyrus from Oxyrhynchus: all creation is bidden to keep silence while the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are praised, and the heavenly powers answer 'Amen'.
  • Prayer 1 1Anonymous · uncertain · A prayer ascribed to Cyprian asks God for purity of heart, protection from the devil, and help such as he gave to Tobias, Daniel, Thecla, Paul, and Peter.
  • On the Unity of the Catholic Church 6Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · The church is Christ's faithful bride and our mother; outside her, as outside Noah's ark, there is no salvation, for her unity reflects the unity of God.
  • Against Novatian 3Anonymous · after 251 (disputed) · The dove sent out three times from the ark first figures the Spirit and the church's baptism in the name of the Trinity.
  • Opinions of the Bishops 10Cyprian of Carthage · 1 September 256 · Monnulus of Girba argues that since baptism is in the name of the Trinity and heretics have neither Father, Son, nor Spirit, they must be baptized in the church.
  • Opinions of the Bishops 29Cyprian of Carthage · 1 September 256 · Eucratius of Thenae holds that heretical baptism, which blasphemes the Trinity, must be rejected and heretics baptized in the church.
  • Acts of Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius 4Anonymous · 259 (21 January) · In the amphitheater Fructuosus comforts the church that it will not lack a shepherd; the three are burned, and when their bonds burn away they kneel in prayer with arms outstretched until they die.
  • Symposium 8.10Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The dragon is the devil, who cannot seize the reborn, and the third of the stars he drags down are the heresies, each erring about one Person of the Trinity.
  • Symposium 8.11Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The church's wilderness is Arete's garden, and the 1,260 days are the knowledge of the Trinity: a thousand for the Father, two hundred for the Spirit, and sixty, from the perfect number six, for Christ.
  • Symposium 10.6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Zechariah's two olive trees are Christ and the Holy Spirit, whose branches are the law and the prophets; chastity now lets us receive their full fruit and frees from the sentence of death.
  • Letter of the six bishops to Paul 1Anonymous · ca. 264–269 · Six bishops write to Paul of Samosata setting out the apostolic faith that the Son of God is God, begotten before the ages.
  • Letter of the six bishops to Paul 2Anonymous · ca. 264–269 · The bishops cite Psalms, Isaiah, Romans and Hosea to show the Son is God, and identify him as the one through whom the Father created all things.
  • Letter of the six bishops to Paul 3Anonymous · ca. 264–269 · The bishops teach that the Son is the living, personal Word through whom the Father made all things, and that he appeared to Abraham and the patriarchs.
  • Letter of the six bishops to Paul 4Anonymous · ca. 264–269 · The bishops identify the 'angel of the Lord' who spoke to Abraham and Jacob, and who mediated the law, with the Son of God.
  • Letter of the six bishops to Paul 5Anonymous · ca. 264–269 · The bishops show from Exodus and Deuteronomy that the one who appeared to Moses in the bush and in glory was the Son of God.
  • Letter of the six bishops to Paul 6Anonymous · ca. 264–269 · The bishops confess that the Son, God and Lord of all, became man from the virgin, his body united unchangeably with the Godhead, and that Scripture names Christ even before the incarnation.
  • Book 4, chapter 25Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · Macarius answers that God, as master of the law, may forgive sinners freely as a king pardons, that baptism in the name of the Trinity truly cleanses, and that those who abuse the gift by delaying baptism harm only themselves.
  • On Free Will 1.6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Methodius calls his hearers to join in a hymn to the Father, glorifying Jesus in the Spirit.
  • Cib. 11Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The red heifer is Christ's flesh; its burning with cedar, hyssop, and scarlet images the Trinity, and its ashes signify his real death and burial, into which believers are baptized.
  • Creat. 9Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Methodius distinguishes two creative powers: the Father, who creates from nothing by his will, and the Son, the Father's hand, who orders and adorns what was made.
  • Creat. 11Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The "beginning" of Genesis 1:1 is Wisdom, the Word, who was with the Father before creation and through whom all things were made.
  • Lepr. 11Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Man is spirit, soul, and flesh: heretics are leprous in spirit through false belief about Father, Word, or Spirit, while others are unclean in the flesh through pleasure.
  • Fragment without closer identification, no. 3 (on Adam, Seth and Eve as images of the Trinity)Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · A later writer, following Methodius, sees Adam, his son and Eve as an image of the Trinity: Adam unbegotten like the Father, the son begotten like the Son, and Eve proceeding like the Spirit.
  • Fragment 3Lactantius · ca. 290-325 · Jerome reports that Lactantius, in his letters to Demetrianus, held that Scripture often calls the Holy Spirit the Father or the Son.
  • Fragment 4Lactantius · ca. 290-325 · Jerome reports that Lactantius, especially in his letters to Demetrianus, denied that the Holy Spirit is a distinct substance, yet defends reading his Divine Institutes.
  • Canons of Hippolytus, canon 1Anonymous · 4th century · The first canon confesses the equal and eternal Trinity and the Word as Son and Creator, and separates from the Church those who teach wickedly about the Word.
  • Canons of Hippolytus, canon 19Anonymous · 4th century · The order of baptism: martyrdom as baptism in blood, examination of candidates, fasting, exorcism, vigil, renunciation of Satan, threefold confession and immersion, anointing, the bishop's prayer and kiss, and first communion with milk and honey.
  • Church History 1.2.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Christ's divine nature is beyond description; only the Father fully knows the Son.
  • Church History 1.2.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Only the Father truly knows the pre-existent Word, the Father's Wisdom, agent of creation and Lord of all, as John 1 proclaims.
  • Church History 1.2.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Moses shows the Father creating through his Word, speaking with him at man's creation: “Let us make man.”
  • Church History 1.2.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The psalmist likewise shows the Father commanding and the Word carrying out creation.
  • Church History 1.2.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The one who appeared to Abraham cannot be the unchangeable Father, and so must be the pre-existent Word.
  • Church History 4.15.35Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp ended with praise to the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit.
  • Church History 6.33.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Beryllus of Bostra denied that Christ pre-existed with his own divinity before the incarnation.
  • Church History 7.6.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius reports the Sabellian teaching in the Pentapolis and his letters against it.
  • Church History 7.26.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius wrote letters and four treatises against Sabellianism, the latter to Dionysius of Rome.
  • Church History 10.4.65Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The central doorway stands for the one God, the side doors for Christ and the Holy Spirit; from living stones Paulinus builds a house bright in soul and body.
  • Acta Archelai (Latin) 68Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus closes by tracing Manes's teaching through Basilides to Scythianus; the work ends with Hegemonius's signature and a short appended catalogue of heresies down to the Apollinarians, Novatians, Montenses, and Luciferians.
  • Homilies 11.26Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Baptism in living water in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit replaces birth from desire with new birth to God and alone quenches the coming fire.
  • Homilies 16.12Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter explains “Let us make” as God speaking to his own Wisdom, who is one with him yet extended from him in creation.
  • Homilies 16.16Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter argues that the begotten Son cannot bear every title of the unbegotten Father, as souls from God are not gods.
  • Homilies 16.17Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter argues that the name God belongs only to the one who is unbegotten, infinite, and incomparable.
  • Recognitions 1.24Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Clement recites Peter's teaching on the eternal source of all things, the two kingdoms, and the coming judgment.
  • Recognitions 1.69Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · James proves from the law that Jesus is the Christ, teaches the necessity of baptism in the threefold name, and persuades the people and the high priest to seek baptism.
  • Recognitions 3.1Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Before the second day's debate Peter explains why he avoids revealing the highest truths about God to a mixed crowd, then teaches his companions about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
  • Recognitions 3.2Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Aquila asks Peter to explain the first principle and in what sense Christ is called the Son of God.
  • Recognitions 3.3Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · In the bracketed passage, Peter teaches that God alone is the principle without beginning and unbegotten, and rejects calling him 'self-father' or 'self-begotten'.
  • Recognitions 3.6Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · In the bracketed passage, Peter cites Isaiah to show that God is first, without beginning and unbegotten.
  • Recognitions 3.7Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · In the bracketed passage, Peter warns against inquiring what the Unbegotten is, teaching only that he is, and that he is best honored by silence.
  • Recognitions 3.8Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · In the bracketed passage, Peter teaches that the unbegotten God begot the Only-begotten without change or division, and calls the Son begotten, made, and created.
  • Recognitions 3.9Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · In the bracketed passage, Peter teaches that God begot the Only-begotten without change to himself, and warns against thinking of God as male and female.
  • Recognitions 3.10Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · In the bracketed passage, Peter argues that the Son, born of the unborn, is truly distinct from the Father, as the Father's command 'Sit at my right hand' shows.
  • Recognitions 3.11Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · In the bracketed passage, Peter teaches that the Son is the image of the unbegotten power, like the sun shown in a mirror, and that the Holy Spirit was made through the Son and is numbered after Father and Son.
  • Recognitions 4.32Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter calls the people to repentance and baptism in spring, river, or sea under the threefold name, which drives out demons and empowers believers to free others.
  • Recognitions 6.9Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Baptism fulfills God's command and cuts off the frailty of natural birth; its waters, over which mercy has hovered from the beginning, quench the fire to come.
  • Recognitions 7.29Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter explains to Mattidia that believers worship one God, keep his law, and do not share a table with the unbaptized, even family.
  • Prophetic Extracts 1.5Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · From “the Lord rained from the Lord” on Sodom, Eusebius argues that Scripture names two Lords, the Father and his Word.
  • Prophetic Extracts 1.12Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · On Moses' request to see God's glory, Eusebius argues that the Lord who spoke to Moses through the cloud was the Word, who in proclaiming “the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful” called upon his own Father as the only true God.
  • Prophetic Extracts 2.15Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius notes that “his word will run swiftly” shows the Word as a distinct subsisting reality and foretells the rapid spread of the Gospel.
  • Prophetic Extracts 2.16Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads “he commanded, and they were created” in Psalm 148 as the Father commanding and the Word carrying out creation, and closes the extracts from the Psalms.
  • Prophetic Extracts 3.1Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius quotes Wisdom's speech in Proverbs 8 and identifies Wisdom with Christ, the Word through whom all things were made.
  • Prophetic Extracts 3.12Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Hosea's “I am God… I will walk after the Lord” as the Word, who is God, following the Father.
  • Prophetic Extracts 3.13Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius notes that in Amos the Lord speaks of God as another, like “the Lord rained from the Lord” in Genesis, showing Father and Son.
  • Prophetic Extracts 3.15Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius notes Obadiah's “the Lord God… heard a report from the Lord” as another text showing two Lords.
  • Prophetic Extracts 3.21Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius notes that in Zechariah the Lord Almighty is sent by the Lord Almighty, showing that the Word too is called Lord Almighty.
  • Prophetic Extracts 3.25Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius notes Zechariah's “I will strengthen them in the Lord their God” as the Word speaking of the Father.
  • Prophetic Extracts 4.22Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies Isaiah's “God is in you, and there is no God besides you” to Christ, raised as king, against Jews and those who hold him a mere man (the Ebionites, Artemon, Paul of Samosata).
  • Prophetic Extracts 4.23Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius argues that the speaker of Isaiah 48, Creator of heaven and earth yet sent by the Lord with his Spirit, is the Word of God, distinct from the Father who sends him.
  • Divine Institutes 2.8.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Before creating the world, God brought forth a Spirit like himself, endowed with the Father's powers.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · How can Christians worship one God yet speak of Father and Son?
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Having discussed his mortality, he now explains the unity of Father and Son.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Father and Son are not separate, since each implies the other.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Father and Son share one mind, spirit and substance, like spring and stream, sun and ray.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Son is inseparable from the Father, as ray from sun.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · As hand and word of God, the Son is undivided from him.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A father and son in one household are one household and one master.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Father and Son are one God, as two in one household.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Isaiah shows that Father and Son are one God.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Isaiah speaks of two persons yet says 'besides me', since they are not separated.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The supreme God is one and contains the Son and all things.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Father and Son are one God, sharing one mind and will.
  • Divine Institutes 4.29.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God can be worshipped only through the Son.
  • Martyrdom of Dasius 8Anonymous · 303–304 · Dasius confesses the Trinity and refuses the imperial images.
  • Appendix of Ten Documents on the Donatist Controversy 4Anonymous · documents of 303–330 · The bishops of the council of Arles (314) report to Silvester of Rome the condemnation of Caecilian's accusers and summarize their canons: one date for Easter, clergy to stay where ordained, the excommunication of soldiers who desert in peacetime, of charioteers and actors, rules for Christian officials, and the reception of those baptized by heretics in the Trinity by laying on of hands alone.
  • Acts of Euplus of Catania (Latin) 2Anonymous · 304 (12 August) · Under torture Euplius confesses the Trinity and refuses to surrender the Scriptures.
  • Apology for Origen 0Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · An anonymous prologue, Rufinus's preface with his creed, and Pamphilus's preface, which defends Origen's humility as an inquirer and announces a defence from Origen's own words.
  • Apology for Origen 1.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Pamphilus quotes Origen's summary of the apostolic rule of faith (On First Principles, preface) and his definition of a heretic from the lost Commentary on Titus, to show that Origen held the Church's teaching as the test of truth.
  • Apology for Origen 2.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Origen, quoted from On First Principles, teaches that God is incorporeal and incomprehensible, and that the God of the Old Testament is the Father of Jesus Christ.
  • Apology for Origen 3.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Pamphilus gathers Origen's statements that the Son is the image of God, born of the Father without beginning, the eternal radiance of the eternal light, Son by nature and not by adoption.
  • Apology for Origen 4.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Pamphilus quotes Origen on the Holy Spirit as unchangeable, never a creature, and always known within the Trinity; on the limits of every creature's knowledge of God; and on the spread of the faith as proof of Christ's divinity.
  • Apology for Origen 5.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Origen's argument from fulfilled prophecy (the end of Judah's rulers, the calling of the Gentiles, the spread of the gospel) closes Pamphilus's proof of his faith in the Trinity; Pamphilus then begins to list the charges against him.
  • Apology for Origen 5.9Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Pamphilus lists the last charge (transmigration of souls) and answers the first five charges with Origen's own words: the Son is born of the Father by nature, not by emission; Christ is God and not a mere man; his body was real; and there is one Christ.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.12.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Hebrews teach a second divine being, begotten of God, called Word, Wisdom, and Power.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.12.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Moses shows God speaking with his Word at the creation of man.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.12.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Psalm 148:5 implies the Father commanding the Son in creation.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.12.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Genesis 19:24 speaks of two Lords, Father and Son.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Hebrews teach a firstborn beginning begotten of the Father and like him.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · In the spiritual world the Word stands second after the Father, like the sun.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Holy Spirit is third, like the moon, and supplies the beings below.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Spirit receives from the Word, who receives from the Father and gives light to all below.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Father shares all his goods with his first offspring alone.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Through the Son the Father gives to the Spirit and to lower beings according to their capacity.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Hebrew theologians honor the Holy Spirit as divine, who inspired them.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Angels are spiritual beings, called fire and spirit figuratively, ruled by the Sun of righteousness and the Holy Spirit.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · All creation, with the Son and Spirit, is bidden to praise the one God over all.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Christians honor the angels but worship the one God, as the Son himself commands.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 11.7.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Hebrews treated cosmology, the soul, providence, the first Cause, and the second.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 11.14.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius turns to the second cause, the Word, God from God.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 11.14.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Gen 19:24 speaks of two Lords, both named with the Tetragrammaton.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 11.14.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Ps 110:1 speaks of the supreme God and the second Lord at his right hand.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 11.16.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato’s Sixth Letter names the God of all and the Father of the leader and cause.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 11.16.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato’s Father and Lord of the cause can only come from the Hebrews.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 11.17.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plotinus finds three principles in Plato’s letters.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 11.17.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plotinus: Plato taught the Good, Mind, and Soul; Plotinus only interprets.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 11.20.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Scripture places the Holy Spirit third; Plato hints at a triad.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 11.20.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato’s Second Letter speaks in riddles of a first, second, and third.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 11.20.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Platonists read Plato’s triad as God, Mind, and World-Soul; Scripture teaches the Trinity.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 13.13.28Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Clement: Plato’s Sixth Letter and Timaeus hint at the Father and the Son.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 13.13.29Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Clement reads Plato’s Second Letter as indicating the Trinity.
  • Preparation for the Gospel 13.15.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Created spirits, depending on God for being and virtue, are not gods.
  • Epitome of the Divine Institutes 2.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The next question is whether there is one God or many.
  • Epitome of the Divine Institutes 2.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Reason shows there can be only one Lord and Father of all.
  • Epitome of the Divine Institutes 3.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · There is one God, perfect, eternal, beyond human thought and speech.
  • Epitome of the Divine Institutes 37.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Before creation God begot a Son from his eternal Spirit.
  • Epitome of the Divine Institutes 44.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · No one knows the Father without the Son, through whom God is known and worshipped.
  • Epitome of the Divine Institutes 44.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Father and Son are not two gods but one, sharing one substance, will, and faith.
  • Epitome of the Divine Institutes 44.5Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · One honour is due to Father and Son; separating them loses both.
  • Canon 8Anonymous · 1 August 314 · Converts from heresy who were baptized in the name of the Trinity receive only the laying on of hands; otherwise they are baptized.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 1.5.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Moses calls the one who appeared to the patriarchs both God and Angel of God, showing he was a second, distinct from the Father.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 1.5.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Since the invisible Father cannot be seen, the one seen by the patriarchs was God the Word.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.2.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · God first begets his firstborn Wisdom, the foundation, guardian, and pilot of all creation.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.2.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son is “begotten God” as the unique image of the Father, the living instrument through whom God orders and binds together all things.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Because the Father is one, the Son must be one, not many.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · One light has one radiance.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son is to the Father as the single ray is to light, as Wisdom 7:26 says.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Hebrews calls the Son the Father’s radiance, but unlike a ray of light the Son has his own distinct existence.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Unlike radiance, which exists simultaneously with light, the Father exists before the Son as the only unbegotten one.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Father is first and the cause; the Son is second, receiving his being and nature from the Father.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son exists by the Father’s will, as a second light like him in all things.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · As the image of the one light, the Son must be one in number as well as like the Father in substance.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Like a single fragrance from one source, the Son of the one Father is one.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Any second Son would be inferior, and the Son is the pure emanation of God’s glory.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · A fragrance spreads without diminishing its source.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The fragrance has its own existence and resembles its source, though such examples remain earthly.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.3.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son was not made at some point in time but was begotten ineffably before all ages from the Father’s will and power, without division of the Father’s substance.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The one Son had to exist before creation to preside, under the Father, over the one world.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.5.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Father, above even the creator Word, begot the Son first and placed in him the principles of all creation.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.5.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Complaining that there is only one Son is as absurd as complaining that there is only one sun.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.6.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · So the Father placed his Son as a mediating power between himself and creation, as sunlight is softened for weak eyes.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.7.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · In Deuteronomy the Most High is the Father and the Lord is his Word, Christ, to whom the God-fearing are allotted while the nations are given to angels.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.15.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Word alone is anointed with the whole of the Father’s divinity, as Psalm 45 says, and so is Christ and God from God.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.15.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Only the Son reaches the Father directly; others receive good only through the Son, and the anointing symbolized the Spirit.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.15.52Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Spoken by the Father, the verse points to the Son’s generation, which involves no bodily emission or division.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.15.53Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Terms like “womb” and “heart” for the Son’s generation are figurative; the generation itself is beyond telling.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.15.54Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Read allegorically, the verse speaks of the first Word’s coming into being as the good offspring of the good Father.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.15.59Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Aquila shows that the psalm calls both the anointed and the anointer God, the Father being the greater and God even of the Son.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 4.16.48Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The anointed is himself God, anointed by the greater God, his Father.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Book 5 opens: Christ is to be understood both as the eternal Son and Word, “second cause of the universe,” and as the Word who appears to men.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Moses and the prophets taught worship of the Creator, theology of the second cause, and foretold that God, the second Lord, would come to spread the patriarchs’ piety to all nations.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Spirit inspired the prophets to teach the theology of Father and Son, true piety, and the coming Savior who would bring that piety to all nations.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Proverbs 8 shows that Wisdom governs the world and is begotten, not identical with the unbegotten Father.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Paul’s “firstborn of all creation” corresponds to Wisdom’s “the Lord created me.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Wisdom is the Son, begotten in an ineffable way without emission or division.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son’s generation cannot be compared to animal birth or described as a division of substance.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The divine nature is simple and indivisible and contains nothing that could be put forth from it.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · None of these models may be applied to God and the Son’s generation.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son was not an eternal part of the Father later separated from him; that would imply change and two unbegotten beings.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Such bodily ideas are impious; the Son’s generation is beyond telling.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Nor may one say the Son came from nothing like other creatures; his generation differs from creation through him.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Scripture calls the Son both “created” as firstborn of creation and “begotten.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · We should confess the Son as the eternal creative Word, with the Father, begotten as his co-worker in creation.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son’s generation is beyond thought; if one must use images, he is like fragrance from ointment or radiance from light, always with the Father, though the images fall short.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The images fail: radiance cannot exist apart from light, and fragrance is bodily, while the Son subsists in his own right as begotten.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son was not divided from the Father’s substance, nor is he without beginning like the Father, who as Father precedes the Son.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son is the living image of God, wholly form, made like the Father in his very being.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · All that is true of the Son exceeds human speech, and Scripture speaks accommodatingly.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Father is the source of all good, and the Son, in second place, is the fragrance of his substance, as Wisdom 7 says.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.25Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son’s generation is beyond the reach even of heavenly powers, as Jesus taught.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.26Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Since only Father and Son know each other, Proverbs 8 must be read as a mystery.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.1.27Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Wisdom was present with the Father at creation and always rejoiced before him.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.3.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Holy Spirit in the prophet calls the Son its own Lord, second after the Father, whom the Hebrews named with the unpronounced four-letter name.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.3.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jesus himself used Psalm 110 to show that the Christ is David’s Lord, and, Eusebius adds, Lord of the prophetic Spirit.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.3.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · If the Holy Spirit calls the Son Lord, all rational powers and all creation must do so, since all things were created in him.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.3.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Psalm 110 enthrones the second Lord, and Psalm 45 calls him God with an eternal throne.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.4.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Isaiah foretells a savior-king whom the nations will worship as God because the greater God, the Father, dwells in him.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.4.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The passage clearly presents a Savior who is God and another God dwelling in him.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.4.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Theodotion calls the Christ a hidden God; he is God because the Father dwells in him, as Colossians says.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.4.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Eusebius compares the readings of Theodotion, Aquila, and Symmachus on Isaiah 45:14–15.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.4.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Father alone is God in the proper sense; the Son, the second, is God by participation, having his being and divinity from the Father who dwells in him.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.4.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · As honoring a king’s image honors the one king, so the Son, the natural image of the invisible God, is honored as God after the Father.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.4.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son is God by nature, not by adoption, yet he is not the first God but the only-begotten Son, and so God.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.4.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son is God because he is the only natural Son and the perfect image of God’s divinity.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.4.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · As the Father’s perfect image, the Son received from him the name of God along with his other titles.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.4.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Father gives and the Son receives: there is one God, unbegotten, seen in the Son as in a mirror, while the Son holds the second rank.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.4.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Isaiah teaches that the Son is worshiped as God because the Father dwells in him.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.5.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The psalm shows the Word as distinct from the Father, creating at the greater one’s command.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.5.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Speaking and commanding imply another person; and at the incarnation the nations came to fear the Lord Jesus instead of demons.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.5.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · God’s Word subsists in his own right, like the Father in all things, and holds the ideas of all creation.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.6.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Isaiah 48: the one who is first, who founded earth and heaven, says, “The Lord has sent me, and his Spirit.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.6.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The creator who speaks confesses he was sent by “the Lord, the Lord,” that is, the Father.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.6.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son is “first” among begotten things; the Father is above “first.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.6.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Father is not first of begotten things but above them; the Word is first of all begotten beings.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.6.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The one commanded to create is the one who founded earth and heaven and was sent by the greater Lord.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.6.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The speaker is the Word, who, though Lord himself, piously calls his greater Father “Lord, Lord.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.6.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Father is Lord of all, including the Son, while the Son is rightly called second Lord; the next heading introduces Genesis 1:26.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.7.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Genesis records God saying, “Let us make.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.7.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Genesis 1:27 shows that the one addressed was God, not an angel; the next heading introduces Genesis 19.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.8.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Genesis 19:24: “the Lord rained … from the Lord.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.8.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Genesis 19 shows two Lords; the Father is Lord and God even of the Son, while the Son, the second Lord, is master of those below him.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.8.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Son is not Lord of the Father, but the Father is God of the Son, so theology rests on one principle and one God; the next heading introduces the appearances to Abraham.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.9.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord speaks of “the Lord” as if of another.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.9.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord at Mamre speaks of another Lord, his Father; Abraham intercedes with him as judge of all the earth.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.10.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The God of Bethel was God and Lord, but the second after the Father, who serves as his messenger.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.11.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jacob saw God face to face, which Moses was told was impossible; so he saw not the invisible Father but the Word.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.11.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Scripture names angels as angels; the one called Lord and God to Jacob was also called angel of God, so he is not the first cause.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.11.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · So there is a God and Lord after the Father: the Word, above the angels but less than the first cause.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.12.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · God tells Jacob to build an altar to “the God who appeared to you.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.12.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The unseen Father tells Jacob to honor “the God who appeared,” the Word; the next heading introduces Exodus 3 and 6.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.13.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · As God spoke through human prophets, so here the Father speaks to Moses through the angel.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.13.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · God showed Moses only an angel and his name, but appeared to the patriarchs, through the Word.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.13.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Aquila renders Exodus 6:3, “I was seen … in God Almighty.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.13.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Aquila’s wording shows that the Father appeared to the patriarchs through the Son, “God Almighty,” as Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.16.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Decalogue opens with “I am the Lord your God.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.16.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · In the Decalogue the Lord who speaks refers to “the name of the Lord your God,” the second Lord speaking of the Father.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.16.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Scripture often has God and Lord speak of another God and Lord.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.17.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord passes by Moses and proclaims, “Lord, Lord, God compassionate and merciful.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.17.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord who came down called on another Lord, the Father; it was the Lord himself, not Moses, as he had announced.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.17.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The narrative confirms that the Lord came down and called on the name of the Lord.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.17.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Moses later quotes these words as spoken by the Lord, confirming that the Lord proclaimed the greater Lord.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.17.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord calls the Father “true,” as Jesus called him “the only true God”; the next heading introduces Numbers.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.21.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The devil quoted this psalm to Jesus; it addresses the Lord whose refuge is the Most High, his greater Father.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.22.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The speaker walks after the Lord, his Father, and refuses ordinary city life, as Jesus told his disciples; the next heading introduces Amos.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.23.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · In Amos the Lord speaks of God overthrowing Sodom, implying another divine person.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.23.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Genesis 19 shows two Lords; Amos’s past tenses are prophetic futures.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.24.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · In Obadiah the Lord hears a report from the Lord about the nations; the next heading introduces Zechariah.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.25.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · In Zechariah the Lord Almighty says the Lord Almighty sent him, so there are two.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.26.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord will come and the nations will flee to the greater Lord, his God, and become God’s people in the church, the daughter of Zion.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.26.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ’s presence in the church brings knowledge of the Father who sent him.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.26.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord again speaks of another Lord in whom people will boast.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.27.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Zechariah 3: “The Lord rebuke you.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.27.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord invokes another Lord, proving two Lords: the Father and the Son who rules all creation; the next heading introduces Malachi.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.28.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · God Almighty speaks of another Lord, the Word, who is also angel of the covenant.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.30.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord prays to the Father, and the conversion of the nations he foretold followed Christ’s coming.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 5.30.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Having shown from thirty prophecies that the Word is a second God after the Father, Eusebius turns to prophecies of his coming among men.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 6, preface 1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Book 6 opens: since Book 5 showed a second divine being after the one God, prophecies of God coming among men must refer to the Word.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 6.4.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The God of gods will be seen through the face of his Christ; the next heading introduces Psalm 96.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 6.8.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The one who comes in the Lord’s name is God the Word, sent by the Father; the next heading introduces Psalm 144.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 6.10.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Psalm 147 distinguishes God who sends from the Word who is sent.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 6.13.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord who comes down is the Word, whose place is his heavenly throne at the Father’s right hand.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 6.15.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Habakkuk, foreseeing the second Lord’s incarnation, miracles, and sufferings, was afraid and amazed.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 6.16.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Zechariah 2: the Lord Almighty has sent me to the nations.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 6.16.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Both the sender and the one sent are called Lord Almighty.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 6.16.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The one sent “after glory” is the pre-existent Word, who through his Jewish disciples won over the nations that had once enslaved Israel.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 6.17.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophecy shows that the second cause would live among men, and why: to gather the nations.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 6.20.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Isaiah foretells that the Word of God, the second after God, will come to Egypt visibly, on a “light thickness.”
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 6.22.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · In Isaiah the Lord who speaks says he has been sent by the Lord, showing one Lord sent and another sending.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 9.7.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Psalm distinguishes the Lord, Christ, from his Father, God Most High.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 9.7.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Tetragrammaton here refers to the Word, who, the Psalm implies, knows God Most High as greater than himself.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 9.10.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ was anointed not with oil by men but with the Father’s Spirit, sharing the unbegotten Godhead and so called God and Lord.
  • Demonstration of the Gospel 9.12.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The saying cannot fittingly refer to the Father himself.
  • Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 2.2Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Constantine asks the learned to correct his errors and prays for the inspiration of the Father and the Son.
  • Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 3.1Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · God, the Good beyond being, has no beginning; the Son, begotten from him without loss to the Father, was appointed Saviour over the world, and from him come life, soul and sense.
  • Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 9.3Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Plato rightly taught a God beyond being and a second God who derives his existence from the first and serves his commands in creation.
  • Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 9.4Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · There is one God who orders all by his Word; the Word, himself God, is rightly called the Son of God.
  • Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 11.8Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The Son's birth is not physical but from an eternal cause; Christ, the cause of the world's preservation, must pre-exist it, as the Father is cause of the Son.
  • Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 21.3Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The child's Father is the formless God, and the Holy Spirit knows no marriage bed; divine wisdom has nothing to do with pleasure.
  • Against the Heathen 46Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Scripture teaches the one God and his providence through the Word, to whom the Father spoke at creation (“Let us make man”); the Son is the Father’s own Wisdom, Word, and Power, not by participation.
  • Against the Heathen 47Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · The Word, through whom the Father orders all things, is revealed daily in creation; those who honor creation instead of its Maker are senseless, while faith in Christ bears the fruit of immortality.
  • On the Incarnation 32.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ raised his body and is the true Son of God, the Father's own Word, who took flesh, abolished death, and promised resurrection to all.
  • On the Incarnation 57.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · To grasp the Scriptures one must purify one's life and imitate the saints, so as to share the good things prepared for those who love God; the work ends with a doxology to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Letter 1.3Alexander of Alexandria · ca. 319–324 · Against the Arian use of Psalm 45, Alexander argues from John's Gospel that the Word, through whom all things were made, cannot himself have been made or have once not existed.
  • Letter 1.4Alexander of Alexandria · ca. 319–324 · The Son's generation is beyond human inquiry, known only to the Father; and since all ages and times were made through him, there cannot have been a time when he was not.
  • Letter 1.5Alexander of Alexandria · ca. 319–324 · Since the Son is Wisdom, Power, Word, radiance, and image of the Father, the Father has always been Father and the Son's sonship is unique and unchangeable, unlike that of adopted sons.
  • Letter 1.7Alexander of Alexandria · ca. 319–324 · Arius's party quote the texts of Christ's humiliation but ignore those of his glory, such as “I and the Father are one,” and arrogantly claim to be the only wise teachers.
  • Letter 1.8Alexander of Alexandria · ca. 319–324 · Alexander rejects the charge that he teaches two unbegotten beings and sets out his creed: one unbegotten Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ ineffably begotten from the Father, unchangeable like him.
  • Letter 1.9Alexander of Alexandria · ca. 319–324 · The Son is eternally from the Father and his exact image, yet only the Father is unbegotten; Alexander also confesses one Holy Spirit who inspired both Testaments.
  • Letter 2.2Alexander of Alexandria · ca. 319–324 · The letter completes the Arian propositions (the Son a changeable creature, foreign to God's essence), reports their condemnation by about a hundred bishops, and begins to refute them from Scripture.
  • Letter 5.4Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony fears that the brothers are swept along by their own wills, and teaches that all creatures, angels and demons alike, are from one origin, except the Trinity alone.
  • Homilies on the Psalms 13.17Asterius the Sophist · ca. 320-341 · text not on this site
  • 5Anonymous · 4th–5th century · The torturers strike one another and the dux strikes the governor; the Forty stand firm.
  • Martyrdom of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste 13Anonymous · 4th–5th century · The remains, thrown into the river, are recovered by Bishop Peter.
  • On the Witch of Endor 24Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius ridicules Origen for denying a demon power to prophesy while granting it power to bring up souls and angels, notes that even Caiaphas prophesied unwittingly, and cites the laws of Deuteronomy and Leviticus condemning mediums, reading in Deut 13:3 the Father and the Son.
  • Creed (with anathemas)Anonymous · 325 · The creed of the Council of Nicaea confesses the Son as true God of the same essence as the Father and condemns the Arian formulas.
  • Theophany 1.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
  • Theophany 1.30Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
  • Book 2, lines 623–647Juvencus · ca. 330 · Blasphemy against the Spirit is unforgivable; men are judged by their words; the Son does the Father's works and receives all judgment.
  • Book 4, lines 784–812Juvencus · ca. 330 · The risen Christ sends the disciples to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son and the Spirit; Juvencus's closing thanks for the peace under Constantine.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 1.6Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · The only-begotten Word, High Priest and light of the Father, rules the universe, and the emperor governs the earth as his image.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 3.6Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · As there is one God and one Word who governs his kingdom, so monarchy is the best rule; the Word bears many titles and has given humans a share in God's virtues.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 6.9Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · God handed the governance of the universe to his only-begotten Word, who teaches a blessed life beyond this age and a judgment according to deeds.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 6.13Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · The number three, image of equality and justice, mirrors the holy and royal Trinity, which holds the causes of all created things.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 11.11Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Above creation we should marvel at the invisible Word, the only-begotten whom the Father begot from himself and set over the universe.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 11.12Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Because created things could not approach the unbegotten God, God set his only-begotten Word as mediator, who governs the universe.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 12.1Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Scripture teaches that the supreme God is beyond all thought and place; all things are from him, but not made through him.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 12.2Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · The Father rules by his will alone; the Word, through whom all things are, flows from him like a river for the salvation of all.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 12.3Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · As a human mind remains hidden while its word goes out and makes its thoughts known, so with God and his Word.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 12.4Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Unlike a human word, the Word of God is a living, subsisting Son, the power and wisdom of God, who pours out life and every good from his fullness.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 12.6Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · The Word works all things, looking to the Father and mediating between him and creation.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 12.7Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · The Word is the bond, providence and guardian of the universe, the only-begotten God through whom all things were made.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 12.8Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · God gave the world his only-begotten Son as its soul; the Word, present in matter yet light from light, is one though he has many powers.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 12.11Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · The Father alone is the uncaused God; the one Word, his only-begotten, plays the many-stringed world like a lyre and pervades it like a soul.
  • Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 12.12Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · As one heaven and one sun suffice, so the one Father has one Word, who illumines all intelligible things.
  • Against Marcellus 1.1.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · The gospel that may not be changed is the baptismal faith in Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • Against Marcellus 1.1.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Only the Son revealed the Trinity, through baptism; Moses gave the law.
  • Against Marcellus 1.1.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Moses taught one God; the gospel reveals that this God is Father of the only Son and gives the Spirit through him.
  • Against Marcellus 1.1.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · The church guards the Trinitarian faith received at baptism, and Paul warned against any bishop who perverts it.
  • Against Marcellus 1.1.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Knowledge of Father, Son and Spirit marks off Christians from Judaism.
  • Against Marcellus 1.1.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · The church knows the one God as Father of a truly living and subsisting Son.
  • Against Marcellus 1.1.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · To make the Son a mere word, like a human word now silent and now active, is to deny the true Son.
  • Against Marcellus 1.1.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · A bishop who makes Father and Son one in substance and hypostasis with different names is a Sabellian; the church confesses a begotten, subsisting Son.
  • Against Marcellus 1.1.30Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · A mediator is not of one, so the one God and the mediator are not the same.
  • Against Marcellus 1.1.32Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · The Son was a real, subsisting mediator, not a mere word of God.
  • Against Marcellus 1.1.36Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Having set out the faith from Galatians, baptism and tradition, Eusebius turns to Marcellus's own words.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus quotes Asterius's creed of Father, only-begotten God, and Holy Spirit.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus accepts belief in Father, Son and Spirit but objects to Asterius's human theory of Father and Son.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus blames Asterius's claim that Father, Son and Spirit are truly such for the new heresy.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus rejects a truly existing Father, Son and Spirit, and makes Christ a mere word.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Asterius defended Eusebius's letter as making the Son's generation an act of the Father's will, not a passion.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says Paulinus appended Origen's words on the Father's indivisible begetting of the Son.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Origen argues that a begetting by emanation would make Father and Son bodies.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus blames Origen for giving the Word a second hypostasis.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Origen argues that God, always perfect, was always Father of the Son.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Eusebius says Origen's two passages agree: the Father is impassible and begot the Son before all ages.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.27Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Origen, unlike Plato, knew one first principle, the Father of the only Son.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus quotes Asterius's credal phrases and calls them proof of his bad opinion.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.34Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus argues that an image of God cannot itself be God.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.39Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus reports that Narcissus spoke of three substances, then attacks Eusebius for calling the Word God.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.40Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus accuses Eusebius of making the Word another God, separate in substance and power.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.41Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus quotes Eusebius on image and original as two substances, and likens him to Valentinus and Hermes.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.46Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus accuses Eusebius both of teaching two gods and, later, of making Christ a mere man.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.50Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus accuses Paulinus and Eusebius of Caesarea of believing in many gods.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.51Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus attacks the phrase “the only true God,” not realizing it is Christ's.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.52Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · The phrase comes from John 17:3; Marcellus demands Scripture for “one unbegotten, one begotten.”
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.53Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus turns against Narcissus's talk of a first and second God.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.54Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus argues from Gen 1:26–27 that God who speaks and God who makes are one.
  • Against Marcellus 1.4.55Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says Asterius makes Father and Son one only by agreement, and Eusebius makes the Saviour a man.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says the Word was not the image before the incarnation, and that what came down was spirit, that is, God.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says the Godhead, an indivisible monad, is expanded only by activity in the incarnation.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus reads “in the beginning” as the Word in God in power, and “with God” as the Word active in creation.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says “the Word was God” keeps the Godhead undivided.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus argues from John that the Word is in God and is the Father's power.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus argues that “I and the Father are one” means inseparability of God and his Word, not agreement.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus argues that “All that the Father has is mine” cannot express mere agreement.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus argues that if Father and Son were two hypostases in agreement, they would share all things in common.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says that on Asterius's view the Father would be taking the Son's own word.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus denies that John 10:30 refers to agreement in the flesh.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says “I and the Father are one” refers to the Word, not to the assumed man.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.26Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says that before creation there was quiet, the Word being in God, and only God was eternal.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.30Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says “I am he who is” teaches that there is no other God.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.31Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says God's Word is no more separable from him than a man's word, and creation was prepared in God's mind.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.34Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus cites Deuteronomy and the Gospel on the one God against Asterius.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.37Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says the Word to whom God said “Let us make” was no second God.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.38Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus likens God's “Let us make” to a sculptor speaking to his own reason.
  • Against Marcellus 2.2.42Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · If God and his Word are one and the same, there is neither Father nor Son.
  • Against Marcellus 2.4.24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · If the Word dwelt in the body like a soul, he had his own hypostasis apart from the Father.
  • Demonstration 6.11Aphrahat · 337-345
  • Demonstration 18.10Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aphrahat reads Gen 2:24 spiritually: a man who marries leaves God his Father and the Holy Spirit his mother, as his heart turns to the world.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.1.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius is astonished that Marcellus attacks Sabellius, whose view he shares.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.1.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus, by abolishing the Son's hypostasis, really teaches Sabellius's Son-Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.1.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus calls the Word God's son only in name, insisting he is properly a word.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.1.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's view makes God himself incarnate, which the church condemned in Sabellius.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.2.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The church knows one God as Father of an only Son, who is God by receiving the fullness of the Father's divinity.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.3.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius lists three errors about the Son and the church's confession of one God and one only-begotten Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Those who make Father and Son the same belong in the synagogue and make the Father suffer.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.5.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus revives Sabellius, making God a composite of Father and Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.5.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Even the Jew is better than Marcellus, though Jews suffer for rejecting Christ.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.6.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Believers know three: the man born of David's line, the pre-existing Son who dwelt in him, and the Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.6.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Body, Son and Father are distinct; denying any one puts one outside the church.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.7.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son must be truly subsisting, distinct both from his body and from the Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.8.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · At baptism the church confesses one God, the Father Almighty, against Greeks, Jews and heretics.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.8.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The church confesses one Father Almighty and the only-begotten Son, God from God, begotten before all ages, distinct from the Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.10.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · God is Father of the Son but maker of the world, as a king begets a son but founds a city.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.10.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus denies the Son's hypostasis; those who make him a creature deny his divinity.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.11.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Confessing the Son as God does not make two gods, since the Father alone is unbegotten and the Son's source.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.11.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son calls the Father his God, and Paul calls God the head of Christ.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.11.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Father, as the one unbegotten source and head, is the one God who sends, commands and exalts the Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.11.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son obeys, prays to and thanks the Father, whom he calls the only true God and greater than himself.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.12.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · What is begotten of God is God, and the begetting involves no emission, change or passion.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.14.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus disguised Sabellius's error but was caught in his own nets.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.15.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus says Sabellius erred by not knowing the Word, through whom alone the Father is known.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.16.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Saviour pairs Son with Father; Marcellus, avoiding “Son,” blames Sabellius for what he does himself.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.16.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Everyone grants God a word; Sabellius, like Marcellus, was expelled for denying a subsisting Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.16.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius shows that Marcellus, like Sabellius, makes God and his Word one and the same.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.17.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius repeats Marcellus's sayings that the Word is one with God, like a man's word.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.17.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus compares God's Word to a signifying word inseparable in hypostasis.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.17.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus repeats his analogy of the human word.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.17.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's words could be Sabellius's; Sabellius at least did not call a non-subsisting word Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.17.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus holds Sabellius's premise yet blames only Sabellius.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.17.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus should not have pictured God as a sculptor talking to himself.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.17.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The distinction of internal and uttered word, applied to God, suits Jews or Sabellius, not Christians.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.17.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christians too confess one God, Father of a true Son who bore many titles before the incarnation.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · “Through him” shows that the Son serves the Father, the author of creation.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son, light for rational souls, is distinct from the Father, the unapproachable light.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son's glory is received from the Father and existed before the world.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son, distinct from the invisible Father, was in his bosom, as the saints will be in Abraham's.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son alone shares the Father's kind of life, but as received from the Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.37Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ says he speaks as the Father taught him and always does what pleases him.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.38Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · “Always” and “taught me” show the Son is distinct from the Father, his teacher.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.40Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · If the Word lived in the flesh apart from the Father, there were two hypostases.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.42Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Saying the Father was incarnate is Sabellianism; so the Son must be confessed.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.54Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Paul names the pre-existent creator Son “Lord Jesus Christ,” distinct from the one God the Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.55Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Paul adds a second, the Lord Jesus Christ, which a Jew would not confess.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.56Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son is Lord of all after God because all things came into being through him.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.63Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Obedience to the Father shows two persons, not a word identical with God.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.73Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Calling Christ God's image guards against two gods: the one God is known through his image.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.74Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son is God as the Father's image, and was so before the incarnation.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.89Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Israel was taught one God; the Father of the only Son was revealed to the church of the nations.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.1.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Book 2: Marcellus's reasoning makes the Father himself born of the Virgin.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.1.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus identifies the Spirit who came on Mary with God the Father, renewing Sabellius.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.1.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus applies Bar 3:38 to the Father in the Word.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.1.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus applies Lam 4:20 to the Word and then identifies that spirit with God the Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.2.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Denying anything but God before the world makes one either a Jew or a Sabellian.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.3.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's view makes God his own father and son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus calls God and the Word one indivisible monad, expanded only by activity.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.4.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · If God and his Word are one, the God over all was born and died, as Sabellius taught.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.5.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · One indivisible hypostasis of God and Word leaves no Father or Son, only Sabellius's Son-Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.6.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The church confesses one unbegotten principle and a subsisting Son who has the Father as his source.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.6.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The baptismal creed confesses Father and Son; “expansion” applies to bodies, not to God.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.6.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · God begot the Son without division, change or passion.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.6.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · As God creates beyond our understanding, he begets the Son without passion in a way known only to him.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Two hypostases do not mean two first principles, since the Son has the Father as his principle.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Two hypostases of Father and Son no more imply two gods than two fathers.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The two hypostases are not equal in honour; the Father is the Son's God.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Father is shown to be the Son's God.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son, compared with the Father, is his image who worships and obeys him as his God.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son lives because of the Father and does the will of the one who sent him.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Father bears witness to the Son and is greater than he.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The one who came down from heaven to do the sender's will is other than the Father, and not the flesh.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · It cannot be the Father who came down, for the Son came to do the will of his sender.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · These sayings cannot be the Father's.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Honouring the Son honours the Father, as honouring the king's image honours the king.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.7.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son mirrors the Father and has received all from him; the Father, receiving from none, is the one God.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.9.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Change in time is foreign to God's unchangeable substance.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.12.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · An eternal Word other than God makes two principles; the same as God makes Sabellianism.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.12.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's view makes the Father pray to himself; Eusebius turns to the true sense of John 1:1.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.14.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · John says “the Word was God” without the article and “with God,” not “in God.”
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.14.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · “In God” would make the Word an accident and God composite.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.14.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's view makes the Father a substance without reason and the Son its accident.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.14.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The God beyond all is simple, and is Mind, Word, Wisdom and Good itself.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.14.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son, image of the Father and most like him, is God, Word and Wisdom, but begotten.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.14.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's identification makes John 1:1 say “God was with God.”
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.14.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · “Through him” signifies service, as the law came through Moses, so the Word is the Father's agent.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.14.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · If all came through the Word, there is a maker other than he, which Marcellus cannot name.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.14.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The God of whom John speaks is the subsisting only Son, not the Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.14.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · “In the beginning” refers to the Son's generation; “with God” shows his nearness to the Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.14.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus agrees with the Jew on God alone before creation and with Sabellius on one Father-Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.17.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · John wrote “the Word was God” without the article, not identifying the Word with the God over all.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.17.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · John teaches that the Father is God and that the Word, distinct from him, is also God.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.17.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Word is God as the living image of the Father's divinity.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.17.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · A better human image: the hidden mind is father of the word that makes it known.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.17.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The living Word goes forth to supply all creation, while the Father remains beyond, like the hidden mind.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.17.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Father is unapproachable; the Son pervades and governs creation.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus accuses Asterius of separating Father and Son like a human father and son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus argues that “I am he who is” cannot be said by one of two distinct hypostases.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus reads John 14:10 and Eph 4:5–6 as showing Father and Son are one.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus cites “worship the Lord your God alone” for an indivisible monad.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus cites Christ's answer on the first commandment.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The scribe agrees that God is one.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus says his opponents make a second God, unlike the scribe who confessed one.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus cites Exod 3:15 for one person called Lord and God.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus argues from the pronoun in the first commandment.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus cites Exodus and Deuteronomy on the one Lord.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus cites Deut 32:39 and 4:39 against Asterius.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus cites Baruch's “this is our God” as prophecy of the Saviour.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus reads Isa 45:14–15 as showing the Father in the Word.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus argues from “I am” in Isa 41:4 that God is one person.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus cites Isa 44:6 and challenges Asterius to say who speaks it.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus argues that if there were two gods, one would be neither righteous nor Saviour.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus applies Isa 46:8–9 to his opponents.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus argues from the article in Isaiah and cites Hosea and Malachi.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus adds Malachi and Psalm 81 against a second god.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.19.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus concludes that “I am the Lord your God” shows one God only.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.20.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Old Testament's teaching of one God was adapted to Israel's hardness of heart.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.20.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Moses taught only one God, not the Son, because Israel kept falling into polytheism.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.20.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The mystery of Father and Son was withheld from Israel lest they fall into Greek polytheism.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.20.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Old Testament proclaimed one God without denying that he is Father of the Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.20.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · “He who is” can be said of the Father and, as his image, of the Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.21.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Whether the Son spoke in his own person or the Father through him, “I am he who is” is true.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.21.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius restates Marcellus's dilemma about “I am he who is.”
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.21.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's dilemma ends by denying either the Father or the Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.21.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The first commandment is aimed against idols.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.21.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son, as the Father's image and mediator, gave the commandment against idols.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.21.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · As God speaks through Isaiah, the Father spoke through the Son to idolatrous Israel.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.22.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Father spoke the prophets' “none besides me” through the Son, who teaches the one true God.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.22.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Isaiah's “no God besides me” is directed against idols.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.22.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The mystery of the Trinity was reserved for the church, not for idolatrous Israel.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.23.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The church teaches one God and one image, his Son, not two unbegotten substances.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.23.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son is the living image of the Father's attributes and true God as image; “only” fits the Father as archetype.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.23.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · As a king's image does not make two kings, the Son as image does not make two gods.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.3.50Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Father designed heaven; the Son, seeing his plans, carried them out.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.3.53Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son, present at the Father's planning, made creation like a painter from the Father's ideas.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.3.54Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son does only what he sees the Father doing.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.3.55Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son does the Father's works “likewise.”
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.3.56Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son made creation by imitating the archetypes the Father lovingly showed him.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.3.57Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Father and Son rejoiced in each other before the world existed.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.3.62Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The prefix “with” and “rejoiced in me” show two persons present together.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.3.66Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's view is either Jewish or Sabellian.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus says three hypostases cannot be one unless the triad begins from the monad.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus says the monad is expanded into a triad without division.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus argues the Spirit's relation to Father and Son shows an expanded monad.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus argues that distinct persons would make the Spirit either independent of the Son or not from the Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus makes Father, Son and Spirit three names of one hypostasis.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son “came out” from the Father's inner kingdom when sent for our salvation.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Spirit, standing by God's throne, was sent on the Son and on prophets and apostles.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Even the devil and an evil spirit “went out from the Lord,” so going out does not imply identity.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Spirit receiving from the Son shows that the Spirit is other than the Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ calls the Spirit “another Paraclete,” distinct from himself.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ breathed and then gave the Spirit, showing the giver is other than the gift.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Giver, gift and recipients are distinct.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ speaks of himself and the Father as “we,” distinct from the Spirit.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ speaks of the Spirit as another, who will teach.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Paraclete, about whom Christ taught, is other than he.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Spirit will teach what the disciples could not yet bear.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Spirit sent by Christ and bearing witness to him is other than he.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Paraclete comes only after Christ departs.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Only a fool would identify the speaker with the Spirit he speaks of.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Father and Son both send the Spirit, the Son acting by the Father's will.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Spirit comforts and teaches the full truth of the new covenant.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · After his ascent to the Father Christ appeared with the Spirit ready for its ministry.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The breath gave a partial gift for forgiving sins; the full power came at Pentecost.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius defers fuller discussion; it suffices that the Spirit is other than the Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ speaks of the Spirit throughout as another person.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Spirit, distinct from the Son, is above every created rational being and included in the Trinity.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius holds the Spirit to be below the Son, receiving from the Son's treasury.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Father and the Son are each called spirit; the Spirit is supplied by the Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Scripture calls the Son spirit.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · “Paraclete” marks the Spirit off from angelic spirits; it alone belongs to the Trinity.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Baptism in the triple name: the Father gives grace, the Son ministers it, the Spirit is the gift.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.6.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius holds that the Spirit sanctifies, while the Son, alone sharing the Father's divinity, made all things including the Spirit.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.6.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Father presides over all, including the Son and the Spirit, and alone is called God over all.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.6.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius says the Spirit is neither God nor Son but came into being through the Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.6.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus makes one hypostasis with three faces and three names.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.16.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · As the Father is in the Son, so he will be in all perfected by the Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son of Man, distinct from the Ancient of Days, receives an unending kingdom.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.18.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · God will give himself to all, as Christ prayed that his own be one in the Father and the Son.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.18.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ gives his disciples the glory the Father gave him, that they may be one.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.18.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ's prayer asks that we share his glory and be one, by perfection in virtue, not by fusion of substance.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.19.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · We become one with Father and Son as they are one, by shared glory, not by fusion.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.19.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius answers the Sabellian proof-texts with Christ's prayer for his disciples' unity.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.19.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Father is in the Son as he wishes to be in us: by shared glory, not one hypostasis.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.19.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Father and Son are one by shared glory, which the disciples also receive.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.20.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Scripture says God is in us and we in him, though we are separate hypostases.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.20.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Such sayings about the Son express his unique fellowship, not identity with the Father.
  • On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.21.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Seeing the Son, the perfect image, the pure in heart see the Father as one sees a king in his portrait.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius quotes the opening of Arius's “Thalia” and its main claims: the Son was not always, came to be from nothing, and is changeable by nature.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius continues quoting Arius: the Word is not true God, does not know the Father or his own substance, and is unlike the Father and the Spirit.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 9Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius sets the church's confession of the Son, true God of one substance with the Father, beside the claims of the “Thalia” and asks which is fitting for God.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 11Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius attacks the Arian claim “there was once when the Son was not,” showing that it implies a time before the Word, and argues from Scripture that the Son is eternal, the “eternal power” of Rom 1:20.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 12Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius argues from creation and from many texts (Isaiah, Baruch, Hebrews, the Psalms, the “I am” sayings) that the Son is eternal, as radiance is never without light.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 13Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius shows that Scripture uses “before” and “when” of creatures, but “always” of the Son, so that the Arian phrases imply a time before the Word, through whom time itself was made.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 14Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius answers the objection that an eternal Son would be the Father's brother: the Son is begotten from the Father, and God's offspring is eternal because God's nature is always complete.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 15Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius argues that if the Son were Son only by participation, he would have to participate in something between himself and the Father, which is absurd.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 16Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius concludes that the Son is not a participant in God but is himself what is participated from the Father's substance, begotten without passion or division.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 17Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius argues that if the Son was once not, the Trinity was not eternal but grew by addition, and could as well be diminished.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 18Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius affirms one eternal Godhead in the Trinity, which neither grows nor lessens, and says an originated triad is a pagan idea.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 19Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius argues that God is an eternal fountain of wisdom and life, so that his Wisdom and Word, the Son, must be eternal and cannot be counted among the things made through him.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 20Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius argues that the Son, as image, radiance, and truth of the Father, must exist whenever the Father exists, since the Father always delights in his image.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 21Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius answers the Arian argument that a true image of the Father would have to beget a son in turn: in God alone the Father is always Father and the Son always Son.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 23Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius replies that God begets as God, not as humans do, just as he creates and exists as God, and that human fatherhood is named from his.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 24Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius shows that the Arian question “Did he who is make one who was not?” is confused, and restates it properly about God and his Word.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 25Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius turns the Arian question back on them, answering that God and his Word both eternally are, and that the one sense in which the Son was “made” is his becoming man.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 26Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius rejects the idea of the Son as God's instrument and turns the Arians' question to mothers against them: a child is from the parent's own substance, and only human nature makes it later in time.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 27Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius concludes that since nothing hinders God as nature hinders human parents, the Son, who is from the Father by nature, always coexists with him.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 28Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius explains that God begets without passion or division, as the titles Word, Wisdom, and radiance show, and that he is always Father.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 29Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius answers that God's being always a maker does not make creatures eternal, since a work depends on will but the Son belongs to the Father's substance.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 30Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius exposes the Arian question “Is the unoriginate one or two?” as a trap and sets out the different meanings of “unoriginate.”
  • Oration I Against the Arians 31Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius shows that in any of its senses the word “unoriginate” gives the Arians no ground for making the Son originated.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 33Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius argues that “unoriginate,” like “Almighty,” names God in relation to creatures, whereas “Father” names him in relation to the Son and is the better title.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 34Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius argues that “Father,” given by Christ in the Lord's Prayer and the baptismal formula, is a truer name of God than the unscriptural “unoriginate.”
  • Oration I Against the Arians 58Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius contrasts what Hebrews says of creatures (made, perishing) with what it says of the Son (eternal, reigning, creator), and explains “the Father is greater than I” as referring to the Son's begetting.
  • Oration I Against the Arians 61Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius argues that the Son's sitting at the Father's right hand shows that he shares the Father's Godhead and kingdom, unlike the angels who minister.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · If the Son were only a work, God would be a barren creator without Word or Wisdom; his begetting by nature must come before his creating by will.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 22Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · God calls things into being through his Word, so the Word cannot be one of them; only the Son knows and sees the Father, which no creature can do.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 31Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · We exist for the Word, not he for us; the Father creates through his own Word as light shines by its radiance, and the Word needs no instruction, unlike the creatures who question God.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 32Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Arians fight not with the church but with God's own testimony; Scripture's images of radiance and impress show the Word's eternity, and they suffice without prying into how.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 33Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · A word from a mind and radiance from the sun are proper to their source, eternal with it, and do not divide it; so the Son is from the Father without division or beginning.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 34Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Even bodily offspring do not divide their parents; the faith first taught to every Christian knew an eternal Son, until the Arian tares were sown with their objections from human generation and human words.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 35Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · God's Word is not like a passing human word: as God is eternal, so is his Word, living, active, and creative, perfect offspring of the perfect.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 36Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The manner of the Son's begetting is ineffable and should not be pried into; when at a loss one should believe in silence, and the one Word of the one God abides unchanging.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 38Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · If the Son were Word, Wisdom, and Son only in name, he would be nothing in himself; and an unoriginate Wisdom coexisting with God is either the Son or makes God composite.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 41Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Son is named with the Father in baptism not because the Father is insufficient but because grace given by the Father is always given in his Son, as light shines by its radiance.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 42Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Grace comes from the Father in the Son; those who deny the true Son, like the Jews who rejected him, endanger even baptism, which requires right faith together with the names.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 57Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Scripture says “made” of creatures and “begot” of the Son, and “in the beginning was” of the Word; creatures began to be, but the Word has his being without beginning in the Father.
  • Oration II Against the Arians 82Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Father's eternal delight in his Son, his image, shows the Son to be proper to his substance; Prov 8 thus proves the Son is not a creature but the Father's own offspring.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius opens the third oration with the Arian mockery of John 14:10, “I am in the Father and the Father in me,” and rejects any bodily or merely participatory sense.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Asterius explains John 14:10 as meaning only that Christ's words and works came from the Father; Athanasius replies that this makes the saying true of every prophet and saint.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Son is in the Father because his whole being is proper to the Father's substance, and the Father is in the Son as sun in radiance, mind in word, spring in river.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Father and Son are two, not one person named twice as Sabellius taught, yet one in nature and Godhead, like sun and radiance; so all that is said of the Father is said of the Son except “Father.”
  • Oration III Against the Arians 5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · John 10:30, 10:38, and 14:9 have one sense; as a king's portrait can say “I and the king are one,” so the Son, the Father's image, shows the Father's Godhead in himself.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Son is the fullness of the Father's Godhead; to name the Father is to imply the Son, so faith, honor, and worship are one, and texts on the “only” God exclude false gods, not the Son.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Texts calling God “one” and “only” are not aimed at the Son, who is no rival to the Father but glorifies him; they are directed against the false gods made by human beings.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 8Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · God's “I alone” is spoken through his Word against idols, as the sun might say “I alone am the light” against a painted board without meaning to deny its own radiance.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 9Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · “The only true God” excludes false gods, not the Son, whom Christ joins with the Father (John 17:3); “I alone,” “one,” and “first” include the Word, through whom God made all things.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 10Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · If the Son were one with the Father only by agreement of will and teaching, angels, stars, and saints would be sons and images too; only the Son is the Father's true and natural image.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 11Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Likeness and unity must belong to the Son's substance, not merely to his teaching; so the grace and peace of Father and Son are one gift, as Paul's singular verb in 1 Thess 3:11 shows.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 12Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · No one prays for gifts from God and an angel together, but from the Father and the Son; the “angel” Jacob invoked with God (Gen 48:16) was the Word, the “angel of great counsel.”
  • Oration III Against the Arians 13Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Deliverance and blessing come from God alone, so the “angel” Jacob joined with God was the Word; every gift is from the Father through the Son, as light shines through its radiance.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 14Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Angels only minister and announce; those who saw angels knew they had not seen God; but whoever sees and hears the Son sees and hears the Father.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 15Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The sun-and-radiance image shows one principle, not three gods as Greeks charge; it is the Arians, with a created Son and Spirit, who fall into polytheism, while the church confesses one Godhead in the Trinity.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 16Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · A created Son who is also called God would give the Arians two gods, two lords, and two faiths, like the Greeks; but the Son is the Father's own form, so God and faith are one.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 17Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Arians now argue from John 17:11, 21–23 that the Son is one with the Father only as believers become one in God; Athanasius calls this the devil's presumption of equality with God.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 18Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · If the Word differed from us only in time, he would share our name and nature; Scripture uses natural things, like animals, as examples for human conduct, not as statements of nature.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 19Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Commands like “Be merciful as your Father” call for imitation, not equality; so too John 17 does not make us one with the Father as the Son is, since we are sons and “gods” by grace.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 20Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ offers his natural unity with the Father as a model for believers' unity of mind, as he offered his gentleness for imitation, not for equality.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 21Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · “In us” (John 17:21) means that believers learn unity from the Father and Son, or are made one by their power; “as” signifies a pattern, not identity.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 22Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · In John 17:23 Christ asks that believers be perfected into one through his body, “one body and one spirit”; the word “as” still marks the distance in nature between them and him.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 23Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · As Christ was in the earth “as” Jonah was in the fish without being Jonah, so believers are one “as” the Father and Son without being equal to them; their perfection comes from the Word made flesh and the gift of the Spirit.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 24Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · According to 1 John 4:13, 15, we are in God by participating in the Spirit, whom the Son gives; the Son is in the Father by nature and does not receive the Spirit to be joined to him.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 25Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ's prayer that believers be one “in us” asks the Father to give them the Spirit through the Son; our being in God is the Spirit's gift, which the sinner can lose, as Saul did.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 36Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Sayings like “was given to me” guard against Sabellius by showing that the Son is not the Father, while “as the Father has life … so the Son” shows that he has it eternally from the Father.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 44Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ does not say “nor the Spirit,” showing that his not knowing is human; as the one who knows the Father, creates and determines all things, and has all that is the Father's, the Son knows the day.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 59Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Now the Arians say the Son came into being “by the Father's will”; Athanasius argues that this means the same as “there was when he was not,” and that Scripture speaks only of the Son's “being.”
  • Oration III Against the Arians 60Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Scripture speaks of will only for creatures; the idea of a will preceding the Word comes from the Valentinian Ptolemy, and Asterius's argument makes the Son one of the things made.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 61Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · God deliberates about creatures, which once were not, but his will for all things is in his Word; so the Word cannot himself come into being by a will, which would imply time before him and another Word.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 62Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Arian dilemma “by will or by necessity” ignores what is by nature, which is above both; as God is good by nature, not by choice or compulsion, so he is Father of the Son by nature.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 63Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · If the Word came by a prior will, the same would apply to the Father's own existence, which is absurd; the Son is himself the Father's living counsel, as Prov 8:14 says.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 64Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Creatures come by God's will, but the Word is that will and counsel itself; a will preceding him would make him second and a servant, not Lord united with the Father.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 65Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Son is himself God's wisdom, understanding, and living counsel, in whom God's will lies; to say he came “by will” is to say Wisdom came to be in wisdom; the Father calls him simply “my Son.”
  • Oration III Against the Arians 66Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Being Son by nature does not make the Son unwilled; the Father loves and wills him as he wills his own goodness, with one will shared by Father and Son, yet no will precedes the Son's existence.
  • Oration III Against the Arians 67Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Son is the Father's living counsel, not a product of will; human fathers too beget by nature, not by deliberation; the oration ends by urging the Arians to escape the devil's snare.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 1Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues that there is one origin of the Godhead, from which the Word is by nature Son, a Word with real substance and not a mere sound.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 2Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues that the Son is neither a quality in God nor a mere name, but a real offspring from the Father, two with him yet one.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 3Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues that the Word must be from God himself, and so is distinct from the Father yet one with him, and warns against making the Word merely attached to God.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 4Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues against the Arians that God's own Word and Wisdom cannot be something other than Christ, who is the only-begotten Son through whom God works.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 5Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author contrasts creatures, who are “attached” and “joined” to God from outside, with the Son, who is one with the Father and in him.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 9Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author explains John 10:30: Father and Son are two, yet one in Godhead, the Son being of one substance with the Father, against both division and Sabellius.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 10Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author answers the charge of teaching two gods: Father and Son are two, yet one God, like fire and its radiance.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 11Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues that those who say the Word was put forth for creation, like the Arians who say he was created for us, make the Word depend on us and God inactive before.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 12Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues that the idea of the Word going forth from God for creation and returning at the end would make God change and creation come and go without end.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 13Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author traces the idea of the unity “broadening” into a trinity to the Stoics and shows that it implies change in God and leads to Sabellianism.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 14Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues from Paul's and Noah's use of “broaden” that broadening leaves a thing the same, so a unity broadened into a trinity would still be the Father alone, with absurd consequences.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 15Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author reports three views that separate the Word from the Son and argues that the Word, being from God, must always be the Son of the Father.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 16Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues that if the Word and the Son were different, the Son, who alone is in the Father's bosom and knows the Father, would be greater than the Word; and John 10 shows that the Son speaks of oneness with the Father.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 17Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author explains that in John 10:30–38 Jesus refutes both Sabellius and Arius, and that the sayings of unity with the Father are spoken by the Son.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 19Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues from John 1 and John 14 that the world was made through the Son as through the Word, so the Son and the Word are one and the same, existing before the world.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 21Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues from the command to believe in the Son and from baptism into Father, Son, and Spirit that the Word is the Son, and refutes the view that Word and man together are the Son.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 25Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author rejects both Arius and Sabellius, and shows that the Sabellian image of one Father “broadened” into Son and Spirit makes the incarnation, baptism, and creation merely temporary.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 26Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues from 1 John and the Gospel that the Son is the eternal life and Word that was with the Father, and identifies the “hand” of God in the Psalms with the Son.
  • Oration IV Against the Arians 29Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues that, as the Holy Spirit and the Paraclete are one though “Paraclete” is not in the Old Testament, so the Word and the Son are one; and he shows from Homer that “beloved” means “only son.”
  • Epistle to the Monks 11Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · The monks are soldiers of the consubstantial Trinity; their prayers sustain the world, and they will see the saints and Christ.
  • Historical Fragments 1.1.1.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Gallic bishops thank God for the light of the true confession of faith.
  • Historical Fragments 1.1.1.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Western bishops at Ariminum and Nicé were forced, in the Easterners' name, to keep silent about ousia.
  • Historical Fragments 1.1.2.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Gallic bishops explain that they hold homoousion to mean the Son's true birth, not a Sabellian union, and accept likeness as true God to true God.
  • Historical Fragments 1.1.2.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Christ's words "I and the Father are one" express shared divinity, not only love.
  • Historical Fragments 1.1.3.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The bishops condemn "he was not before he was born" without making the Son unbegotten.
  • Historical Fragments 1.3.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Germinius of Sirmium confesses one true God the Father.
  • Historical Fragments 1.3.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Germinius confesses the Son like the Father in all things.
  • Historical Fragments 1.3.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Germinius confesses the judgment and the Holy Spirit given through the Son.
  • Historical Fragments 1.4.2.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Eastern creed of Serdica begins.
  • Historical Fragments 1.4.2.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The creed of the Eastern bishops at Serdica confesses the Son, begotten before the ages, incarnate, crucified, risen, seated at the Father’s right hand and coming to judge.
  • Historical Fragments 1.4.2.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The creed continues with the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete sent to the apostles, and the church, forgiveness, resurrection and eternal life.
  • Historical Fragments 1.4.2.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The anathemas of the Eastern creed of Serdica condemn Arian formulas, tritheism, the denial of Christ’s Godhead or pre-existence, and the identification of Father, Son and Spirit.
  • Historical Fragments 1.5.1.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Western bishops at Ariminum (359) tell Constantius that they resolved to keep the ancient faith of Nicaea unchanged, since any subtraction opens the way to heresy.
  • Historical Fragments 1.6.1.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Bishops detained at Ariminum thank Constantius for forbidding the words ousia and homoousion.
  • Historical Fragments 1.6.1.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The bishops rejoice that the unscriptural terms are now silenced.
  • Historical Fragments 1.6.2.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The bishops renew their request to return, praising the removal of ousia and homoousion.
  • Historical Fragments 1.9.1.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The catholic bishops at Ariminum resolve to keep the received creed of Nicaea without addition or subtraction, including the term “substance.”
  • Historical Fragments 2.2.6.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Ursacius and Valens anathematize Arius and his teaching and promise not to act against Athanasius without Julius.
  • Historical Fragments 2.2.9.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Hilary turns to expose the deceptive creed with which the Easterners opened their letter about Photinus.
  • Historical Fragments 2.2.9.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The apostles taught the unity of Father and Son; heretics, fallen into vice, seek to please by novel doctrine.
  • Historical Fragments 2.2.9.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Hilary summarizes Arius's teaching that the Son was made from nothing, condemned at Nicaea.
  • Historical Fragments 2.2.10.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Nicene Creed begins.
  • Historical Fragments 2.2.10.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Nicene Creed on the Son.
  • Historical Fragments 2.2.11.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Hilary contrasts the complete Nicene faith with the deceptive Eastern creed.
  • Historical Fragments 2.2.11.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Eastern creed's naming of the Trinity in fact divides it.
  • Historical Fragments 2.2.11.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Hilary expounds the Nicene Creed clause by clause, explaining "true God from true God", "born not made", and homoousion.
  • Historical Fragments 2.5.1.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The homoean formula: the Son is like the Father "according to the Scriptures", not in substance or in all things.
  • Historical Fragments 2.5.2.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Germinius is asked to deny that he teaches the Son like the Father in all things.
  • Historical Fragments 2.6.1.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Germinius of Sirmium writes to explain his faith, objected to by Valens and his colleagues.
  • Historical Fragments 2.6.1.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Germinius confesses the Son like the Father in all things except unbegottenness.
  • Historical Fragments 2.6.1.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Germinius supports his confession from the sayings of Jesus in John.
  • Historical Fragments 2.6.1.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Germinius argues from Gen 1:26, John 1:14, and Paul that the Son is like the Father in all things.
  • Historical Fragments 2.6.1.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Since all the fullness of God dwells in Christ, the Son cannot be partly like and partly unlike the Father.
  • Historical Fragments 2.6.3.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Germinius reminds Valens that the Dated Creed of 359, which they all signed, said "like the Father in all things".
  • Historical Fragments 2.6.3.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Germinius challenges his opponents to show from Scripture how the Son is partly unlike.
  • Historical Fragments 2.8.1.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The homoiousian envoys of Seleucia warn the Western envoys at Constantinople that the anomoean heresy dominates and must be condemned as doctrine, not just in Aetius.
  • Catechetical Lecture 0.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril urges the candidates to be refined like iron and looks forward to the night of their baptism, when angels will rejoice over their salvation.
  • Catechetical Lecture 3.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Water with the invocation of Father, Son, and Spirit acquires sanctifying power.
  • Catechetical Lecture 4.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Godliness needs both right doctrine and good deeds; Cyril gives a summary of doctrines before the Creed, beginning with the one God, maker of souls and bodies and Father of one Son.
  • Catechetical Lecture 4.6Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Belief in the one God roots out idolatry and heresy; Cyril then sets out faith in the eternally begotten Son, who reigns with the Father from all eternity.
  • Catechetical Lecture 4.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Son is neither separated from the Father nor merged with him; he is the eternal Word, a living person, not a spoken word.
  • Catechetical Lecture 4.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ will come again from heaven, not as the antichrists from the earth, and his kingdom has no end; the Holy Spirit, one and indivisible, is honored with the Father and the Son.
  • Catechetical Lecture 6.1Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Father and Son share one glory, so that glorifying one honors the other.
  • Catechetical Lecture 6.6Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Angels see God only as far as they can; only the Son and the Spirit know the Father fully, so no human need be ashamed to confess ignorance.
  • Catechetical Lecture 7.1Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Having taught the one God and refuted the heretics, Cyril turns to the article “one God the Father”: God is Father of the Only-begotten.
  • Catechetical Lecture 7.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Unlike the Jews, Christians confess the one God as Father of Christ, as the Psalms foretold; faith in the Father prepares for faith in the Son.
  • Catechetical Lecture 7.3Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · “Father” implies “Son”; the Creed names God as Father before heaven and earth so that the Son is not thought to rank below creation.
  • Catechetical Lecture 7.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · God is Father of many by extension but of the Son by nature, eternally, and without passion or change.
  • Catechetical Lecture 7.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The perfect Father begot a perfect Son and is glorified together with him.
  • Catechetical Lecture 7.6Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Father of Christ is the Creator and the God of Israel’s temple, as Christ’s own words show.
  • Catechetical Lecture 7.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · God the Father is unsearchable; only the Son, with the Spirit, sees him fully.
  • Catechetical Lecture 8.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · All creation serves God, who patiently bears with sinners until judgment; wealth is not the devil's but God's gift, which used well can even open the kingdom of heaven.
  • Catechetical Lecture 10.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ adapts himself to each person's need while remaining unchanged, and is Lord by nature as Maker of all; Genesis shows him at work with the Father in creation and at Sodom.
  • Catechetical Lecture 10.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The one who appeared to Moses was Christ, who later took a human face so that we could see him and live; in Exodus the Lord calls on the name of the Lord, revealing Father and Son.
  • Catechetical Lecture 10.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Son is Lord of all, not by seizing lordship but by receiving it from the Father, who gave it freely.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ is Son of God by nature and only-begotten, without brothers, named Son by the Father himself.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Unlike those who were given the name of sons, the Son was begotten eternally, like the Father in all things: light from light, God from God.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ is son of David in time according to the flesh, but Son of God eternally and spiritually, in a begetting no one can describe.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.6Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Scripture calls Christ the only-begotten Son, Son by nature, whose spiritual begetting involves no time, change or growth toward perfection.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.8Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Father's begetting of the Son, unlike Abraham's of Isaac, involves no ignorance or deliberation in time: the Father always has the Son.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.10Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Son is not like a spoken word that vanishes but a living, subsisting Word, eternally begotten, who creates, descends, ascends and reigns.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · No creature, neither earth, sun, heavens nor the highest angels, knows how the Father begot the Son.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.12Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Those who cannot explain the angels should not pry into the Son's begetting, which even Scripture does not describe; it is enough to confess one unbegotten Father and one Son eternally begotten, true God.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.14Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Isaiah and Christ's own sayings show that Father and Son are one in Godhead, kingdom, will and work, without being confused with each other.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Son, not the Father, became man and suffered; Christians must avoid both the Arian denial of the Son's eternity and the Sabellian confusion of Son and Father.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.16Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Son must not be reckoned a creature; the one Father is worshipped through the one Son.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.18Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Son is like the Father in all things, so that whoever sees him sees the Father; the Father lost nothing in begetting him, and the Son lacks nothing.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.19Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · God is Father of the Son by nature and of creatures by adoption; believers must believe that God has a Son without prying into how he was begotten.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.20Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Son did not begin at Bethlehem: Micah and Christ's own words show that he exists eternally, the Father being his timeless source.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.22Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · As a king's son builds the city his father plans, the Son made all things at the Father's assent, so that both rule over creation.
  • Catechetical Lecture 11.23Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Father made all things through the Son not from weakness but so that the Son might reign over his own works; the one who descended to Hades is the one who formed man from clay.
  • Catechetical Lecture 13.36Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The cross that has gathered believers from all nations and still heals and drives out demons will appear again before Christ at his return.
  • Catechetical Lecture 14.27Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Son did not begin to sit at the Father's right hand after the ascension: he has shared the throne eternally, as Isaiah's vision shows.
  • Catechetical Lecture 15.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Division among Christians prepares for the Antichrist; the apostasy Paul foretold is already present in the heresies that confuse Father and Son or make the Son a creature.
  • Catechetical Lecture 15.24Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · All humanity, with the countless angels, will stand before the Father, Son and Spirit at the judgment, where each will be convicted by his own conscience.
  • Catechetical Lecture 15.25Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · As a shepherd knows sheep from goats by their coats, Christ will judge by the deeds that clothe each person; the baptized must keep their robe unstained.
  • Catechetical Lecture 15.30Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Son's subjection to the Father is the free obedience of a loving Son, not the forced submission of a slave.
  • Catechetical Lecture 15.33Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril concludes: worship Christ as the everlasting King, flee the Antichrist, and keep the faith by good works to inherit the kingdom.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.1Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Speaking about the Holy Spirit requires grace and great care, since Christ said that a word against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril will say about the Spirit only what the Scriptures, which the Spirit himself spoke, have revealed.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.3Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · There is one Holy Spirit, the same in the Old and New Covenants, honoured with the Father and the Son and named with them in baptism.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Father, Son and Spirit are confessed as one God without division or confusion; the Spirit who came at Pentecost in Jerusalem's upper church shares the glory of the Crucified.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril will describe heretical errors about the Spirit only to warn against them.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.6Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril lists heretics who blasphemed the Spirit (Simon, the Gnostics, the Valentinians, Mani, and those who divide the Spirit of the two covenants) and warns the candidates to avoid them.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Mani's claim to be the promised Paraclete is refuted by the apostles' reception of the Spirit at Pentecost, two centuries before him.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.10Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Simon Magus was condemned for trying to buy the power of the Spirit; how much worse is Mani's claim to be the Spirit. Christians must keep enmity with the serpent.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Turning to Scripture, Cyril explains Christ's sayings about living water as referring to the Holy Spirit.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.12Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit is called water because, like rain, he is one yet works in many ways in different people; but “spirit” in Scripture can also mean angels, the soul, wind, virtue or demons.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.13Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Scripture calls angels, wind and Christ's teaching “spirit,” but the Holy Spirit is a living person who himself speaks.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.14Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit speaks, calls and sends, as Acts and Ezekiel show; he is the Church's sanctifier and teacher, whose teaching is Christ's own.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Scripture qualifies the word “spirit” when it means sin, wind or demons; a demon's coming is violent and destructive, quite unlike the Holy Spirit's.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.16Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Holy Spirit comes gently to save, heal and enlighten, giving the soul a vision of heavenly things as he did to the prophets.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.17Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Peter knew the deceit of Ananias and Sapphira, and Elisha knew Gehazi's greed, by the Spirit's revelation.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.18Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Isaiah, enlightened by the Spirit, foresaw the present desolation of Zion, now turned into cucumber fields.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.19Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The end of section 18.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.20Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit inspires virginity, poverty and victory over demons, and as Paraclete strengthens martyrs with the vision of paradise.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.21Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Martyrs bear witness by the power of the Spirit, as Christ promised.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.22Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit works in every believer, from the congregation present to all the churches of the world, giving each his gift.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.23Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit rules, teaches and sanctifies all the angelic orders; no creature is his equal, for he searches the depths of God.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.24Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit who spoke in the prophets seals souls in baptism; the Father gives all to the Son, who shares it with the Spirit.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.25Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The gifts of Father, Son and Spirit are one; the Spirit who came on the seventy elders and on the absent Eldad and Medad shows that the gift is his, not Moses'.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.26Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Moses' wish that all the Lord's people were prophets pointed to Pentecost; the Spirit given by the laying on of hands in Moses' day and by Peter will come on the candidates too.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.27Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit was given to the patriarchs, Joseph, Moses, Job and the builders of the tabernacle.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.28Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The judges, Samuel, David, the prophets of Chronicles, Ezra, Elijah and Elisha, and the writing prophets all testify to the Holy Spirit.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.29Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Haggai and Zechariah also speak of the Spirit.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.30Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Isaiah and Ezekiel speak often of the Spirit; the Spirit gave the young Daniel wisdom to rescue Susanna and to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.31Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Daniel interpreted by the Spirit a dream he had not seen.
  • Catechetical Lecture 16.32Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril ends the testimonies from the Old Testament and promises those of the New in the next lecture.
  • Catechetical Lecture 17.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The lectures on the Holy Spirit are divided, but the Spirit is one, and faith in him is undivided.
  • Catechetical Lecture 17.3Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The one Spirit, called by many names, lives, subsists, works, and sanctifies all rational creatures.
  • Catechetical Lecture 17.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The many names of the Spirit do not make many spirits; he is the Spirit of the Son and of Christ.
  • Catechetical Lecture 17.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit has many names but is one, living and subsistent, the same in both Testaments; he came upon the Virgin Mary.
  • Catechetical Lecture 17.10Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril gathers the Savior's own sayings about the Holy Spirit from the Gospels.
  • Catechetical Lecture 17.12Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ breathed the Spirit on the apostles after the resurrection, promising a fuller clothing with power at Pentecost.
  • Catechetical Lecture 17.32Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Paul's letters show that he and the other apostles were full of the Holy Spirit.
  • Catechetical Lecture 17.33Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Paul's letters show the Spirit as living and personal; the order of the creed's articles excludes Sabellius' error even though "spirit" is said of Father, Son, and Spirit alike.
  • Catechetical Lecture 18.30Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Eternal life comes from the Father through the Son in the Spirit; Cyril closes the Lenten lectures and announces the lectures on the mysteries to be given in Easter week.
  • Catechetical Lecture 19.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Foods offered at idol festivals belong to the devil's pomp: as the invocation makes the eucharistic bread and wine Christ's body and blood, so the invocation of demons defiles these foods.
  • Catechetical Lecture 19.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Renouncing Satan reopens paradise; turning to the east, the candidates professed faith in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and in one baptism of repentance.
  • Catechetical Lecture 20.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The triple immersion after the profession of faith imitated Christ's three days in the tomb; the font was both grave and mother.
  • Catechetical Lecture 21.1Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The baptized are called "christs" (anointed ones) because the chrism they received after baptism is the antitype of the Holy Spirit with whom Christ was anointed at the Jordan.
  • Catechetical Lecture 23.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · In the invocation (epiclesis) the Holy Spirit is asked to make the bread and wine the body and blood of Christ.
  • On the Decrees of Nicaea 11Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · God creates and begets in a way unlike men: the Son is begotten without division or passion, eternally, as radiance from light and a stream from a fountain.
  • On the Decrees of Nicaea 12Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Radiance cannot be separated from the sun, so the Son cannot have had a beginning or be foreign to the Father’s essence.
  • On the Decrees of Nicaea 15Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Since Scripture calls the Son God’s Word and Wisdom, saying he once was not means saying God was once without Word and Wisdom.
  • On the Decrees of Nicaea 17Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · God has one Word, who is also called Son, Wisdom, Image, Hand, and Power; Scripture shows that all things were made through and in him.
  • On the Decrees of Nicaea 20Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Because the Arians claimed that “like,” “always,” “power,” and “in him” applied to us too, the council wrote “of the same essence” and added its anathemas.
  • On the Decrees of Nicaea 22Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Since God is simple, “God” signifies his very essence, so “from the essence of God” means the same as “from God,” said of the true Son.
  • On the Decrees of Nicaea 23Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · The image of light and radiance shows that the Son is of the same essence as the Father, not merely like him as one metal resembles another.
  • On the Decrees of Nicaea 24Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · The Son is of the same essence as the Father, as radiance with light; and the council’s terms were already used by Theognostus and by Dionysius of Alexandria.
  • On the Decrees of Nicaea 26Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Dionysius of Rome condemned both those who divide the Godhead into three gods and those who call the Son a thing made, upholding the Triad and the one monarchy.
  • On the Decrees of Nicaea 27Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Origen too taught that the Son is eternal, and the council’s faith is the tradition of the catholic church handed down from the apostles.
  • On the Decrees of Nicaea 30Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Calling God “Father,” as Christ taught in prayer and baptism, is truer than calling him “unoriginate,” because it names the Son as well.
  • On the Opinion of Dionysius 5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Dionysius wrote the disputed letter against Sabellian bishops in the Pentapolis, stressing the Son’s human traits to show that the Son, not the Father, became man.
  • On the Opinion of Dionysius 13Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Some brothers denounced Dionysius of Alexandria to Dionysius of Rome, who condemned both Sabellianism and the creature doctrine; Dionysius of Alexandria then wrote his Refutation and Defense.
  • On the Opinion of Dionysius 14Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Dionysius entitled his reply a Refutation and Defense, and in it he taught that the Son is eternal, as radiance from eternal light.
  • On the Opinion of Dionysius 16Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Dionysius taught that the Father was always Father, and that the names Father, Son, and Spirit are inseparable: the Monad is expanded into the Triad and the Triad gathered into the Monad.
  • On the Opinion of Dionysius 18Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Dionysius explained that his lowly examples were used in passing and that he held the Son to be of the same essence as the Father; the Arians cannot both claim him and reject “of the same essence.”
  • On the Opinion of Dionysius 20Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Dionysius asked to be judged by his meaning: he called the Son of the same essence as the Father in sense, and called God “maker” only in a broad sense of the word.
  • On the Opinion of Dionysius 22Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Dionysius did not mean that Father and Son are joined only in name, for he taught that God was always Father and the radiance eternally with him.
  • On the Opinion of Dionysius 23Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Against Arius’s claim of two Words, Dionysius compared the Son to the word that springs from the mind, distinct yet inseparable.
  • On the Opinion of Dionysius 24Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Dionysius’s teaching on the true Word, inseparable from the Father as river from spring, overthrows both Arius and Sabellius.
  • On the Opinion of Dionysius 26Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Against the Sabellians one should begin from Christ’s human traits, which show that the Son, not the Father, became flesh, and then teach his divinity.
  • Long recension, Trallians 6Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius warns against heretical teachers who mix poison with sweet words and deny the Father, the virgin birth, the passion and the resurrection.
  • Long recension, Philadelphians 4Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius urges one faith and one Eucharist, sets out the unity of God, faith and church, and gives instructions to wives, virgins, children, slaves, husbands, fathers and masters, honouring both virginity and marriage.
  • Long recension, Philadelphians 5Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius completes his instructions, ending with widows, and disclaims apostolic authority, writing as a fellow soldier.
  • Long recension, Tarsians 5Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius argues that the Son is distinct from the Father and subject to him, yet not a mere man but the Word through whom all things were made.
  • Long recension, Antiochians 2Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius shows from Moses, the prophets, the evangelists and the apostles that the one God has a Son who became man and suffered, condemns those who deny either, and reminds the Antiochians of Paul, Peter and Evodius.
  • Long recension, Antiochians 13Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius closes the letter from Philippi.
  • Long recension, Philippians 1Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius writes to remind the Philippians of their course and sets out the one God, one Lord, one Spirit, one baptism and one church.
  • Long recension, Philippians 3Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius sets out the one God, one Son and one Paraclete, the true incarnation and passion of the Son alone, and addresses the devil, who fears the cross, works through heresies, and could not recognize the Son of God in his lowly birth and life.
  • Long recension, Philippians 12Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Christ answers the devil meekly, confessing the one God and the Father who begot him.
  • Two Tractates and a Letter 3Potamius of Lisbon · ca. 350-360 · Potamius praises Athanasius for condemning the Arian heresy and argues from Scripture for the Son's unity of substance with the Father.
  • Cento, lines 24–49Proba · ca. 360 · Proba prays to the Father and the Son, recalls the ancient poets who sang of the origins of the world, and renounces her former poetry of war for a greater theme.
  • Cento, lines 397–421Proba · ca. 360 · At the baptism the dove descends and the Father proclaims the Son and commissions him to rule and save the peoples; Proba gives thanks for her own cleansing in baptism.
  • Letter to Constantius 7Cyril of Jerusalem · 7 May 351 · The letter closes with a prayer that God preserve the emperor, glorifying the Trinity.
  • Commentary on Matthew 11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · John’s question from prison is for his disciples; Jesus praises John, rebukes the unbelieving generation, affirms that he is Wisdom by nature, reproaches the unrepentant cities, and reveals the Father in mutual knowledge, offering his easy yoke.
  • Commentary on Matthew 12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · The grain fields, David’s loaves, the withered hand, Isaiah’s servant, the Beelzebub charge, blasphemy against the Spirit, the good and bad tree, the returning unclean spirit, and Jesus’ true family are expounded as figures of the apostles’ mission, Christ’s divinity, and Israel’s unbelief.
  • Commentary on Matthew 13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds the parables of Matthew 13: Christ in the boat as the church, the mustard seed, the leaven in three measures (law, prophets, Gospels), the hidden treasure, the pearl, and the net.
  • Commentary on Matthew 16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Jesus refuses a sign except that of Jonah, warns against the Pharisees’ leaven, receives Peter’s confession (with Hilary’s statement of the Son’s eternal generation and incarnation and his praise of Peter as foundation and doorkeeper), rebukes the devil’s suggestion through Peter, and calls disciples to take up the cross.
  • Commentary on Matthew 23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary treats the tribute to Caesar (we owe God body, soul, and will), the Sadducees’ question (in the resurrection women will be like angels; God of the living), the great commandment (the neighbor is Christ; love of Father and Son equal), and David’s Lord as showing unity of substance.
  • Commentary on Matthew 26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds Christ’s coming in glory (Matt 24:29–44): the fig tree’s branch as Antichrist, the passing of heaven and earth, the Son’s “ignorance” of the day as a merciful silence, the two in the field, at the mill, and in the bed (believers and unbelievers, believing and unbelieving Jews, catholics and heretics), and the call to watch.
  • Commentary on Matthew 31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · In Gethsemane, Hilary argues against those (who deny the Son’s eternity) who say Christ feared death: his sorrow “even to death” was for the disciples, lest they deny his divinity, and his prayer that the cup pass from him asks that his strength in suffering pass to them.
  • Letter to Marius Victorinus 1Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus opens his reply to Victorinus by appending Arius's letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia, in which Arius complains of persecution by Bishop Alexander and states that the Son has a beginning and came from nothing.
  • Letter to Marius Victorinus 2Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus appends Eusebius of Nicomedia's letter to Paulinus, which argues from Proverbs 8 and other uses of “begot” that the Son was created by God's will and is not from the Father's substance.
  • On the Divine Generation 1Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus argues that begetting is change, that God is unchangeable and nothing preceded him, and that God is therefore unbegotten.
  • On the Divine Generation 2Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus argues that neither substance nor existence could have preceded God, because God is simple and gives substance rather than receiving it.
  • On the Divine Generation 3Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus argues that God, the simple first cause in whom being, living and understanding are one, is without beginning or end and so can neither beget nor be begotten.
  • On the Divine Generation 4Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus lists the proposed modes of divine begetting and argues that effulgence, the first of them, implies alteration and a second, different substance.
  • On the Divine Generation 5Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus rejects begetting by a ray, by the flow of a point, and by emission, each of which would change or diminish God or produce two gods.
  • On the Divine Generation 6Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus argues that neither image nor imprint can be consubstantial with God, and that begetting by procession leads to absurdities.
  • On the Divine Generation 7Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus rejects begetting by motion and by overflow, arguing that an ever-overflowing God would produce endless new beings and that what is poured out is not consubstantial.
  • On the Divine Generation 8Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus argues that a work made by will and action is not consubstantial with its maker, and that God, being simple, is beyond substance, so nothing can be consubstantial with him.
  • On the Divine Generation 9Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus rejects the theory that the Son arose from a self-directed motion of the divine Spirit, concluding that what is second was made, not born.
  • On the Divine Generation 10Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus concludes that Christ the Word is God's first and chief work, made from nothing by God's operation, and points to his submission, ignorance of the day, and sufferings as marks of a creature.
  • On the Divine Generation 11Candidus the Arian · ca. 355–360 · Candidus cites Acts 2:36, Proverbs, and John 1:3–4 for the claim that God made Christ, and ends by praising Christ as the first substance and the maker of all things.
  • To the Bishops of Egypt 11Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 356 · Athanasius argues that the Arians must answer the charges actually brought against them, and then sets out the statements of Arius for which Alexander cast him out of the Church.
  • To the Bishops of Egypt 13Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 356 · Athanasius recalls Nicaea's unanimous condemnation of Arius and sets the Arian statements against John, Paul, and the words of Christ.
  • To the Bishops of Egypt 14Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 356 · Athanasius argues that Scripture, the angels and even the demons know only one Son and Word, and that a created Word would need another Word through whom to be made.
  • To the Bishops of Egypt 15Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 356 · Athanasius argues from John, Paul and the order of creation that the Word through whom all things were made is the one true Word, and that the Arians can show no work of their other “word.”
  • To the Bishops of Egypt 16Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 356 · Athanasius likens the Arians to the Manichees, who name a God without works, and rejects their claims that the Son is one power among many and does not know the Father or himself perfectly.
  • To the Bishops of Egypt 17Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 356 · Athanasius answers the Arian appeal to “The Lord created me” by referring such expressions to Christ's human flesh, and judges Arianism worse than other heresies because it attacks the Godhead itself.
  • Life of Antony 69Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · When the Arians claimed him, Antony came to Alexandria and denounced Arianism, teaching that the Son is the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father’s being, not a creature.
  • Hymns 1.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · An alphabetical hymn to Christ, eternally begotten of the Father and born of the Virgin, celebrating the Son's full equality and mutual indwelling with the Father; it breaks off at the letter T.
  • On the Trinity 1.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son shares the Father's eternity and nature, and became true flesh so that believers might become sons of God.
  • On the Trinity 1.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary describes two errors: those who make the Son merely an extension of the Father, and those who call him a creature rather than born.
  • On the Trinity 1.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Against these errors Hilary will show from Scripture that Father and Son are one God, neither two gods nor one solitary person.
  • On the Trinity 1.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Book 2 will explain the names Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the baptismal formula.
  • On the Trinity 1.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Book 3 will explain the saying “I am in the Father, and the Father in me.”
  • On the Trinity 1.23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Book 4 will answer the Arian creed and show from the Old Testament that Christ is God without denying that God is one.
  • On the Trinity 1.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Book 5 will show from the Prophets that Christ is true God by birth, without denying the one true God.
  • On the Trinity 1.28Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Book 8 will defend the unity of God against the Arian claim that Father and Son are one only in will.
  • On the Trinity 1.36Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The work ends by teaching about the Holy Spirit, who must not be counted among creatures.
  • On the Trinity 1.38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary prays for grace to confess the one unbegotten Father and the one Lord Jesus Christ, true God born from him.
  • On the Trinity 2.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The baptismal command names the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and contains everything needed for salvation.
  • On the Trinity 2.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary regrets that heresy forces him to put into words what faith should hold in reverent silence.
  • On the Trinity 2.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Heresy lies in misreading Scripture; to deny that the Son shares the Father's substance is to deny that the Father is truly Father.
  • On the Trinity 2.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary surveys the errors of Sabellius, Ebion, and the Arians of his day, and how they also corrupt the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
  • On the Trinity 2.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Forced by the heretics to go beyond the words of the baptismal formula, Hilary will explain the nature behind the names Father, Son, and Spirit, praying for pardon.
  • On the Trinity 2.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Father is self-existent, infinite, and eternal, beyond understanding, and is truly known only through the Son.
  • On the Trinity 2.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Every human description of the Father falls short; he is to be believed and adored rather than defined.
  • On the Trinity 2.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son is the true, perfect offspring of the unbegotten Father, not a part, an adoption, or a creature, and has all that the Father has.
  • On the Trinity 2.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The manner of the Son's birth is a secret even to angels; we do not understand even our own begetting, so we should not demand to understand God's.
  • On the Trinity 2.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary sets out the Lord's sayings about the Father and the Son and invites the reader to press on into the mystery, knowing it cannot be fully reached.
  • On the Trinity 2.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son is God from God, one from one, differing from the Father in nothing; faith knows that this lies beyond comprehension.
  • On the Trinity 2.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John's “the Word was with God” shows that the Word, existing before time, is with the Father.
  • On the Trinity 2.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “He was in the beginning with God” shows that the Word is eternal, truly God, and distinct from the Father without breaking God's unity.
  • On the Trinity 2.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “Without him nothing was made” implies that the Word works together with another, the Father, and so is not alone.
  • On the Trinity 2.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · What was made in the Word is life, for he was born as living God, perfect from the first; from this follow the sayings of his oneness with the Father.
  • On the Trinity 2.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John, who reclined on the Lord's breast, taught what human language cannot reach; believers should adore the Father and the Son as he did.
  • On the Trinity 2.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The catholic faith is a firm foundation and a universal remedy against all heresies: one unbegotten Father and one perfect, only-begotten Son, beyond time.
  • On the Trinity 2.29Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Holy Spirit exists, is given to believers, and belongs with the Father and the Son in the confession of faith, as Paul's letters show.
  • On the Trinity 2.30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The words “holy spirit” are sometimes used of the Father or the Son, since each is spirit and holy.
  • On the Trinity 2.31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Jesus' words “God is spirit” to the Samaritan woman teach that God is not confined to a place, and do not abolish the distinct name and gift of the Holy Spirit.
  • On the Trinity 2.32Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Paul's “the Lord is Spirit” distinguishes God's spiritual nature from the Spirit who belongs to him, the one Spirit who inspired the prophets and the apostles.
  • On the Trinity 2.33Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ promised the Spirit as Advocate to guide believers into all truth and enlighten their faith.
  • On the Trinity 2.34Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Paul describes the Spirit's work: making believers sons of God, enabling the confession of Jesus as Lord, and distributing gifts.
  • On the Trinity 2.35Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Spirit gives the mind the light of knowledge of God, as light enables the eye; he is to be sought and kept by faith and obedience.
  • On the Trinity 3.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Book 3 takes up the difficult saying “I am in the Father, and the Father in me,” which human reason cannot grasp unaided.
  • On the Trinity 3.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary recalls that the Father is eternal, unchangeable, and self-sufficient, beyond all place and time.
  • On the Trinity 3.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Father begot the Son from himself before all time, without division or change, giving him all that God is; the Son's bodily state was assumed for our salvation.
  • On the Trinity 3.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The whole Son is born from the whole Father and has all that the Father has; so each is in the other, one in power and nature.
  • On the Trinity 3.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Worldly wise men argue that a son born from one parent must be a part, leaving neither perfect; Scripture condemns such wisdom.
  • On the Trinity 3.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The mutual glorification of Father and Son shows not weakness in the Son but the same divine power in both.
  • On the Trinity 3.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Father, who cannot gain glory, is glorified when the Son makes him known and gives eternal life; all the Son's glory is the Father's.
  • On the Trinity 3.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Eternal life is knowing both the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent; the Son is joined to the Father, not separated from his true divinity.
  • On the Trinity 3.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Father is glorified when the Son accomplishes his work on earth; all praise of Christ redounds to the Father.
  • On the Trinity 3.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The name of God was known, but not as Father of an only-begotten Son born with the fullness of divinity; this is what the Son revealed.
  • On the Trinity 3.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's miracles, real but beyond explanation, teach us to accept his indescribable birth from the Father.
  • On the Trinity 3.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The risen Lord's bodily entry through shut doors is a fact beyond explanation; so too the Son's birth from the Father must be believed though not understood.
  • On the Trinity 3.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son's chief work was to reveal God as Father; the Arian view of the Son as a creature empties the names Father and Son of meaning.
  • On the Trinity 3.23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “I and the Father are one” and “the Father is in me” teach the same fullness of divinity in both; the Son, as image and likeness, is distinct but not unlike.
  • On the Trinity 4.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Arians reject the term homoousion (“of one substance”) by claiming it implies Sabellianism, a prior shared matter, or a division of God.
  • On the Trinity 4.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The church rejects the errors the Arians attribute to the homoousion: it confesses one Father from whom, one Son through whom, the Son born from eternity of the Father's substance without loss to him.
  • On the Trinity 4.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary lists the texts the Arians cite to reserve to the Father alone the titles one, wise, true, good, powerful, unchangeable, immortal, invisible, and unbegotten.
  • On the Trinity 4.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · If the Father's attributes belonged to him “alone,” the Son would be false, foolish, bodily, evil, weak, and mortal; the Arian argument proves too much.
  • On the Trinity 4.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Whatever glory belongs to the Son honors the Father who begot him.
  • On the Trinity 4.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Arian creed continues: the Son was not before he was born, is not co-eternal with the Father, and the Father as his principle rules over him.
  • On the Trinity 4.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God is one, as Moses taught against idolatry; but this does not deny the Son's divinity, since he is God from God, and Moses himself will be shown to teach it.
  • On the Trinity 4.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In Genesis 1 God speaks and God makes: the Father commands and the Son, through whom all things were made, carries it out.
  • On the Trinity 4.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “Let us make man in our image” shows that God was not alone in creating, but spoke to another who shares his likeness.
  • On the Trinity 4.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Genesis says God made man “in the image of God,” distinguishing God and God while showing one shared image and nature.
  • On the Trinity 4.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God's words to Noah, “I made man in the image of God,” again distinguish God from God while showing one nature.
  • On the Trinity 4.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Arians' own formula, all things from the Father and through the Son, matches the two persons in the creation of man.
  • On the Trinity 4.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Wisdom in Proverbs 8, whom even the Arians identify as Christ, says she was with God arranging creation and rejoicing in it.
  • On the Trinity 4.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary will show that Moses, while preaching one God, speaks of God and God throughout his books.
  • On the Trinity 4.23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The angel of the Lord who spoke to Hagar is also called Lord and God: he is the Son, “the angel of great counsel.”
  • On the Trinity 4.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The same one who spoke to Hagar as angel speaks to Abraham as God about Ishmael, showing that the angel is God born from God.
  • On the Trinity 4.25Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary sets out the Genesis narratives of the three visitors to Abraham, Sodom, Isaac's birth, and Hagar in the desert.
  • On the Trinity 4.26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The angel who spoke to Hagar is shown by her confession and by God's words to Abraham to be God himself.
  • On the Trinity 4.27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The man whom Abraham worshipped promised Isaac's birth, and Scripture calls the one who fulfilled it Lord and God; he is also the judge of all the earth.
  • On the Trinity 4.29Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “The Lord rained fire from the Lord” shows two persons sharing the one name, as the Father gave judgment to the Son.
  • On the Trinity 4.30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God's command to Jacob to build an altar “to God who appeared to you” shows God speaking of God, two persons with one name.
  • On the Trinity 4.31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The angel and the man who appeared to Abraham are God and Lord; God also came to Jacob as a man and wrestled with him.
  • On the Trinity 4.32Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The angel of the Lord in the burning bush speaks as the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
  • On the Trinity 4.33Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Moses' song calls the angels and sons of God to worship God, and his blessing of Joseph names him who appeared in the bush; the Son is God, distinct from the Father.
  • On the Trinity 4.34Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Moses, whom the Arians cite for the oneness of God, also teaches that the Son is God; the prophets come next.
  • On the Trinity 4.35Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “God, your God, has anointed you” distinguishes two persons, the Father and the Son, both named God, without a difference of nature.
  • On the Trinity 4.36Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “Before me there is no God, and after me there will be none” is spoken together with the chosen Servant, and does not deny that God was born from God.
  • On the Trinity 4.37Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In Hosea the Father promises to save Judah “in the Lord their God,” naming the Son God.
  • On the Trinity 4.38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In Isaiah 45 God addresses the king he raised up as God; the Magi with their gifts fulfil the prophecy of Egypt's toil and the Sabaeans' merchandise.
  • On the Trinity 4.40Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Isaiah's “God is in you, and there is no God besides you” is said to the Son: God dwells in God because God is from God.
  • On the Trinity 4.41Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Those who oppose the Son will be put to shame; the Father himself says to the Son, “There is no God besides you,” so the Arian “honor” to the Father dishonors him.
  • On the Trinity 4.42Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · A passage Hilary cites as Jeremiah (Baruch 3:35–37) speaks of God seen on earth among men: this is the Son, one God with the Father by unity of substance, not of person.
  • On the Trinity 5.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Arian appeal to “one God” set a trap: to deny it was impious, but to affirm it seemed to deny the Son or to fall into Sabellianism.
  • On the Trinity 5.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary answered by showing from Moses himself both that God is one and that there is God and God, deferring the question of unity.
  • On the Trinity 5.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In creation God speaks and God makes; the Son who carries out the Father's word has the same power and nature and so is true God.
  • On the Trinity 5.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “Let us make man” implies a partner in creation who is of one mind with God and able to do the work, not a false god.
  • On the Trinity 5.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Man was made in an image common to the Father and the Son; a true God and a false one could not share one image.
  • On the Trinity 5.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Since all things are made through the Son, man made “in the image of God” is made in the image shared by the Father and the Son.
  • On the Trinity 5.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Law names God and God and makes man in their common image, showing both to be true God.
  • On the Trinity 5.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “Angel” names an office, not a nature; the Son is called angel as sent by the Father, yet is true God by birth from him.
  • On the Trinity 5.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary admits his zeal has run ahead to the confession of one true God in Father and Son, which he will treat fully later.
  • On the Trinity 5.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God, telling Jacob to honor the God who appeared to him at Bethel, shows two who share the one name and nature of God.
  • On the Trinity 5.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary sums up: the Law everywhere speaks of God and God, Lord and Lord, with no hint of a true and a false God.
  • On the Trinity 5.25Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Arians cite “they will bless you, the true God” to deny the Son's true divinity; Hilary also confesses one true God, but in the nature of the Son as well.
  • On the Trinity 5.35Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Having shown the Son to be true God, Hilary turns to show that he is not a second God, but one God with the Father in nature, not person.
  • On the Trinity 5.36Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Paul's use of Deuteronomy 32 shows that “there is no God besides me” was spoken by the Son.
  • On the Trinity 5.37Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son is God from God and God in God by birth into the same nature; so “there is no God besides me” is true of him.
  • On the Trinity 5.38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Isaiah's “God is in you, and there is no God besides you” confirms the undivided divinity of the Father and the Son.
  • On the Trinity 5.39Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The passage cited as Jeremiah (Baruch 3) shows no other God beside the Son; the church confesses one God, not a solitary one.
  • On the Trinity 6.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Having proved from the Law and Prophets that the Son is true God, Hilary now turns to the Gospels, first exposing how the Arians hide behind condemning other heretics.
  • On the Trinity 6.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · By condemning Valentinus's “emanation,” the Arians aim to deny any true birth of the Son; but the church, rejecting Valentinus's aeons, confesses God truly born from God.
  • On the Trinity 6.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · By condemning Mani's “part of the substance,” the Arians try to deny the one substance; but the church rejects any portion and confesses whole God from whole God.
  • On the Trinity 6.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · By condemning Sabellius, the Arians aim to remove all unity between Father and Son; the church rejects Sabellian union but holds the unity of nature.
  • On the Trinity 6.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · By condemning Hieracas's lamp divided in two, the Arians attack “light from light”; but God's nature is not material, and the Son is light from light by birth.
  • On the Trinity 6.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “From him,” “from the womb,” and “I came forth from the Father” are God's own words and show a true birth of the Son from the Father's nature, not from nothing.
  • On the Trinity 6.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary prays to the Father that he learned from Moses, the prophets, and the Gospels to worship God not as solitary but with his only-begotten Son.
  • On the Trinity 6.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary tells God he cannot unlearn the faith he received from Scripture: the Son, begotten by God's power, has all that is the Father's.
  • On the Trinity 6.26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's saying that all things are handed to him and that only Father and Son know each other shows that the names Father and Son express their nature.
  • On the Trinity 6.28Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ alone knows the Father because he alone is “from him”; this unique knowledge shows a unique birth, not creation.
  • On the Trinity 6.35Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son's “coming forth” from God is a perfect, living birth without division or loss, not the beginning of a creature.
  • On the Trinity 7.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Having proved the Son a true Son, Hilary now proves from the Gospels that he is true God, neither solitary nor a second God.
  • On the Trinity 7.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary writes amid danger from Sabellius, the Arians, and Photinus; the church must confess one God who is not solitary.
  • On the Trinity 7.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Sabellius, seeing God's power in Christ, merges Father and Son; but “I and the Father are one” signifies two persons of one nature.
  • On the Trinity 7.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary has shown the heretics' confusion to guard against charges of preaching two gods or a solitary one; he now proves the Son is God by nature.
  • On the Trinity 7.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The names Word, Wisdom, and Power express the Son's true birth from the Father, who is never without them; “the Word was God” signifies God's very being, not a granted title.
  • On the Trinity 7.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The one name “God” for Father and Son expresses one nature, not two gods; the Son has the name by birth.
  • On the Trinity 7.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Birth transmits the parent's nature; the Son, born of God who is spirit, is God, not a creature that began or developed.
  • On the Trinity 7.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 5:18 shows that Jesus, calling God his own Father, made himself equal to God; such equality comes from birth and excludes both solitude and difference.
  • On the Trinity 7.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 5:19–23 confirms the Son's equality; the birth includes name, nature, power, and profession, so these cannot be treated separately.
  • On the Trinity 7.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “The Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father doing” expresses not weakness but the Son's birth and his possession of the Father's power.
  • On the Trinity 7.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son does “the same things” as the Father, showing one nature, and does them “likewise,” showing his birth as a distinct person.
  • On the Trinity 7.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Father “showing” the Son his works teaches us the Son's birth, not ignorance in the Son, who gives life to whom he wills.
  • On the Trinity 7.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Father has given all judgment to the Son so that all may honor the Son as the Father; equal honor shows one nature, given by birth.
  • On the Trinity 7.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In John 5 the Son is shown to be Son, since he does nothing of himself; God, since he does all the Father does; one with the Father in honor; and distinct, since he is sent.
  • On the Trinity 7.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In John 10:27–30 the Son's hand and the Father's hand are one: the Son received the Father's power by birth, and “I and the Father are one.”
  • On the Trinity 7.25Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “I and the Father are one” shows name, nature, and birth: two real persons, one nature, united by birth, not merged.
  • On the Trinity 7.26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ asks to be believed Son of God because he does the Father's works; only a Son by nature can be equal to God without dishonoring him.
  • On the Trinity 7.27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The works prove that “the Father is in me and I in him”: God is undivided life, and the Son born living from the living Father has life in himself.
  • On the Trinity 7.28Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Human birth only partly illustrates the divine: in God all is life and power, so the Son's birth involves no change or loss.
  • On the Trinity 7.29Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Fire kindled from fire, light from light, illustrates a birth without division or loss of nature.
  • On the Trinity 7.30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · These comparisons help the simple to see that the Son's birth is not unbelievable, without claiming to match God's nature.
  • On the Trinity 7.31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Father and Son are in each other by a perfect birth, not by mixing: neither two gods nor one solitary person, but one God.
  • On the Trinity 7.32Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Since the Son is from and in the Father, the church's faith preaches one God whether it names the Father or the Son, neither two gods nor one solitary person.
  • On the Trinity 7.33Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 14:6–11, “I am the way… he who has seen me has seen the Father,” reveals the whole faith; the way to the Father is through the Son.
  • On the Trinity 7.37Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “He who has seen me has seen the Father” refers to spiritual sight: the Son is the living image of the living Father, of the same nature and power.
  • On the Trinity 7.38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Only God's own words can express this: the Father is seen in the Son, so they are one nature but not one person.
  • On the Trinity 7.39Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Father and the Son are in each other not as one person in two masks, nor by mixing, but by the birth of living God from living God.
  • On the Trinity 7.40Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · “The words I speak I do not speak from myself; the Father who abides in me does his works” shows both the Son's distinct person and his unity of nature with the Father.
  • On the Trinity 7.41Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The mutual indwelling of Father and Son, unique to God, comes from a true birth: each is in the other, one God, not two gods.
  • On the Trinity 8.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary recalls what earlier books proved and sets his twofold aim: to teach the sound faith and to expose the heretics' arguments as absurd.
  • On the Trinity 8.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary sets out the heretics' three questions and the argument by which they use the oneness of God to deny that Christ is God by nature.
  • On the Trinity 8.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary recalls how Christ's own sayings about his unity with the Father exclude both two gods and a solitary God.
  • On the Trinity 8.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The heretics explain "I and the Father are one" as a unity of will, citing Acts 4:32, 1 Cor 3:8, and John 17:20–21.
  • On the Trinity 8.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The believers of Acts 4:32 were one through one faith and one regeneration, a unity of nature, not mere agreement.
  • On the Trinity 8.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Galatians 3:27–28 shows that believers are one through one baptism into Christ, not merely by agreement.
  • On the Trinity 8.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Planter and waterer of 1 Cor 3:8 are one by sharing one baptism and one ministry, so by nature, not will only.
  • On the Trinity 8.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Using John 17:21 to reduce "I and the Father are one" to agreement of wills only exposes the heretics' folly.
  • On the Trinity 8.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's prayer in John 17:21 speaks of a unity patterned on that of Father and Son, not of agreement of will.
  • On the Trinity 8.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 17:21–22 grounds believers' unity in the glory the Son received from the Father and gave them, which is not mere will.
  • On the Trinity 8.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Because Christ took our flesh and we truly receive his flesh in the Eucharist, he is in us by nature, as the Father is in him.
  • On the Trinity 8.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 14:19–20 shows a graded unity: the Son in the Father by nature, we in the Son through his birth, and he in us through the sacraments.
  • On the Trinity 8.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As the Son lives through the Father by nature, we live through the Son by receiving his flesh (John 6:56–57).
  • On the Trinity 8.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The heretics' appeal to our unity with God fails, since that unity is itself natural through the sacrament of Christ's flesh and blood.
  • On the Trinity 8.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Father and Son are one not by will or the dispensation but by birth and nature, as the Gospel sayings show.
  • On the Trinity 8.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Unanimity follows from unity of nature; John 15:26 shows the Son sending from the Father the Spirit who proceeds from the Father.
  • On the Trinity 8.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Spirit, proceeding from the Father, receives from the Son because all that is the Father's is the Son's (John 16:12–15), which proves unity of nature.
  • On the Trinity 8.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Romans 8:9–11 calls the same indwelling Spirit both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ.
  • On the Trinity 8.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary asks whether "Spirit of God" signifies the nature itself or a thing belonging to the nature.
  • On the Trinity 8.23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "Spirit of God" in Scripture can signify the Father or the Son, as Luke 4:18, Matt 12:18, and Matt 12:28 show.
  • On the Trinity 8.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God is not localized like a body; he is wholly present through what is his, which is nothing other than himself.
  • On the Trinity 8.25Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "Spirit of God" signifies the Father at Christ's anointing, the Son in casting out demons, and the Paraclete at Pentecost.
  • On the Trinity 8.26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Since the one Spirit is both the Spirit of God and of Christ, the natures of Father and Son cannot differ.
  • On the Trinity 8.27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 14:23 and Paul's teaching show one indwelling Spirit of God and of Christ, so Christ is God, one Spirit with God.
  • On the Trinity 8.29Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary quotes 1 Cor 12:4–10 and distinguishes four elements: Spirit, Lord, God, and the manifestation of the Spirit.
  • On the Trinity 8.30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The manifestation of the Spirit promised in Acts 1 is seen in the profitable gifts of 1 Cor 12.
  • On the Trinity 8.31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In 1 Cor 12:11 the one who works and divides the gifts is God, working through Christ, the gifts being given in the Holy Spirit.
  • On the Trinity 8.32Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · 1 Cor 12:12 shows that the varied gifts come from the one Lord Christ, whose body all believers form, and one Spirit divides them.
  • On the Trinity 8.33Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The ministries and workings in the church are both God's and Christ's gifts, as 1 Cor 12:27–28 and Eph 4:7–12 show.
  • On the Trinity 8.34Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Paul's "one God the Father … and one Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 8:6) states the church's faith in Father and Son without denying the Son's birth.
  • On the Trinity 8.35Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · If "one God" excluded the Son from Godhead, "one Lord" would exclude the Father from lordship.
  • On the Trinity 8.36Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In 1 Cor 8:6 each is one God and one Lord, so that neither two gods nor a solitary God is taught.
  • On the Trinity 8.38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "From whom" and "through whom" in 1 Cor 8:6 and Rom 11:36 point to one nature working in Father and Son.
  • On the Trinity 8.39Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Paul's careful confession of one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ excludes both two gods and a solitary God.
  • On the Trinity 8.40Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The confession of one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ refutes Sabellius, Photinus, and those who call the Son a creature.
  • On the Trinity 8.41Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The one faith confesses Father and Son in each other by one inseparable nature, and Paul's teaching agrees with Christ's own words.
  • On the Trinity 8.43Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's sayings in John 5 claim equality with the Father, and the life given to him is the same life the Father has.
  • On the Trinity 8.44Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The image of a seal shows that the Son bears the whole form of the Father, though the comparison falls short of the divine birth.
  • On the Trinity 8.47Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "Form of God" and "glory of God the Father" exclude both two gods and a solitary God.
  • On the Trinity 8.48Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Col 1:15 calls the Son the image of the invisible God, which cannot be a bodily, bounded likeness.
  • On the Trinity 8.51Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Creation and reconciliation in and through the Son, by God who was in Christ (2 Cor 5:18–19), show the Father's nature in him.
  • On the Trinity 8.52Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's sayings that the Father speaks and works in him explain how they are one: whole from whole, by a perfect birth.
  • On the Trinity 8.54Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The fullness that dwells bodily in Christ is the Father's divinity, present by generation, not by will or condescension.
  • On the Trinity 8.55Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "Bodily" fullness excludes both a single undistinguished God and a divinity of another nature in Christ.
  • On the Trinity 8.56Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The bodily fullness in Christ is the Father's whole divinity (Rom 1:20), present in the Son by a perfect birth.
  • On the Trinity 9.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary recalls Book 8: the fullness of divinity dwelling bodily in Christ refutes a unity of will and proves natural unity.
  • On the Trinity 9.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ raised himself (John 10:17–18; 2:19) and was raised by the Father, since he is the power and wisdom of God.
  • On the Trinity 9.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "Believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1) joins Christ to God in faith and nature, while excluding a solitary God.
  • On the Trinity 9.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In John 5:36–38 the Father's testimony is the Son's own works, showing that Father and Son work by one inseparable nature.
  • On the Trinity 9.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Unbelief in the Son is why the Father's voice, form, and word were not received, since the Father is heard and seen in the Son.
  • On the Trinity 9.23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Rejecting Christ is failing to seek God's glory, since the Son is honoured as the Father (John 5:23) and God's glory is the Son's (John 11:4).
  • On the Trinity 9.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's answer to the scribe on the greatest commandment (Mark 12:28–33) seems to exclude him from the one God, but the sequel shows otherwise.
  • On the Trinity 9.26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's question about David's Lord (Mark 12:35–37; Ps 110:1) shows the scribe that the Son is Lord within the confession of one Lord.
  • On the Trinity 9.27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ proves from David that he is Lord as Son of God, without breaking the confession of one Lord.
  • On the Trinity 9.28Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The heretics cite John 17:3 to deny that Christ is true God; Hilary agrees there are not two true gods but will show the Son is true God by birth.
  • On the Trinity 9.30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "I came forth from God" (John 16:27–33) means birth, not estrangement: the Father remains with the Son, who has overcome the world.
  • On the Trinity 9.31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In John 17:1–2 asking for glory and receiving power do not show weakness: they signify the birth by which the Son has all that is the Father's.
  • On the Trinity 9.32Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Since eternal life in John 17:3 requires knowing both the only true God and Jesus Christ, Christ cannot be separated from the true God.
  • On the Trinity 9.34Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As "one God the Father" does not stop Christ being the one Lord, so "the only true God" does not stop him being true God.
  • On the Trinity 9.36Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Confessing the Father as the only true God includes confessing the Son, born with the same nature, as true God.
  • On the Trinity 9.37Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Unlike spring and stream or fire and heat, the Son is a true offspring subsisting by a perfect birth, of the same nature as the Father.
  • On the Trinity 9.39Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "Glorify me with yourself" (John 17:4–5) asks that the servant's form be glorified into the Father's own nature, which the Son had before the world.
  • On the Trinity 9.41Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God glorifying in himself the Son glorified as man (John 13:32) shows that the Son is taken back into the glory of the Father's own nature.
  • On the Trinity 9.42Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Phil 2:11 confesses Jesus in the glory of God the Father, so the Son glorified in the only true God is not outside him.
  • On the Trinity 9.44Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In John 5:16–19 Christ answers the charge of sabbath-breaking and of making himself equal to God: the Father works in the Son's work.
  • On the Trinity 9.45Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "Cannot do of himself" in John 5:19 refers to the Father's authority working in the Son, not weakness; the Son does all the Father does and shares his honour.
  • On the Trinity 9.46Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 5:19 answers the sabbath charge, while "whatever the Father does" proves equality, so no weakness remains.
  • On the Trinity 9.48Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son acts through himself yet not of himself, because the Father abides in him: this is unity of nature.
  • On the Trinity 9.49Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Doing the will of the one who sent him (John 6:37–47) shows not lack of freedom but that the Father is heard and teaches in the Son.
  • On the Trinity 9.50Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son gives life to whom he wills (John 5:21) and wills what the Father wills, so his freedom and his unity with the Father coincide.
  • On the Trinity 9.51Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "The Father is greater than I" (John 14:28) must be read within the dispensation in which the Son, still God, emptied himself and took the form of a servant.
  • On the Trinity 9.52Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In the same discourse (John 14:9–11) Christ declared that the Father is seen in him and known through his works, by unity of nature.
  • On the Trinity 9.53Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "The Father is greater than I" (John 14:28) honours the Father as unbegotten source of the Son's birth without denying equality of nature.
  • On the Trinity 9.54Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Father is greater as giver of the name above every name (Phil 2:9–11), yet the gift is equality, being confessed in the Father's glory.
  • On the Trinity 9.56Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Father is greater as Father and as glorifier of the incarnate Son, while the Son, glorified in the Father, is not less.
  • On the Trinity 9.57Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son's birth is from the unbegotten God and beyond any beginning, so he always is, though born.
  • On the Trinity 9.61Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God is love and wholly Father, so the Son has all that is the Father's, including the divine foreknowledge of the future.
  • On the Trinity 9.69Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As the Spirit searches the depths of God (1 Cor 2:10–11), the Son, one with the Father, is not shut out from the Father's knowledge.
  • On the Trinity 9.70Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's sayings cannot mean a mere unity of will, and even that unity would be impossible between one who knows and one who does not.
  • On the Trinity 9.72Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God, being simple and almighty, has no speech after silence or change; the Son shares this omnipotence (John 5:19).
  • On the Trinity 9.73Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son's not knowing and the Father's knowing are ways of speaking to us; "All that is the Father's is mine" (John 16:15) refers to one divine nature.
  • On the Trinity 9.74Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Having all that is the Father's, the Son knows and wills as the Father does; the will is distinguished only to signify the birth.
  • On the Trinity 10.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary's earlier books leave no excuse but impiety; the heretics falsely accuse him of teaching a solitary God who became man.
  • On the Trinity 10.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary has taught a timeless birth: the Son is not two gods nor a solitary God, but the living image in whom the Father works, speaks, and is seen.
  • On the Trinity 10.58Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God has no soul in a bodily sense; Scripture's language of God's "soul" is figurative, like his hands and eyes (Isa 1:14; Luke 24:39).
  • On the Trinity 11.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Eph 4:4–6 joins one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father: each is one by his own property, not by a single undistinguished person.
  • On the Trinity 11.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The new teachers praise the Father as "alone" good, powerful, and immortal so as to exclude the Son and deny his natural birth.
  • On the Trinity 11.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As image and form of the invisible God (Col 1:15; Phil 2:6), the Son must have all the Father's perfections, or he is no true image.
  • On the Trinity 11.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Being born God means having the Father's nature; so the Father is both God of the Son's birth and Father of his nature.
  • On the Trinity 11.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's sayings pair acknowledgment of the Father as source with claims of equal nature, honour, and power (John 14:9–10; 10:29–30; 5:19, 22–23; 14:28).
  • On the Trinity 11.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God is the Son's Father both by eternal birth and, since the Word became flesh, as Father of all flesh; the shared Father and God of John 20:17 belong to the latter.
  • On the Trinity 11.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Eph 1:17 distinguishes the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, his God as man, from the Father of glory, his Father as God; the Greek articles make this clear.
  • On the Trinity 11.33Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As the Father draws people to the Son and the Son leads them to the Father (John 6:44; 14:6), so the Son subjects his enemies and God subjects them to him.
  • On the Trinity 11.44Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God, being perfect fullness, cannot advance or become fuller; the heretics' reading would make him forever lacking.
  • On the Trinity 11.45Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Paul's doxology in Rom 11:33–36 confesses that God's depth cannot be searched out by human minds; only the Son knows the Father.
  • On the Trinity 11.46Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Human sense grasps only what is visible or later than itself, so it cannot comprehend what is eternal and prior to it.
  • On the Trinity 11.47Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Since all things are from, through, and in God and he does not change (Rom 11:35–36; Mal 3:6), the Son's subjection cannot make God more perfect.
  • On the Trinity 12.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The faith confesses Christ not as a creature or something made but as the true Son, born and not adopted.
  • On the Trinity 12.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son, in the form of God, receives equal honour with the Father (John 5:23), which would be impossible for a creature.
  • On the Trinity 12.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "From the womb I begot you" (Ps 110:3 LXX) uses a human image to signify a true birth from God, not creation.
  • On the Trinity 12.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "From the womb" shows a true birth from God himself, as hand, eye, and heart show God's real acts without bodily parts.
  • On the Trinity 12.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Israel is God's son by adoption, not by birth; the only-begotten God was always and only Son, never not existing.
  • On the Trinity 12.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son, preceded by no time and born from him who is, was neither born from nothing nor non-existent before his birth.
  • On the Trinity 12.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The heretics argue that if the Son always was he cannot have been born, and if born he began, so "he was not before he was born."
  • On the Trinity 12.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Born is not the same as unborn, yet birth from an eternal Father is eternal; there is no interval between the Father's begetting and the Son's birth.
  • On the Trinity 12.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · An objector repeats that whatever is born once did not exist.
  • On the Trinity 12.23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · A human father begins to be father in time, but God is always Father, so the Son is always Son and never was not.
  • On the Trinity 12.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As "He who is" (Exod 3:14) belongs to God, the Gospels give the Son the same eternal "was" and "is" (John 1:1, 9, 18; Rom 9:5).
  • On the Trinity 12.25Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Born of the eternal Father before eternal times, the Son is eternal and born; "not to have been" belongs to time and cannot apply to him.
  • On the Trinity 12.26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son was born before eternal times, beyond human sense, so "he was not before he was born" is human reasoning applied where it cannot reach.
  • On the Trinity 12.27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Human knowledge measures things by prior time, but God's birth is before eternal times (Titus 1:2), so the Son never began after anything.
  • On the Trinity 12.28Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · One born before eternal times always is, so the idea that he once was not before his birth cannot even be conceived.
  • On the Trinity 12.29Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The objector replies that, if the Son was not non-existent before birth, then he who already was was born.
  • On the Trinity 12.30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary has never said the Son existed and then was born; being eternally born excludes both non-existence before birth and existence before birth.
  • On the Trinity 12.31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Since the Son's birth is beyond time and sense, neither "he was before he was born" nor "he was not" can be said of him.
  • On the Trinity 12.32Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son was born and always is; if he were not always Son, the Father would not always have been Father.
  • On the Trinity 12.33Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The heretics even ascribe a beginning in time to the Father's act of begetting.
  • On the Trinity 12.34Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God was always Father: Paul places the Son before eternal times, Wisdom before the ages (Prov 8:23, 27), and David before sun and moon (Ps 72:17, 5).
  • On the Trinity 12.39Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God's preparation of creation is eternal, nothing being new to him (Ps 33:6); Wisdom, present at that preparing, is co-eternal with it.
  • On the Trinity 12.41Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ reveals only his birth, and that birth from the eternal Father must be eternal.
  • On the Trinity 12.51Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Faith distinguishes Christ's creation in time from his eternal birth from God; it is enough to know the Father and the Son born of him.
  • On the Trinity 12.52Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary prays that he will always confess God as eternal Father, never without his Word, Wisdom, and Power, the only-begotten Son.
  • On the Trinity 12.53Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As Hilary confesses God in heaven, sea, earth, and his own mind without understanding them, he will not presume to grasp the Son's origin.
  • On the Trinity 12.54Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son is truly Son, begotten in the unity of the Father's nature, second from the Father yet never separate, so the Father is eternally Father.
  • On the Trinity 12.55Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary will not call the Holy Spirit a creature either: the Spirit who searches God's depths and intercedes for us (1 Cor 2:10; Rom 8:26) is God's own.
  • On the Trinity 12.56Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As the Spirit's working in rebirth is beyond knowing (John 3:7–8), Hilary will say of the Spirit only what Scripture says: that he is God's Spirit, not created.
  • On the Trinity 12.57Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary closes with a prayer to keep to death the baptismal faith in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • On Saint Athanasius 1.16Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer contrasts David's just rule with the emperor's injustice and compares Constantius to Ahab, who called Elijah the troubler of Israel.
  • On Saint Athanasius 1.33Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · From Wisdom on keeping God's law Lucifer argues that the Arians, denying the Son, serve the Antichrist, and expounds Philippians 2: the Son, equal to the Father, took a perfect man from the virgin without change in his divinity.
  • On Saint Athanasius 1.40Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer sets out the church's faith (the Father unbegotten, the Son begotten of the true Father and alone incarnate, one Godhead of the Trinity) and compares the emperor's taunt that God cannot rescue the Nicene bishops to Rabshakeh's taunt against Hezekiah.
  • On Saint Athanasius 1.41Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Comparing Athanasius to Job and his accusers to Job's friends, Lucifer urges the emperor to seek prayer and baptism through Athanasius, and argues that Job, Abraham, Daniel and the three young men were justified by the same faith in Father, Son and Spirit that the church holds.
  • On Saint Athanasius 2.9Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer compares the bishops' refusal to condemn Athanasius unheard with Daniel's rescue of Susanna, and argues that those who deny the Father a true Son will not spare his servant.
  • On Saint Athanasius 2.11Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer applies Daniel's sentence on Susanna's accusers to the emperor, sets out the Nicene faith (homoousion) against his Arianism, and recalls that as papal legate he had already called him the forerunner of the Antichrist.
  • On Saint Athanasius 2.26Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · From Christ's farewell discourse (John 14–15) Lucifer argues that only those who keep his commandments are loved by the Father and indwelt by the Spirit, so the bishops could not obey the emperor's order.
  • On Saint Athanasius 2.34Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer ends by holding up Paul, once a persecutor who acted in ignorance and found mercy, and promises the emperor a place among the saints if he confesses the Son's eternity and the one Godhead of Father, Son and Spirit.
  • That One Must Die for the Son of God 3Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Citing Christ's words on losing one's life and fearing God rather than the killer of the body, Lucifer describes Constantius's tortures, exiles and refusal of burial, and says Christians, who confess one divinity of Father and Son, gain glory from them.
  • That One Must Die for the Son of God 4Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Recalling his defiance before the emperor at Milan, Lucifer restates the Nicene faith in the Son as homoousios, claims that Christians everywhere hold it while Arianism has withered, and says that Christ present in his martyrs makes torture their glory.
  • That One Must Die for the Son of God 10Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer defends the equality of the Son with the Father from Philippians 2:6 and Jesus' sayings in John, says that whatever has a beginning can have an end, and applies Paul's warnings about apostates of the last times to the Arians.
  • That One Must Die for the Son of God 12Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer says the demons persecute the bishops through Constantius but are conquered in the martyrs, refers the emperor to his book On Apostate Kings, and argues from Philippians 2 that the Arians read only the texts of Christ's humiliation and ignore those of his eternal divinity.
  • That One Must Die for the Son of God 14Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer tells Constantius that whatever death he inflicts will bring the martyr immortality and bodily resurrection, while the emperor, unless he confesses the eternal Son and the one Godhead of the Trinity, faces the undying worm and outer darkness.
  • On Not Agreeing with Heretics 9Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer argues that heretics such as Sabellius, Marcion, Paul of Samosata and Arius have been cut off from the church like an offending member, and contrasts the Arian creed with the apostolic faith in Father, Son and Spirit.
  • On Not Agreeing with Heretics 14Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer argues that though Constantius confesses Christ come in the flesh, by calling the Son a creature he lacks both Father and Son, and that the faithful must avoid such heretics as children of darkness.
  • On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 18Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer argues that Constantius's Arianism differs from Photinus's and Paul of Samosata's denial of the Son only in words, quotes the Nicene Creed with its anathemas, and warns him from John the Baptist's imprisonment and the parable of the pounds.
  • On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 24Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · From John's command to test the spirits, Lucifer argues that, as those who deny Christ's incarnation are antichrists, so the Arians, who deny that the Son is truly born of the Father's substance, carry the spirit of Antichrist.
  • On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 26Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer compares Constantius with Judas Iscariot, arguing that the emperor, who has had the Nicene faith condemned and bought support with money, is worse than Judas, who at least repented and betrayed Christ only to unbelievers.
  • On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 28Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer argues that, as the spirit of divination stirred up Philippi against Paul and Silas, so unclean spirits drive Constantius, who cannot have the Holy Spirit without faith in the Son, and that like Saul he persecutes Christ in his servants.
  • On Apostate Kings 7Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer argues that Ahab, though an idolater and killer of prophets, was given victory over Ben-hadad to call him to repentance, and that the emperor's victories likewise prove God's patience, not his approval.
  • Letter to the Monks 1.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius tells the monks that the more he tried to write about the Godhead of the Word, the more the knowledge of it eluded him.
  • Letter to the Monks 1.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · The covering letter to the monks ends by asking them to treat the work as a refutation of the Arians, to return it uncopied, and to pray; then a fragment of the History describes how the emperor imposes unknown bishops on unwilling people.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Writing from the desert, Athanasius answers Serapion’s report that some who left the Arians now call the Holy Spirit a creature, one of the ministering spirits.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Those who call the Spirit a creature divide the Triad into creator and creature, and so err about the Son and the Father too.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The opponents base their view on Amos 4:13, “who creates spirit,” but the text says simply “spirit,” not the Holy Spirit, and they interpret Prov 8:22 more carefully.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Scripture never calls the Holy Spirit simply “spirit” without an addition such as “of God,” “Holy,” or the article, unless the context has already made the reference clear.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Old Testament passages always mark the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God or of the Lord, or as Holy, never simply as “spirit.”
  • Letters to Serapion 1.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · In the New Testament too the Holy Spirit is always marked as the Spirit of God, of Christ, the Holy Spirit, or the Paraclete.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Scripture uses “spirit” of the human spirit and of the winds, so Amos 4:13 need not refer to the Holy Spirit.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.8Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · “Spirit” can also mean the spiritual sense of Scripture or a person’s disposition, as with Caleb; a created “spirit” is better taken as one of these or as wind.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.9Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Amos’s “creates spirit,” beside the announcing of Christ, refers to the renewal of the human spirit through the incarnation, not to the Holy Spirit, in whom we are renewed.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.10Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The “thunder” of Amos is the gospel word; Athanasius names his opponents “Tropici” for their figurative exegesis, and rejects their claim from 1 Tim 5:21 that the Spirit is an angel.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.11Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Scripture never calls the Spirit an angel; Zechariah’s speaking angel is distinct from God’s Spirit, and baptism joins us to Father and Son in the Spirit, not in a creature.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.12Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Moses refused to be led by an angel and was given God’s own Spirit instead; so the Spirit is above creation and belongs to God’s Godhead.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.13Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Paul’s naming of angels after Christ no more makes the Spirit an angel than Exodus naming Moses after God makes Moses divine; the Triad is one and indivisible.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.15Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · When the opponents ask how the Spirit can proceed from the Father without being a Son, Athanasius answers that such things cannot be searched out; one must believe that God is, not ask how he is.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.19Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Scripture’s images—Father as fountain and light, Son as river and radiance—show the Spirit in the Son, in whom we are enlightened and from whom we drink.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.22Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Spirit is from God, sanctifies, renews, and deifies, and is the image of the Son; so he cannot be a creature, and to call him one slanders the Son and the Father too.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.25Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Unlike changeable creatures and angels, who can fall and are present only where sent, the Spirit is unchangeable and fills all things, and so is proper to God.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.27Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Creatures partake of the Spirit and can fall, while the Spirit is partaken of and is one, not many; so he is of the same essence as the Son and the Father.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.28Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The church’s faith from the beginning is in one holy Triad, Father, Son, and Spirit, one in nature and activity, as Christ commanded in the baptismal formula.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.29Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · If the Spirit were a creature, baptism into the Triad would mix a creature into the Godhead, and the Tropici, like the Arians, would be worshiping the creature.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.30Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Baptism and faith are one because the Triad is one; calling the Spirit a creature would make two baptisms, while Paul shows that every gift comes from the Father through the Son in the Spirit.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.31Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Triad has one activity: the Father works through the Word in the Spirit, so that the prophets, the apostles, and Paul spoke in the Spirit with Christ speaking in them.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.32Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Scripture shows the Spirit to be proper to the Word and the Father’s Godhead; the Tropici, hated even by the Arians, are fighters against the Spirit.
  • Letters to Serapion 1.33Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Athanasius closes the letter: true worshipers worship the Father in Spirit and truth, and those who make the Spirit a creature risk the unpardonable sin.
  • Letters to Serapion 2.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Nothing in creation is almighty or unchangeable, as the Son is; so the Son, unlike creatures, is not of the same essence as they but is like the Father.
  • Letters to Serapion 2.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Creatures have a beginning and are gods only by participation, but the Son is the Creator, true God in whom the Father is.
  • Letters to Serapion 2.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Since all that is the Father’s is the Son’s, and no creature could have the Father’s properties, the Son is of the same essence as the Father, as Nicaea confessed.
  • Letters to Serapion 2.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · A father begets, not makes, a son of the same essence; so God’s Son is of the same essence, and texts such as “he created” refer to his becoming man.
  • Letters to Serapion 3.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Athanasius explains why his short third letter begins with the Son: the Spirit stands to the Son as the Son to the Father, so what shows the Son is not a creature shows the same of the Spirit.
  • Letters to Serapion 3.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Like the Son, the Spirit is from God and not from nothing, so he is not a creature.
  • Letters to Serapion 3.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Spirit is the anointing and seal that impresses Christ’s form, makes us God’s temple, and is one, not many; so he is not a creature.
  • Letters to Serapion 3.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Son is everywhere and is Creator; the Spirit likewise fills all things and creates, so neither is a creature.
  • Letters to Serapion 3.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Father creates through the Word in the Spirit, and the prophets and Paul spoke the Word’s message in the Spirit, so the Spirit is inseparable from the Son.
  • Letters to Serapion 3.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The grace given in the Triad is one, as the annunciation and the baptismal command show; the Lord would not have ranked a creature with the Father.
  • Letters to Serapion 3.7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · If the Spirit were a creature, the Triad would once have been a Dyad and grown by change; but the Triad is eternal, so the Spirit is not a creature.
  • Letters to Serapion 4.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Athanasius turns the opponents’ question (“Is the Spirit a son, and the Father a grandfather?”) back on them: Scripture names the Son and the Spirit as it does, and the Godhead of the Triad is one.
  • Letters to Serapion 4.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Spirit is the Spirit of the Son and proper to God; why one is called Son and the other Spirit is not ours to search out, as the names of creatures are fixed by God.
  • Letters to Serapion 4.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · What is handed down by faith is not to be pried into; the disciples simply believed the baptismal formula, and only heretics like Eunomius and Eudoxius ask whether the Spirit is a son.
  • Letters to Serapion 4.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Among men a son becomes a father, but in God the Father is always Father, the Son always Son, and the Spirit always Holy Spirit; the names cannot be exchanged.
  • Letters to Serapion 4.8Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Athanasius turns hesitantly to Serapion’s question: why is blasphemy against the Son forgiven but not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
  • Letters to Serapion 4.9Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Origen and Theognostus held that blasphemy against the Spirit is sin after baptism, citing Heb 6:4–6.
  • Letters to Serapion 4.10Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Origen held that the Spirit dwells only in the baptized, so their sin is against him; Theognostus that rejecting the third “boundary,” the teaching on the Spirit given to the perfected, leaves no pardon.
  • Letters to Serapion 4.12Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Since the Pharisees addressed by Christ were not baptized, the unforgivable blasphemy cannot simply be sin after baptism; it was their blasphemy against the Godhead itself.
  • Letters to Serapion 4.17Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Both blasphemies were against Christ himself: the lesser against his humanity, the greater, unpardonable one against his divinity, not against a Spirit greater than the Son.
  • Letters to Serapion 4.20Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Doubting Christ because of his body sins against the Son of Man; ascribing his Spirit-worked miracles to Beelzebul blasphemes his Godhead.
  • Letters 8, 9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil explains his withdrawal to the Caesareans and defends the Trinity against Anomoean arguments from Scripture; a damaged second letter to Maximus judges Dionysius of Alexandria and accepts “like in essence” only with “without difference.”
  • Letter 38Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · A treatise in letter form distinguishing essence (what is common) from hypostasis (what is particular), applied to the Trinity, with the rainbow as an illustration and an explanation of Heb 1:3.
  • Letter 52Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil, reassured by Bosporius, explains to a community of canonesses why the Nicene homoousios is sound, against objections from the council against Paul of Samosata, and warns against ranking the Spirit above the Son or the Father.
  • Letters 89, 90Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil asks Meletius to direct Dorotheus's mission to the West and to receive Athanasius into communion; a second letter, to the Western bishops, describes the ruin of the Eastern churches and asks for help.
  • Letter 105Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil praises Terentius's daughters for keeping the apostolic faith and sets out a short confession of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit against those who make the Son or Spirit a creature.
  • Letter 113Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil urges the presbyters of Tarsus to receive into communion all who accept the Nicene faith and do not call the Holy Spirit a creature, and to ask no more.
  • Letters 114, 115Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil asks the church at Tarsus to receive brothers who accept the Nicene faith and deny that the Spirit is a creature; the ref ends with the close of Basil's invective against Simplicia's eunuchs.
  • Letter 125Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · A statement of faith drawn up by Basil and signed by Eustathius of Sebasteia: the Nicene creed, read as distinguishing essence from hypostasis, with anathemas against those who call the Holy Spirit a creature.
  • Letter 128Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil refuses to be reconciled with Eustathius's party until it answers plainly whether it holds communion with those who reject Nicaea and call the Spirit a creature.
  • Letter 129Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells Meletius why he named Apollinarius as near to Sabellianism, reports a delay in the emperor's action against him, and suggests what the letter to the Western bishops should say.
  • Letter 131Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells Olympius that the writings used to accuse him are not his, that some are Apollinarius's, and that he neither teaches three gods nor communicates with Apollinarius.
  • Letters 140, 141Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil encourages a persecuted church to endure, sets out the Nicene creed as the only creed he accepts, and (Letter 141) tells Eusebius that illness and unwilling colleagues, not carelessness, have hindered him.
  • Letters 156, 157, 158, 159Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells Evagrius why he cannot settle the schism at Antioch himself; greets Antiochus twice; and answers Eupaterius and his daughter with the Nicene faith and a defence of the Holy Spirit's divinity.
  • Letter 172Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil thanks bishop Sophronius for a loving letter and recalls the ancient peace of the churches when the faith in Father, Son, and Spirit was kept simply.
  • Letter 175Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil declines to write a new creed for Count Magnenianus, urging him to keep the ancient faith: believe as baptized, give glory as believing.
  • Letters 188, 189Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil's first canonical letter to Amphilochius rules on the baptism of heretics and schismatics, abortion, lapsed deacons, repeated marriages, homicide, divorce, oaths, and other cases; the ref ends with most of his letter to Eustathius the physician defending the one godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Letter 207Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil answers the clergy of Neocaesarea, who opposed him over doctrine, his monks, and his night psalmody, defending the antiphonal psalmody common to the churches and urging them to keep the faith of Gregory Thaumaturgus.
  • Letters 210, 211Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil answers the leading men of Neocaesarea, who had been told he came to intrigue there: he came to rest at his childhood retreat, and the real issue is the revived Sabellianism of their leaders; then (Letter 211) he thanks Olympius for a cheering letter.
  • Letter 214Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil warns Count Terentius against the party of Paulinus at Antioch and its Western letters, defends Meletius, and explains why speaking of one hypostasis in God gives ground to Sabellianism: essence is common, hypostasis particular.
  • Letter 224Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells the presbyter Genethlius that the Eustathians who broke with him have attached heretical writings to their letters to make them look like his, denies any communion with Apollinarius, and points to the creed they signed and then abandoned.
  • Letter 226Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil writes to his own ascetics, breaking three years of silence about the slanders of Eustathius's party, exposing their shifts of allegiance, defending the Nicene homoousios and his teaching on the Holy Spirit, and urging them not to believe one-sided accusations.
  • Letter 236Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil answers several questions of Amphilochius: how Christ's not knowing the day and hour (Mark 13:32) is to be understood without making the Son unlike the Father, the prophecy against Jeconiah, Encratite food rules, triple immersion in baptism, the difference between essence and hypostasis, and providence over health, wealth, and sickness.
  • Letter 243Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil appeals to the bishops of Italy and Gaul to make the persecution of the orthodox in the East known to the Western emperor or to send visitors, describing exiled bishops, closed churches, and congregations drawn into Arian communion, and sends the presbyter Dorotheus.
  • Letter 244Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil explains to Patrophilus of Aegae how his breach with Eustathius of Sebaste came about, rebutting the charges of communion with Apollinarius and of deceit over the Nicopolitan creed, and listing the many creeds Eustathius has accepted, before asking whether Patrophilus remains in communion with him.
  • Letter 251Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil thanks the church of Evaesae for rejecting slanders against him, exposes the inconsistency of Eustathius and his party, who now court the very bishops whose deposition they once rejected, and states that his own faith, baptism, and doxology in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have never changed.
  • Letter 258Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil thanks Epiphanius for his concern about the divided monks on the Mount of Olives, says he will add nothing to the Nicene creed but the glorifying of the Spirit, explains his loyalty to Meletius in the Antiochene schism, welcomes Epiphanius's confession of three hypostases, and describes the Magusaeans of Cappadocia.
  • Letter 263Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil asks the Western bishops to denounce publicly to the Eastern Churches three men who are disturbing them while claiming orthodoxy: Eustathius of Sebaste, Apollinarius, and Paulinus of Antioch, whose teachings and careers he describes.
  • Letters 265, 266Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil writes to exiled Egyptian bishops denouncing the innovations of Apollinarius and warning them not to admit the followers of Marcellus without an anathema of his heresy; a second letter, to Peter of Alexandria, explains his silence about recent disorders, accepts Peter's approach to the Marcellians, and defends Meletius and Eusebius against the charge of Arianism.
  • Letter 360Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · A confession of faith in the Trinity and the incarnation, with the invocation of saints and the veneration of their images, presented as an extract from a letter of Basil to Julian.
  • Letter 361Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil asks Apollinarius to explain the scriptural and patristic use of 'essence' and the meaning of homoousios, suggesting that 'invariably like in essence' may express the Son's relation to the Father better.
  • Letter 362Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Apollinarius replies that 'one essence' can be said of things one in genus, as all men are Adam, and that the Son is homoousios with the Father uniquely, as the only offspring of the one principle, the same in otherness and other in sameness.
  • Letter 364Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Apollinarius explains why the Nicene faith had to be restated against those who replaced homoousios with 'like in essence', insists that homoousios means the Son is God, and adds the Spirit's place in the same Godhead.
  • Against the Arians 1Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius explains that he writes against the new creed only because it passes off heresy as orthodox faith and condemns the orthodox as heretics.
  • Against the Arians 2Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius outlines the errors of the Sirmian creed: its veiled denial of one God, its banning of the word “substance,” and its making the Son lesser, temporal, and subject like a slave.
  • Against the Arians 3Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues that the creed’s “one God, the almighty Father” is a trap: it confesses one Father, not one God, and calls the Son God only as men may be called gods.
  • Against the Arians 4Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius answers the creed’s denial of “two gods” by showing that it uses Christ’s words in his humanity to make the Son a creature, failing to distinguish his two states.
  • Against the Arians 6Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius laments that the bishops at Sirmium have forbidden the term “one substance,” overturning the faith defined by the Council of Nicaea.
  • Against the Arians 7Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius defends the word “substance” by its meaning and by many occurrences of substantia in the Latin Bible.
  • Against the Arians 8Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues that “one substance” means one divinity, power, and glory in Father and Son, and that the Arians reject it because they divide the Son from the Father.
  • Against the Arians 9Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues that the Arians cannot both assign the Son a beginning and declare his birth unknown, and explains “Who will declare his generation?” as pointing to an eternal and indescribable birth.
  • Against the Arians 10Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius explains “from, with, and in” the Father, compares the Arian claim that the Son’s origin is unknown to the unbelief of the Jews in John 9, and notes that the Son reveals the Father to whom he wills.
  • Against the Arians 11Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues that the Son’s birth has been revealed through the Spirit and Scripture, and describes it as an eternal birth of whole from whole, one from one, true from true.
  • Against the Arians 12Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius answers the Arian use of “The Father is greater than I” by showing from John that the Son shares the Father’s honour, works, and divinity.
  • Against the Arians 13Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius explains “The Father is greater than I” as referring to the Father as unoriginate source, and shows that “I in the Father and the Father in me” rules out both Sabellius and Arius.
  • Against the Arians 14Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues from John that the Son does all the Father’s works, is one with him by nature, and knows him perfectly, which would be impossible if the Son had a beginning.
  • Against the Arians 15Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues that making the Son subject to the Father along with creation numbers him among creatures, contradicting the Scriptures that God is one and that the Son bears the Father’s name.
  • Against the Arians 16Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues that the Father’s having no beginning does not imply that the Son has one, since the Father was never without his Word and Wisdom, and he explains Prov 8:22 of Wisdom’s eternal birth.
  • Against the Arians 17Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues that the Son, like the Father, is invisible in his divine nature, since the Old Testament appearances of God were seen only in dreams, mirrors, and visions.
  • Against the Arians 18Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues that the Son, as God, is neither visible, mortal, nor passible; the sufferings belonged to the human nature, to which the Son was united without leaving heaven.
  • Against the Arians 19Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius warns that the Arians use “God from God, light from light” to make the Son a second, separate God, and rejects their claim that the Son “suffered with” the man he took, since as God he is impassible.
  • Against the Arians 20Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues that Father and Son are one God in two persons, distinct but not divided, and that the Son is the Word, Wisdom, and Spirit of God, a real substance, not an empty sound.
  • Against the Arians 21Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius explains Phil 2 of the Word’s self-humbling and Rom 11:36 (“from him, through him, in him”) of the distinct but inseparable Father and Son.
  • Against the Arians 22Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius sets the Catholic rule between the Patripassian and Arian errors: one substance in distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God.
  • Against the Arians 23Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius answers the appeal to the aged Hosius of Cordoba, who had signed the Sirmian creed, by noting that his authority now contradicts his own past defence of Nicaea.
  • Against Arius 1.1Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus begins his reply by comparing the letters of Arius and Eusebius of Nicomedia with the Nicene faith, accepting their denials but rejecting the claim that the Son was made from nothing.
  • Against Arius 1.2Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from Ephesians 3, John 1:18 and John 8:19 that God can be known through the Son, who reveals the Father because he is of the same substance.
  • Against Arius 1.3Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from John 1:1–3 that the Word, who was in the beginning and made all things, cannot be from nothing and is equal to the Father, though he differs as the one who acts outwardly.
  • Against Arius 1.4Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the Father is being at rest and the Word is the same being in outward operation, and applies this to the true light of John 1.
  • Against Arius 1.5Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus gathers texts from John 1–5 showing that the Son is God, life, light, Christ and Saviour, and true Son of the Father.
  • Against Arius 1.6Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus cites John 5–6 to show that the Son, the bread from heaven, is life from the living Father, so that each is in the other.
  • Against Arius 1.7Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that Christ's sayings in John would be blasphemy from a mere man, and that “I am in the Father” means unity of substance, not of dignity alone.
  • Against Arius 1.8Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads John 7:37–39 to show the Spirit flowing from the Son as the Son from the Father's bosom, so that the three are homoousios, and adds further texts from John 8–10.
  • Against Arius 1.9Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from Philippians 2:6 that the Son is equal to the Father in power and therefore in substance, against Arius.
  • Against Arius 1.10Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus distinguishes Christ's natural sonship from our adoption, against Photinus, and explains his prayers and fear as part of the mystery of the incarnation.
  • Against Arius 1.11Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus cites John 12 and 14 to show that Father and Son are two from one substance, and that the Spirit, “another Paraclete”, is the power of Christ.
  • Against Arius 1.12Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from John 14 that the Spirit comes from Christ as Christ from God, speaking openly what Christ spoke in figures, so that the three are one and homoousion.
  • Against Arius 1.13Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains how the Son is both equal to the Father and lower, and how the Spirit, the hidden power of the Word, receives from Christ as Christ from the Father.
  • Against Arius 1.14Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains the order of Christ's sayings about coming from the Father in John 16–17, and shows from them that Christ existed before the world and is God in a man.
  • Against Arius 1.15Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus adds texts from John and Matthew, including the confessions of Satan and the demons, and argues from Matthew 11:27 that only one who shares God's substance can know him.
  • Against Arius 1.16Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus answers Valentinus from John 1:18 and argues from the sin against the Holy Spirit that the Spirit is God's, so that the three are of one substance with distinct subsistence by action.
  • Against Arius 1.17Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus cites Matthew 22 and Romans 2, 4 and 8 to show that Christ is God and that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ and Christ are one substance in three.
  • Against Arius 1.18Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads Romans 11:36 of Father, Son and Spirit, admits that the generation is beyond understanding, and argues from 1 Corinthians 2 and 12 that the one Spirit is God, Christ and the Holy Spirit.
  • Against Arius 1.19Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains in what sense Christ is the image of God: not a shadow but the living, self-subsisting form and action of the Father's being, homoousios with him.
  • Against Arius 1.20Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads Genesis 1:26 to show that Christ is the image of God and one image with the Father, while man's rational soul is made according to the image and is to reach the likeness through faith.
  • Against Arius 1.21Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus gathers texts from 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians and Philippians to show that Christ existed before the incarnation and, being “equal with God” (Phil 2:6), shares God's substance.
  • Against Arius 1.22Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from Philippians 2 that Christ is the form of God, homoousios with him, who emptied himself and became man rather than taking up a man, as Marcellus and Photinus held.
  • Against Arius 1.23Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus rejects the Photinian, Arian and homoiousian positions, arguing that substance as such cannot be “like” another substance, so that the Son must be homoousios, not homoiousios.
  • Against Arius 1.24Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus expounds Colossians 1:13–20 to show that Christ, the image of the invisible God and firstborn before all creation, is begotten, not created, and is the cause and fullness of all things.
  • Against Arius 1.25Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that the Son, the fountain of life and the fullness in whom the Godhead dwells bodily, must be homoousios with the Father, through whom all things are gathered into one like a chain.
  • Against Arius 1.26Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus applies 1 Timothy 3:16 to the incarnation of the pre-existent Word, who gives life to all things, and reads Isaiah 45:14–15 as a prophecy that God is in Christ.
  • Against Arius 1.27Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads Isaiah 45:14 against Jews, Photinians and Arians, and explains that the Word, God's power and wisdom, always proceeds from the Father as action from being.
  • Against Arius 1.28Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus attacks the new “homoiousion” party, arguing that its claim to antiquity is empty since Nicaea confirmed the homoousion, and that heretics were condemned for their own errors, not for saying homoousion.
  • Against Arius 1.29Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus answers the homoiousian objection that homoousion implies a substance prior to Father and Son, turning it back on “like substance”, and appeals to Isaiah's “none like me”.
  • Against Arius 1.30Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that the Word is God's image, not a likeness, defines substance, and answers the objection that “substance” is unscriptural by appealing to epiousios (Matt 6:11), periousios (Titus 2:14) and Jeremiah 23.
  • Against Arius 1.31Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that God, called light and spirit in Scripture, is substance, and that the Son is his image, form, will and Word, light from light, always with him.
  • Against Arius 1.32Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus illustrates the homoousion by the soul, whose life and understanding are one motion and one substance with it, as the Son, the Father's will and motion, is one substance with the Father.
  • Against Arius 1.33Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus rejects the view that God's being is a power at rest prior to God, insisting that God is both being and action, so that the Father and the Word are one and homoousion.
  • Against Arius 1.34Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus describes the Son as the image and effulgence of the Father, eternally begotten, the universal being that proceeds from the Father above the universal yet remains in him.
  • Against Arius 1.35Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from Colossians 1:13–15 and John 1 that the Son born of Mary, who redeemed us, is the same as the eternal image and Word, the firstborn before all creation.
  • Against Arius 1.36Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that the Son of Colossians 1, through whom all things were created, is the Word of John 1, since both texts ascribe creation “through him”.
  • Against Arius 1.37Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus compares Colossians 1:16 with Romans 11:36 and 1 Corinthians 8:6 to show that Paul gives the same prepositions, and so the same power and substance, to the Father and the Son.
  • Against Arius 1.38Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus expounds 1 Corinthians 15:24–28, arguing that the Son subjects all things by the Father's power and the Father subjects them to the Son, which shows that both are one action and one substance.
  • Against Arius 1.39Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the Word, acting by the Father's power, made and governs all things from creation to the final abolition of death, after which his activity rests and God is all in all.
  • Against Arius 1.40Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from 1 Corinthians 1:24 that Christ, God's power and wisdom, is one substance with God, as sight is one with the power of sight.
  • Against Arius 1.41Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from John 1:4 and 5:26 that Father and Son both have life in themselves, rejecting “like substance” and explaining that their substance is in a certain way both “itself” and “the same”.
  • Against Arius 1.42Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the Father is life at rest within and the Son is the same life as motion made manifest, so that the two are homoousion, each in the other.
  • Against Arius 1.43Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that only homoousion preserves one God, and that if the Son is the truth, the Father too is truth and of the same substance, not merely like.
  • Against Arius 1.44Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus distinguishes his teaching from Patripassianism: the Father is impassible, and the Son suffered only according to the flesh, while divine “emotions” are not passions but nature.
  • Against Arius 1.45Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus dismisses the Patripassians, Arians, Marcellians and Photinians, and the homoiousian followers of Basil, whose image of a spark struck from stone and iron he calls hidden Arianism.
  • Against Arius 1.46Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus closes his treatment of the homoousion by listing questions still to be answered and stressing that the Scriptures speak above all of the incarnate Word crucified and risen.
  • Against Arius 1.47Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus sets out his creed: the Father almighty, the only-begotten Son homoousios with him, the Word incarnate, crucified and risen, and the Holy Spirit, three who are one God.
  • Against Arius 1.48Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus asks whether spirit, Word, intellect, wisdom and substance are the same or different, and argues that all existents share a communion, so that they may be “other in identity” or “the same in otherness”.
  • Against Arius 1.49Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus describes the Father as the One before all being, beyond existence, substance and understanding, known only to himself, the first cause and power of all things.
  • Against Arius 1.50Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus describes the Father as triple-powered spirit, uniting existence, life and blessedness in simple oneness, from whom the Son leaps forth as the one existing in substance and motion.
  • Against Arius 1.51Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus describes the Son as infinite life going forth from the Father and returning as wisdom, and reads the incarnation from the virgin as the earthly type of this descent and return.
  • Against Arius 1.52Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains God as the power of existence, life and understanding, and the Son as life, the Father's will and motion going forth, both within and without, so that each is in the other.
  • Against Arius 1.53Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the Son is the form in which the hidden Father is seen, life in which being appears, and calls for faith in the incarnate Christ as the way to eternal life.
  • Against Arius 1.54Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the names spirit, Word, intellect and the rest belong to Father, Son and Spirit as synonyms, the three being the same yet distinguished as hidden and manifest.
  • Against Arius 1.55Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that “spirit” names the one substance of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit speaks from the Son as the Son from the Father: silence, voice and spiritual utterance.
  • Against Arius 1.56Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus calls the three one light, Word, voice and utterance; the soul is only an echo, like John the Baptist, while the Son is the life that became flesh by the Spirit and the power of the Most High.
  • Against Arius 1.57Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus says Christ is at once flesh, Spirit, power and Word, and describes the eternal generation as the divine life going out to know itself and at once returning into identity, like faces looking at each other.
  • Against Arius 1.58Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus calls the Holy Spirit the “mother” of Jesus above and below, and reads Luke 1:35 as the Spirit and the Word together bringing about the incarnation for the liberation of soul and flesh.
  • Against Arius 1.59Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus concludes that Father, Son and Spirit are one God, differing only in power and action, and lists biblical uses of “substance” against those who deny that the word is scriptural.
  • Against Arius 1.60Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus pictures the Word as a circular motion going out from the Father and returning to him, and the triad of being, life and understanding as a perfect sphere whose centre is God.
  • Against Arius 1.63Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the soul is made in the image of the Trinity, its being, living and understanding being three in one, as an image of the Son, who is the image of the Father.
  • Against Arius 2.1Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus opens Book 2 by arguing that God is not without substance but above it, and that Christ, the Only-begotten, is from the Father's substance, not from nothing.
  • Against Arius 2.2Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus rejects the claim that the Son came from nothing, distinguishes Marcellus and Photinus, and argues against those who say “like substance” that substance in two is the same, not like, so that Father and Son are homoousion.
  • Against Arius 2.3Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus answers the objection that “substance” is not in Scripture by arguing that God, though above substance, may be called substance, and by citing Jeremiah 23, Psalm 139 and Hebrews 1:3.
  • Against Arius 2.4Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains the Greek terms on, hyparxis and hypostasis, arguing that being belongs to the Father and form to the Son, that there are three subsistences of one substance, and that hypostasis in Scripture means ousia.
  • Against Arius 2.5Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that hypostasis in Jeremiah 23 and Psalm 139 means God's very substance, not wealth, and that to stand in it is to see the Word.
  • Against Arius 2.6Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus interprets the father's dividing of his “substance” in the parable of the two sons as God's riches, which are Christ, the power and wisdom of God, and concludes that Father and Son share one hypostasis.
  • Against Arius 2.7Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that his opponents themselves use the unscriptural phrase “light from light”, so they cannot reject homoousion, which follows from texts showing that the same life is in Father and Son.
  • Against Arius 2.8Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus traces the scriptural roots of ousia in epiousios bread (Matt 6:11) and the people periousios (Titus 2:14), arguing that homoousion is formed in the same way and rightly excludes heretics.
  • Against Arius 2.9Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus answers the objections that homoousion is obscure, scandalous or new, arguing that Scripture itself keeps foreign words, that the term excludes heretics, and that it was adopted at Nicaea and approved by Constantine.
  • Against Arius 2.10Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that both the deniers of substance and Basil's party in fact confess substance by calling God light and spirit, and explains that homoousion means “of the same substance” and “together”, excluding Arius's “once he was not”.
  • Against Arius 2.11Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus praises the Nicene term homoousion as the death of Arianism and argues that, since Father and Son are in each other, one may say “God in God, light in light” as well as “God from God”.
  • Against Arius 2.12Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus ends Book 2 by finding “light in light” in Psalm 36:9 and “God in God” in Isaiah 45:14, and urges that homoousion, the faith of Nicaea and of the apostles, be preached in all the churches.
  • Against Arius 3.1Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the Word is the image of God, light from light and of the same substance, and that to see the hidden Father one must die to outward life and understanding.
  • Against Arius 3.2Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains the generation as God's inner motion looking outward to see and know himself, so that the Son, the one motion and act, is only-begotten and consubstantial with the Father.
  • Against Arius 3.3Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that the Son is life from himself, in whom all things were made, and that in the incarnation the Word took the universal principle of flesh and of soul, so that the whole man was assumed and freed.
  • Against Arius 3.4Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that in God being, living and understanding are one in substance and three in subsistence, which the Greeks express as one ousia and three hypostases.
  • Against Arius 3.5Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus illustrates the unity of being, living and understanding by sight, whose power, act of seeing and judging are one.
  • Against Arius 3.6Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus urges his own spirit to seek God, who is known through the Son and the Spirit, and argues that Father, Son and Spirit, each spirit and life, are one substance.
  • Against Arius 3.7Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus calls the Father being, silence and rest, and the Son life, Word and motion born from that silence, warning against separating the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.
  • Against Arius 3.8Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that the Son is the one motion from the Father, life and knowledge, and that the Spirit exists as the knowledge within that one motion, receiving all from the Son as the Son from the Father.
  • Against Arius 3.9Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus concludes that Father, Son and Spirit are being, life and knowledge, one substance in three subsistences, and supports the Spirit's role as knowledge from Romans 8–9 and 1 Corinthians 2.
  • Against Arius 3.10Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus shows from Romans, Ephesians and John that Father, Son and Spirit are knowledge and life, one substance and one will, and that to believe in Christ, the Word of life, is to know God and have the Spirit.
  • Against Arius 3.11Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from John 8 and 10 that the Father is known in the Son as substance in life, and that the Word and Spirit, which lay down and take up the soul, are of a higher substance than the soul.
  • Against Arius 3.12Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the soul is the image of the Word, of like substance, which the Word, as life, takes up in the incarnation and lays down in death, and identifies the Spirit who came after Christ's departure as the one motion of the Word.
  • Against Arius 3.13Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads John 14:6–14 to show that Father, Son and Spirit are one, and that to ask in Christ's name is to ask for eternal life and spiritual things, not worldly goods.
  • Against Arius 3.14Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads John 14:15–26 to show that Christ and the Holy Spirit are two Paracletes but one motion, Christ the Spirit made open in the flesh and the Holy Spirit the same Spirit hidden.
  • Against Arius 3.15Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains Christ's “going to the Father” as the sanctifying of the risen humanity, and reads John 15:26 and 16:8–11 to show the Father, Son and Spirit joined in sending and in convicting the world.
  • Against Arius 3.16Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains the Spirit's work as giving knowledge and testimony, distinguishes baptismal sanctification from the gift of the Spirit for knowledge in Acts, and traces the apostles' witness to Christ's resurrection and ascension.
  • Against Arius 3.17Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus cites texts on the judging of Satan and explains that the three powers are one deity, referred to Father and Son because both are self-begotten motion of one substance.
  • Against Arius 3.18Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus ends Book 3 by explaining how Father and Son are two as one, Christ and Spirit two in one motion, and the Trinity one God, recalling the Spirit's role in Christ's conception and baptism.
  • Against Arius 4.1Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus opens Book 4 by asking whether “he lives” and “life” are one or two, and concludes that each is in the other, so that they are one, differing only as cause.
  • Against Arius 4.2Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that living and life are not two things coupled but one substance, since in eternal realities there is no accident and being, living and understanding coincide.
  • Against Arius 4.3Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that in God living and life are distinguished only as cause and effect, living being first and life its offspring, though they are always together.
  • Against Arius 4.4Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from John 4:24, John 6:63, Jeremiah 23 and Romans 8 that God is spirit, that spirit is substance, and that this substance is living and life.
  • Against Arius 4.5Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus distinguishes God's living from all created life and describes God as first begetting the universal Ideas of entity, vitality and intellectuality, each of which contains the others.
  • Against Arius 4.6Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that the Father is living itself and the Son is life begotten from that living, citing John 1:4, 14:6, 7:37–38 and the Samaritan woman to show that Christ is life and eternal life.
  • Against Arius 4.7Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads John 6:53–62 to show that the whole Christ, spirit, soul and flesh, is eternal life, and that Father and Son are consubstantial, distinguished only as cause and caused.
  • Against Arius 4.8Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains the Son as life, the form in which the Father's hidden living is seen, citing John 1:18, 14:9, Philippians 2:6, Colossians 1:15 and Exodus 33.
  • Against Arius 4.9Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus restates that God, the Son and the Holy Spirit are spirit, and that spirit, living from itself without beginning, is the eternal substance of life.
  • Against Arius 4.10Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that the Father is living and the Son life, begotten from living, so that they are two only as begetter and begotten, one substance and one God, homoousion.
  • Against Arius 4.11Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus describes the life-giving power flowing from the Word through the heavenly orders into soul and matter, so that all things live in their degree, while Christ and the Spirit are life itself from God.
  • Against Arius 4.12Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus identifies God as the fountain of all life and being, always perfect and needing no added act, while all else consists of powers and actions that proceed from him.
  • Against Arius 4.13Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus contrasts the soul, a made substance with self-originated motion, with the Son, life eternally made by the Father's living without beginning, so that maker and made are in each other and of one substance.
  • Against Arius 4.14Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus answers the objection that two living ones would both be unbegotten: the Son lives “because of the Father”, receiving the same substance from him, and so is homoousios in both senses, the same and together.
  • Against Arius 4.15Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus compares the generation of life from living with eternity made by an ever-present act, of which our present time is an image, and concludes that the Son is homoousios with the Father.
  • Against Arius 4.16Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that God is being, spirit and light, and that living and understanding are one motion from that being, so that Christ is life and the Holy Spirit knowledge, receiving from Christ as Christ from the Father.
  • Against Arius 4.17Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that life and understanding go forth from God's inner motion as Christ and the Spirit, and that Christ gives life through faith while the Spirit adds the knowledge that completes salvation.
  • Against Arius 4.18Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from John 16, Matthew 28 and Sirach 1 that the Spirit, the wisdom and knowledge of God, completes the faith Christ sowed, and that Father, Son and Spirit are homoousia; he then raises the question of how inner life and understanding appear outwardly.
  • Against Arius 4.19Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus distinguishes the first, unparticipated being of God, infinite and beyond even the existent, from the Logos, which defines and forms each thing so that it becomes an existent.
  • Against Arius 4.20Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that God's first being has its own hidden Logos, identical with being itself, and asks how this inner form came to appear outwardly as the image of God without becoming something other.
  • Against Arius 4.21Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus rejects the alternatives that the Son's form came from another, from nothing, or from itself, and prepares to explain, outside time, how God as triple power of being, living and understanding begets without change.
  • Against Arius 4.22Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that all creatures share in being, living and understanding as images of the higher three, and that God, “one all and not one”, is the principle from whom all powers and acts arise.
  • Against Arius 4.23Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that God is called without existence, substance, intellect and life not by privation but by supereminence, being the pre-existent, unknowable until knowledge, the Son, appeared.
  • Against Arius 4.24Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that in God knowledge and the knowable are one, knowledge becoming knowable by turning upon itself, and describes God as resting at the centre of all things, seeing all at once; he then states that contraries arise from contraries.
  • Against Arius 4.25Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that contraries do not truly perish: death in the world dissolves only the form of composite bodies, whose elements remain, while in divine things there is no death and procession is manifestation, not birth.
  • Against Arius 4.26Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the Son is the Father's inherent, consubstantial form, so that form and substance coincide and the Son is the same as the Father, God above being, living and understanding.
  • Against Arius 4.27Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that God is intelligence understanding itself, and that by this self-understanding, without motion, he exists and lives, unbegotten and one.
  • Against Arius 4.28Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the Son is the form and image through which God is known, the intelligence that, understanding itself, came forth outward from the inner intelligence which is the Father.
  • Against Arius 4.29Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that the Son, the outer intelligence understanding the Father's inner intelligence, received the Father's whole fullness and is homoousion with him in every respect, equal with God.
  • Against Arius 4.30Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from Philippians 2 and the resurrection that the Son, the form of God, is other than the Father though having all that the Father has by the Father's gift: God's hidden being made manifest.
  • Against Arius 4.31Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the Son, the Father's image and the Logos through which all things are made, acts both by the Father's power and by his own will, and, like a river from a fountain, suffers only in act and operation, not in substance.
  • Against Arius 4.32Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus sums up: Father and Son are homoousion; the Son, the Logos of all things, became incarnate from the Virgin, and Philippians 2:5–8 shows that he who existed in the form of God emptied himself even to the cross.
  • Against Arius 4.33Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus ends the work by restating that the pre-existent Word became flesh, that the Holy Spirit is the hidden, inward Christ, and that Father, Son and Spirit, each with his own existence, are one substance, a faith on which salvation rests.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 1Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus answers Candidus by reminding him that God is beyond human speech and that the Scriptures call Christ the only-begotten Son, one with the Father.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 2Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that we are sons by adoption only because Christ is the true Son, and that God, above being, begot Jesus as the perfect existent, not from nothing.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 3Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus asks what “that which is not” means, and argues that God, as cause of all, is pre-existent and the cause of both what is and what is not.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 4Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus distinguishes four senses of “that which is not” and concludes that God is the supreme existent, called non-existent only as being above the things that are.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 5Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that there is no absolute non-being by privation; the things that are not exist potentially or in idea before they come to be.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 6Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus divides what comes from God into four classes and says that what truly is not has no place in the fullness of God.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 12Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus says God is not one of the things he causes, and recalls the four senses of non-being against Candidus's claim that the Son came from nothing by election.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 13Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus concludes that God, being above every existent, life and knowledge, may be called non-existent by eminence.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 14Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that God begot the existent from himself, as a hidden child is brought to light at birth, and that this begotten existent is Jesus Christ, He who is.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 15Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus calls the Son the one perfect existent begotten by the Pre-existent before all things, the image in operation of the Father who is existent in power.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 16Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from John 1 that the Word was in the beginning, with God, and in the Father's bosom, and so was not made from nothing but manifested from the Father's hidden power.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 17Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus defines the Word as the Father's unmoved, ever-working active power, which was in the beginning with God and is God, not made from nothing.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 18Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the Word is the maker of all things, yet God, as first cause and cause of himself, is the source even of the Word.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 19Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that in God being and acting are one, the Father being and the Son acting, so that the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 20Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads John 1:1 and 1:18 to mean that the Word is within God's existence, as acting within being, so that Father and Son are two in power but one in simplicity.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 21Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus begins to explain the generation, insisting that “first” refers to the order of thought, not to time.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 22Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus says the Word, God's will and action, proceeded from the Father's being by a self-begotten motion outside time, so that being and acting are one and simple.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 23Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus concludes that the Son, as the action of the Father's being, is not from nothing but homoousios with the Father, God in God.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 26Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus answers the objection that “with God” means outside God: as God breathed the soul from within, so the Son was breathed forth from within, as Psalm 45 says, and was not made.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 27Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads Genesis 1:1 (with Aquila's “in the head”) as creation in Christ, the first of all, and concludes that the Father and the Word are homoousios.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 28Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that names such as substance are applied to God improperly, taken from created things, so “homoousios” can be used though God is above substance.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 29Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that texts saying Christ was “made” (Proverbs 8, Galatians 4, Acts 2) refer to his work after the eternal generation, not to his being, so that he is homoousios with the Father.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 30Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus turns Candidus's argument back on him: making is also motion, so not every motion is change, and the Son, the Word begotten by the divine intellect, is Son by truth, not by making.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 31Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus rejects the view that the Holy Spirit is a creature and affirms one divinity in three, distinct by their actions.
  • On the Generation of the Divine Word 32Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus ends with a prayer asking forgiveness for speaking of God and confessing the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
  • On Receiving the Homoousion 1Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus opens his short appeal for accepting homoousion by setting Christian faith in one God, Father and Son, between pagan polytheism and Jewish monotheism, and explaining that God's being is substance (ousia or hypostasis).
  • On Receiving the Homoousion 2Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus shows that Scripture speaks of God's substance (Jeremiah 23, Psalm 139, Hebrews 1:3) and explains that homoousion means both “of the same substance” and “substance together”, excluding Arius's “from nothing” and “there was when he was not”.
  • On Receiving the Homoousion 3Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus charges his opponents with being new Arians who say “God from God” yet mean “from nothing”, and answers their argument that generation would divide or diminish God, since spiritual beings beget without change.
  • On Receiving the Homoousion 4Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus answers the appeal to “Who can tell his generation?” (Isaiah 53:8), offers Latin equivalents of homoousion, cites Psalm 36:9 for “light in light”, and rejects “like substance” from Isaiah and the Psalms.
  • Hymns on the Trinity 1Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus's first hymn invokes Father, Son and Holy Spirit and sets out in verse his teaching that the Son is the motion and life of the Father's rest, one substance with him, and the Spirit the bond who returns all to the Father.
  • Hymns on the Trinity 2Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus's second hymn is a litany of “Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ”, confessing the Son's consubstantial life and asking for help in turning from the world to God.
  • Hymns on the Trinity 3Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus's third hymn is a litany to the blessed Trinity, naming Father, Son and Spirit through triads such as substance, form and knowledge, love, grace and communion, and fountain, river and watering.
  • On the Synods 10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary summarizes the aims of the Sirmian creed of 357 before quoting it.
  • On the Synods 11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The text of the Second Creed of Sirmium (357), which forbids talk of substance and calls the Father greater than the Son.
  • On the Synods 12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary defines essence and substance and quotes the first anathema of the Eastern bishops against identifying the Son with the Father.
  • On the Synods 13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary explains that the image implies a real distinct Son, and quotes the second anathema, which distinguishes giver and receiver of life.
  • On the Synods 14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The giver and receiver of life are distinct persons; the third anathema requires confessing the Son like the Father in essence.
  • On the Synods 15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The Son's likeness to the Father in nature is real and complete; the fourth anathema requires likeness in essence.
  • On the Synods 16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The Son's life from the Father implies likeness of essence; the fifth anathema rejects reading Proverbs 8 as making the Son a creature.
  • On the Synods 17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Proverbs 8 joins "created" and "begot" to show that the Son's birth is real yet without bodily change in the Father.
  • On the Synods 18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · "Created" and "begotten" together express a perfect birth; the sixth anathema condemns granting the Son likeness in working but not in essence.
  • On the Synods 19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Likeness of power implies likeness of nature; the seventh anathema condemns a Father of a Son unlike in essence.
  • On the Synods 20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · A Father unlike his Son in nature is a Father in name only; the eighth anathema rejects identity, partition, and emanation.
  • On the Synods 21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Some heretics use the Son's likeness to the Father to argue that they are one and the same.
  • On the Synods 22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The Son's birth excludes both union with the Father and partition or emanation; the ninth anathema forbids using the distinction of persons to deny likeness of essence.
  • On the Synods 23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Like the serpent and dove, the creed guards both against merging the persons and against making their natures unlike; the tenth anathema denies a time when God became Father.
  • On the Synods 24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The name of Father is timeless; the eleventh anathema forbids making the Father older than the Son.
  • On the Synods 25Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Likeness in essence implies no difference in time; the twelfth anathema forbids making the timeless Son the unbegotten Father.
  • On the Synods 26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The twelfth anathema guards against the Sabellian inference that a timeless Son must be the unbegotten Father.
  • On the Synods 27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary sums up the twelve anathemas of the Eastern bishops point by point.
  • On the Synods 29Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The text of the Dedication Creed of Antioch (341).
  • On the Synods 30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The anathemas that close the Dedication Creed of Antioch.
  • On the Synods 31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary raises the objection that the Antiochene creed seems to make three substances.
  • On the Synods 32Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The Antiochene "three substances" was aimed against Sabellianism and meant three persons, not three unlike essences.
  • On the Synods 33Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary shows the Antiochene creed teaches no difference of essence, then introduces the creed of the Eastern bishops at Serdica.
  • On the Synods 34Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The text of the Eastern creed of Serdica (343).
  • On the Synods 35Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary explains that the Serdican creed's anathemas make the Son's origin eternal and from God's own substance.
  • On the Synods 36Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Condemning both "three gods" and denial of the Son's deity implies one God in an undiffering substance.
  • On the Synods 37Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The creed rejects a solitary God without a Son and teaches the Son born by the Father's will; Hilary introduces the First Creed of Sirmium against Photinus.
  • On the Synods 38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The text of the First Creed of Sirmium (351) with its twenty-seven anathemas against Photinus and others.
  • On the Synods 39Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The Sirmian creed multiplied its anathemas to meet every trick of Photinus's renewed heresy.
  • On the Synods 40Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The first anathema secures the Son's eternal origin from God's own substance.
  • On the Synods 41Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Denying both two gods and a non-divine Son implies one essence of Father and Son.
  • On the Synods 42Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The one name of God does not abolish the person of the Son, so the unbegotten God was not born of Mary.
  • On the Synods 44Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · God, being spirit, does not expand or contract.
  • On the Synods 47Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The God in the man born of Mary is truly God, but not the unbegotten Father.
  • On the Synods 51Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The Son's subjection to the Father is one of obedience and name, not a lesser essence.
  • On the Synods 52Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Anathema XVIII rejects one person under two names.
  • On the Synods 53Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The Spirit sent by the Son cannot be the unbegotten God.
  • On the Synods 54Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The Son's praying for "another Paraclete" shows that the Spirit is distinct from the Son.
  • On the Synods 55Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The Holy Spirit is not a part of the Father or the Son.
  • On the Synods 56Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Three gods are excluded even more than two; anathema XXIII follows.
  • On the Synods 57Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · "Besides me there is no God" excludes false gods, not the Son born from God's own essence.
  • On the Synods 58Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Creatures exist by God's will, but the Son exists by birth from God's nature.
  • On the Synods 59Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The Son is born neither by bare will nor by compulsion of nature, but by the Father's willing, impassible begetting.
  • On the Synods 60Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · There cannot be two unbegotten; the one God is proclaimed through the one unbegotten Father.
  • On the Synods 61Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The final anathema sums up the faith against Photinus: the Son is not separated from the Father in any way.
  • On the Synods 64Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary states his own faith in a series of balanced affirmations and denials about Father and Son.
  • On the Synods 67Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · "One substance" is orthodox when it means equality of nature without abolishing the persons or dividing the substance.
  • On the Synods 68Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · "One substance" can be misread in three heretical ways: one person, a divided substance, or a prior substance shared by two.
  • On the Synods 69Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · One should affirm one substance only after confessing the Son's birth, likeness, subjection, and deity.
  • On the Synods 70Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Truths about Christ must be stated together, not in isolation; so too "one substance" must follow the doctrine of the Son's birth and likeness.
  • On the Synods 71Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary urges that "one substance" be held on the basis of the Son's birth and likeness, not as union or division.
  • On the Synods 72Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Likeness and equality amount to the same thing, and neither implies a solitary being.
  • On the Synods 73Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · From Adam and Seth (Genesis) and John 5:18, Hilary shows that likeness by birth is equality of nature.
  • On the Synods 74Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Those who grant likeness but deny equality contradict themselves, since a nature like the Father's is his own nature.
  • On the Synods 75Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · From John 5:19 Hilary shows that the Son's obedience to the Father goes with an equal power of nature.
  • On the Synods 76Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Likeness and one substance, rightly understood, imply each other.
  • On the Synods 77Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary turns to address the Eastern bishops directly.
  • On the Synods 79Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary rejects the claim of Valens and Ursacius that they forbade the terms through ignorance, pointing to the Sirmian creed's other errors.
  • On the Synods 81Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary reviews the three Eastern objections to homoousion: a prior substance, its condemnation in Paul of Samosata, and its absence from Scripture.
  • On the Synods 82Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary agrees with the Easterners in condemning the heretical senses of homoousion.
  • On the Synods 83Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Homoousion was adopted at Nicaea precisely against the Arian denial of the Son's birth from God's substance.
  • On the Synods 84Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary quotes the Nicene Creed and shows that its homoousion means only that the Son is born from the Father's substance and not from elsewhere.
  • On the Synods 85Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · If misuse by heretics disqualified a word, much of Scripture itself would have to be discarded.
  • On the Synods 86Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The 318 bishops of Nicaea who accepted homoousion against Arius outweigh the eighty who rejected it against Paul of Samosata.
  • On the Synods 87Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Silence about homoousion would logically mean silence about homoiousion too, leaving nothing against the heretics.
  • On the Synods 88Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Hilary explains his own understanding of homoousion and urges the Easterners to accept it rightly defined.
  • On the Synods 89Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Mere likeness can deceive, like gilt or look-alike milk; only likeness from a shared nature is true.
  • On the Synods 91Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · Condemning homoousion would condemn the Nicene fathers and the bishops' own ordination; Hilary held both terms in the same sense from the Gospels.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 8Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · The rest of the Dated Creed of Sirmium calls the Son “like the Father according to the Scriptures” and bans the word “essence.”
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 15Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · Athanasius quotes extracts from Arius’s Thalia, which teach that the Son came to exist by the Father’s will, is foreign to his essence, and cannot know him.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 16Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · Arius and his followers’ letter to Bishop Alexander calls the Son a perfect creature created by God’s will before the ages, not eternal and not of the Father’s essence.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 22Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · At the Dedication Council of Antioch (341) the Eusebians issued a creed disclaiming Arius as their master, and then a second, fuller creed with anathemas.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 24Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · Theophronius of Tyana’s creed, accepted by all at Antioch, condemned Marcellus, Sabellius, and Paul of Samosata.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 25Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · The Dedication Council numbered ninety bishops; a few months later a fourth creed was sent to the emperor Constans in Gaul.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 26Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · The Long-Lined Creed (Macrostich) of 344, sent to Italy, rejects Arius’s slogans, Marcellus and Photinus, and Sabellius, while subordinating the Son to the Father.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 27Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · The First Creed of Sirmium (351), drawn up against Photinus, repeats the Antiochene creed and adds twenty-seven anathemas.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 28Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · The Second Creed of Sirmium (357), written in Latin, bans “essence,” “of the same essence,” and “of like essence,” and declares the Father greater than the Son.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 29Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · After suppressing the Dated Creed, the Acacians issued a new creed at Seleucia rejecting both “of the same essence” and “of like essence” and condemning “unlike.”
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 30Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · At Constantinople (360) the Acacians revised the creed again, banning “hypostasis” as well as “essence,” and forced it on the bishops of Ariminum.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 35Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · Since “God” and “Father” signify God’s very essence, to say the Son is “from God” is to say he is “from the essence,” while creatures are works made by God’s will.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 41Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · Those who accept all of Nicaea but “of the same essence,” such as Basil of Ancyra, are brothers; “from the essence” and “of like essence” together amount to “of the same essence.”
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 42Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · As “offspring” and “Son” are understood of God without bodily notions, so must “of the same essence” be, since both are said of the same Son.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 44Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · Dionysius of Alexandria’s defense: though the word is not in Scripture, his arguments always implied that Christ is of the same essence as God.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 45Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · The council against Paul of Samosata rejected “of the same essence” in Paul’s bodily sense, while Nicaea affirmed it against the Arians; like Paul’s varied statements about the law, both are right in their context.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 46Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · As “unbegotten” has more than one meaning, so the councils’ different uses of “of the same essence” can both be pious.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 47Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · Ignatius called Christ both originate and unoriginate in different senses; the fathers should be read in harmony, and the oneness of Father and Son is one of essence, not mere agreement.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 49Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · Scripture gives the Son every title it gives the Father—God, Almighty, Light, Creator, Lord, King, giver of life—except the name Father.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 50Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · If all the Father’s attributes belong to the Son, he cannot be of a foreign essence without our worshiping a stranger; so he is rightly called of the same essence.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 51Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · The Son deifies and gives light because he is the Father’s own Word, not a participant; and “of the same essence” does not imply a third essence prior to Father and Son.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 52Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · There is one divinity, the Father’s, which is in the Son as light is in its radiance; so the Son, who is one with the Father, should be called of the same essence.
  • On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 53Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · Likeness belongs to qualities, not essences; a Son “of like essence” would be Son only by participation, like creatures, whereas the true Son is of the same essence.
  • Oratio (Ephemeris 3), lines 1-23Decimus Magnus Ausonius · ca. 360-390 · The opening of Ausonius’s morning prayer: God known only to the devout mind, and the Son, the Word through whom all was made, who suffered and opened the way back to eternal life.
  • Oratio (Ephemeris 3), lines 44-66Decimus Magnus Ausonius · ca. 360-390 · Ausonius confesses faith in the Father, the Only-begotten and the Spirit, renounces pagan worship and divination, and asks for a blameless, modest life.
  • Versus paschales, lines 1-23Decimus Magnus Ausonius · ca. 360-395 · Ausonius’s Easter verses: the Father who gives eternal life, sent the prophets, and gave his Son, equal to him, who joined the Spirit’s work in baptism; the threefold faith.
  • Versus paschales, lines 24-31Decimus Magnus Ausonius · ca. 360-395 · Ausonius compares the Trinity with the three emperors who share one rule, and commends them to Christ.
  • Homilies on the Psalms 32.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil expounds Ps 33:1–5: the righteous rejoice in God himself; praise befits only the upright; the cithara and ten-stringed psaltery are bodily deeds and the mind keeping the ten commandments; the new song is the spiritual sense; all creation leads to faith; and God joins mercy to judgment.
  • Homilies on the Psalms 32.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains that on earth God's mercy works without judgment, since Christ came to save, while at the judgment there will be no judgment without mercy.
  • Moral Rules (Moralia) 19Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's nineteenth rule, that no one may hinder those doing God's will, with Rule 20 on baptism into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and on its meaning, whose heading the scan lost.
  • On the Holy Spirit 1Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Because blasphemy against the Spirit is unforgivable and some speak rashly about him, Didymus sets out from Scripture what is to be believed about the Holy Spirit.
  • On the Holy Spirit 2Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Holy Spirit is known only from Scripture, which speaks of him in both Testaments.
  • On the Holy Spirit 3Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The same Holy Spirit spoke in the prophets and the apostles, as the use of the Greek article shows.
  • On the Holy Spirit 4Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Holy Spirit is not a creature: he gives sanctification and every good gift rather than receiving them, and he is the fullness of God's gifts.
  • On the Holy Spirit 5Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Only God and his Son are unchangeable and are received rather than receiving; the Holy Spirit, who seals and sanctifies others, belongs with the Father and the Son.
  • On the Holy Spirit 6Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Unlike any creature, the Holy Spirit is uncircumscribed: he dwelt at once in apostles scattered across the world, and he sanctifies angels as well as men.
  • On the Holy Spirit 7Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Angels are holy only by sharing in the Trinity, so they are of a different substance from the Holy Spirit who sanctifies them.
  • On the Holy Spirit 8Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Scripture speaks of people being filled with the Holy Spirit but never with a creature, which shows that the Spirit is not a creature.
  • On the Holy Spirit 9Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The one Holy Spirit is called by the names of many gifts according to his workings, as Stephen, full of the Spirit, had faith, wisdom, grace and power.
  • On the Holy Spirit 10Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Christ's promise that the Spirit will give the disciples words shows that wisdom and every spiritual blessing are contained in the Holy Spirit.
  • On the Holy Spirit 11Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit is the source of righteousness, peace and joy, is given and poured out by God on all flesh, and the language of pouring out fits only what is shared, not a creature.
  • On the Holy Spirit 12Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The language of pouring out marks the Spirit as received by many and therefore unchangeable and uncreated, whereas every creature, angels included, is changeable.
  • On the Holy Spirit 13Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Since angels are changeable creatures and ministering spirits, while the Holy Spirit is distributed by God's will to all, the Spirit is neither a corporeal nor an incorporeal creature.
  • On the Holy Spirit 14Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The opponents' proof-text "I create spirit" (Amos 4:13) refers in context to the wind, among thunder, dawn and mist, not to the Holy Spirit.
  • On the Holy Spirit 15Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Amos's "I create spirit" means the wind, created continually, and its sequel refutes heretics who separate the Creator from the Father of Christ; the Greek article also marks the Holy Spirit off from created spirit.
  • On the Holy Spirit 16Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The one grace and love given by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit show that the Trinity is of one substance.
  • On the Holy Spirit 17Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Communion with the Holy Spirit is communion with the Father and the Son; one working shows one substance.
  • On the Holy Spirit 18Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Peter's words to Ananias show that lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God, and Christ's promise of the Spirit's words and of his own wisdom shows the Spirit's oneness with the Son.
  • On the Holy Spirit 19Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Since the Spirit's wisdom is the Son's and the Son and the Father are one, the Trinity is one in substance.
  • On the Holy Spirit 20Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Son is called God's hand and the Spirit God's finger, which shows their union with the Father's nature.
  • On the Holy Spirit 21Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The image of hand and finger shows unity, not measure; and as God alone is wise by nature, so the Spirit is wisdom itself, not wise by participation.
  • On the Holy Spirit 22Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit is wisdom and truth by nature, one in substance with the Son and the Father; as the Son is God's image, the Spirit is God's seal and distributes his gifts.
  • On the Holy Spirit 23Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Scripture shows the Spirit acting and speaking as a person, not a mere activity; his sending of the apostles and baptism in the threefold name show the Trinity's equality.
  • On the Holy Spirit 24Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Baptism without any one of the three names is incomplete; the Spirit appoints the church's leaders as Christ and the Father do, and like them he dwells in the heart, which no creature can.
  • On the Holy Spirit 25Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · As the temple of God the believer is indwelt by the Spirit as by the Father and the Son, which no creature can do; the Spirit, the Comforter, goes forth from the Father, not by change of place.
  • On the Holy Spirit 26Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit's going forth from the Father, like the Son's from God, is beyond place and speech; when the Son sends the Spirit, the Father sends him too.
  • On the Holy Spirit 27Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit is "another Paraclete" not by nature but by activity: Christ intercedes as high priest, the Spirit comforts, yet the Spirit too intercedes for the saints.
  • On the Holy Spirit 28Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Son and the Father also comfort; where the Spirit is, the Son and the Father are, as the word of God came to the prophets who had the Spirit.
  • On the Holy Spirit 29Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The prophets spoke by the Holy Spirit; what Isaiah says the Lord spoke, Paul says the Holy Spirit spoke, so the Spirit is Lord and God.
  • On the Holy Spirit 30Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Only the Son comes in the Father's name, and the Spirit is sent in the Son's name; servants such as Moses and the prophets came in the name of God or the Lord.
  • On the Holy Spirit 31Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Sent in the Son's name, the Spirit shares the Son's divine character and makes adopted sons; he teaches by nature, not acquired skill, and with the power of the Most High formed Christ's body in the Virgin.
  • On the Holy Spirit 32Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit is creator with the Father and the Son, as the Psalm shows; Didymus then introduces Christ's words that the Spirit will guide into all truth.
  • On the Holy Spirit 33Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Christ left much untaught because the disciples could not bear it before the Spirit was given; the Spirit leads from the letter of the law to the truth of Scripture.
  • On the Holy Spirit 34Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · When Christ says the Spirit will not speak from himself, he means the Spirit is inseparable from the Father's and the Son's will; divine speaking is not like human speech.
  • On the Holy Spirit 35Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Human speech needs mind, tongue, air and ears; God, simple and incorporeal, has no such organs, and neither do the Son and the Spirit.
  • On the Holy Spirit 36Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Divine speaking and hearing mean one nature and will: as the Son does nothing apart from the Father, not as Sabellius confuses them, so the Spirit speaks nothing apart from the Son.
  • On the Holy Spirit 37Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit's receiving from the Son, like the Son's from the Father, signifies one substance, not a transfer of something lacking.
  • On the Holy Spirit 38Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Human words fit God only improperly; the Spirit glorifies the Son, the Son the Father and the Spirit, and all that the Father has belongs to the Son and so to the Spirit.
  • On the Holy Spirit 39Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Exposition of Rom 8:4-9: walking by the Spirit rather than the flesh means following God's commands, not escaping the body; the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ.
  • On the Holy Spirit 40Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit is called both the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God; where he is, Christ and the Father are, which shows the Trinity's undivided substance.
  • On the Holy Spirit 42Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Exposition of Rom 8:13-17: those who put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit are adopted as sons of God and heirs with Christ.
  • On the Holy Spirit 43Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit's grace was in the saints of both Testaments; Didymus introduces Isa 63:7-11, which speaks of Israel provoking God's Holy Spirit.
  • On the Holy Spirit 47Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Israel's unbelief embittered God's Holy Spirit, and indignation at sin is ascribed alike to the Spirit and to the Holy One of Israel.
  • On the Holy Spirit 50Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Whoever despises the Spirit given for sanctification despises God; the Spirit brings God's words, and "Moses" in Isaiah may mean either the man or the law.
  • On the Holy Spirit 53Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Father, Son and Holy Spirit alike make believers good and holy, which shows the Spirit's one substance with them.
  • On the Holy Spirit 54Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The name "spirit" is shared by Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one nature, but in Scripture it also means wind, the soul, and the spirit within a man.
  • On the Holy Spirit 58Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Son too is called Spirit; the name is used of the Persons of the Trinity as a synonym, signifying shared nature, not as a homonym.
  • On the Holy Spirit 59Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Because "spirit" has many senses, the opponents' proof-texts (Amos 4:13, Zech 12:1) about wind and the human spirit do not make the Holy Spirit a creature.
  • On the Holy Spirit 60Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Answering an objection: Satan "fills" a heart not by entering it in substance, which only the Trinity can do, but by drawing it into evil through deceit and suggestion, as with Ananias and Elymas.
  • On the Holy Spirit 61Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Satan entered Judas through his avarice, by activity, not substance; as a changeable creature the devil cannot be shared, so only the Trinity can indwell by substance.
  • On the Holy Spirit 62Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Didymus dismisses the objection that an uncreated Spirit must be the Father's brother or the Son's son or brother: family names belong to bodies, and Scripture says only that the Son is begotten of the Father.
  • On the Holy Spirit 63Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Didymus closes in fear of blaspheming the Spirit, asks readers to purify themselves and pardon his plain style, and states that his aim was to understand Scripture.
  • Apology 5Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius gives the simple creed he holds to be the common faith of Christians.
  • Apology 6Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius says the simple creed does not suffice, since even Sabellius, Marcellus, and Photinus could accept it, and promises a more exact account of his view.
  • Apology 7Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius argues that the one God came into being neither from himself nor from another, and therefore is unbegotten, indeed is unbegotten substance.
  • Apology 8Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius argues that "unbegotten" is not a mere human conception or a privation but names God's very substance.
  • Apology 9Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius argues that the unbegotten God cannot share his substance with what is begotten, whether by division or by comparison, without destroying his unbegottenness.
  • Apology 10Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius rejects any priority of the Father over the Son merely by order or time, since neither time nor order touches God's substance, and denies that anything precedes or coexists with the unbegotten.
  • Apology 11Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius argues that likeness in substance would make the Son equal and unbegotten, which the Lord's words "the Father is greater than I" exclude.
  • Apology 12Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius says the names "Son", "offspring", and "thing made" show the Son's different substance, and that the Son did not exist before he was begotten by the Father's will.
  • Apology 15Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius affirms that the Son was begotten not existing, by the Father's will, yet stands above all creatures as the one through whom all things were made.
  • Apology 16Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius argues that "Father" and "Son" no more imply bodily begetting than God's being creator implies pre-existing matter, since words used of God and man share sound but not meaning.
  • Apology 17Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius argues that words like "Father" and "Spirit" mean something different of God, so that calling the Son a thing made does not make him like the creatures made through him.
  • Apology 18Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius argues that names must follow the realities, and criticizes those who call the Son begotten and made yet teach that he is like the Father in substance.
  • Apology 19Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius answers the objection that Father and Son are alike as "light from light": if "light" signifies the substance, the begotten light differs from the unbegotten as much as begotten from unbegotten.
  • Apology 20Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius argues that both the study of the substances and the study of their works and activities show that the Son is unlike the Father in substance, and the Spirit unlike the Son.
  • Apology 21Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius cites Scripture to show that the Father alone is the one true God, God of the Son, while confessing the Son as God, immortal, wise, and good, caused by the Father.
  • Apology 22Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius concludes that the Son is like the Father only in his proper sense, not in substance, and that God's activity is not a motion of his substance, as Greek philosophers held, who made the world eternal.
  • Apology 23Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius argues that God's activity, unlike his substance, has a beginning and an end, and that God's will is the activity by which all things come to be.
  • Apology 24Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius argues from Col 1:15–16 that the Son is the image not of the Father's substance but of his activity and will.
  • Apology 25Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius teaches that the Holy Spirit is third in nature as well as in order, the first and greatest work of the Only-begotten, without Godhead or creative power but with power to sanctify and teach.
  • Apology 26Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius sums up: one unbegotten God made the Son, through whom the Spirit was made; the Son is neither "of the same substance" nor "of like substance" with the Father.
  • Apology 27Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius confesses the Son as obedient minister of the Father, incarnate, crucified, risen, and coming as judge, subject with all things to the Father, and closes by urging his hearers to judge rightly before Christ's judgment seat.
  • Apology 28Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · A closing creed-like summary: one unbegotten God who by his will made the Son, and through the Son the Holy Spirit and all things.
  • On the Orthodox Faith against the Arians 0Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The work opens with the Nicene Creed and a preface in which the author explains that he has rewritten an earlier book against the Arians to remove doubts that he confused the persons of Father and Son.
  • On the Orthodox Faith against the Arians 1Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The author warns that heretics who share much with the Catholics are the most dangerous, and argues that the removal of the word “substance” is meant to bring in the Arian teaching that the Son was made from nothing.
  • On the Orthodox Faith against the Arians 2Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The author argues that the Arians replace “of one substance” with “like” in order to make the Son a creature, and shows from Scripture that the Son, as Word and Wisdom, was eternally born of the Father and is the Creator, not a creature.
  • On the Orthodox Faith against the Arians 3Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The author answers the objection that homoousion is not in Scripture: the Arians themselves use the unscriptural “God from God, light from light,” but in a sense that makes the Son a creature, as some heretics speak of resurrection while denying the resurrection of the flesh.
  • On the Orthodox Faith against the Arians 4Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The author answers the Arian objection that God cannot be called “substance,” arguing that God’s substance is his own simple being, and that the Son, born of it, is homoousios with the Father.
  • On the Orthodox Faith against the Arians 5Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The author argues that the unity of substance is taught in Scripture, and that comparisons such as “light from light” illustrate but cannot define the Son’s birth from the Father.
  • On the Orthodox Faith against the Arians 6Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The author argues that God cannot be defined or compared, and explains the many Scriptural names of the Son (Word, Wisdom, rock, lamb, lion, way, and others) as pointing to his works, not defining his majesty.
  • On the Orthodox Faith against the Arians 7Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The author explains that Father and Son are two persons but one God and one substance, citing Baruch and Isaiah, and rejects both Sabellius and the Arians.
  • On the Orthodox Faith against the Arians 8Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The author answers the Arian argument that the visible and changing appearances of the Son prove a different substance from the Father’s, explaining the theophanies and the incarnation as God showing himself without change, and closes with a confession of the Trinity and of Nicaea.
  • Tractate 2, section 4Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The three measures of flour are Noah's three sons, whose believing descendants become one bread of Christ's body through repentance and baptism; Sarah figures the Church.
  • Tractate 3, section 5Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The one who spoke to Hagar is called both angel and God, showing that it was the Son, the messenger of great counsel and true God, against the Patripassians.
  • Tractate 6, section 5Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · Judah's blessing points to Christ, praised by believers and judge of his enemies; the lion and lion's whelp show Father and Son, one in nature and distinct in person.
  • Tractate 6, section 6Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The shoot of Judah is Mary, the flower Christ; the lion's sleep is Christ's secure death and the Father raised him; Gen 49:10 proves the Messiah has come, since Judah's kingdom has ceased.
  • Tractate 7, section 2Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · Pharaoh's order to kill the males figures the devil's attack on the soul's virtues; the midwives are holy souls; the infant Moses, hidden three months, figures Christ hidden in the old covenant.
  • Tractate 9, section 3Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The bitter herbs foretell the bitterness of the Jews' deeds in the passion; the blood on the doorposts, the Red Sea and the details of eating the lamb are read of Christ, baptism and the Trinity.
  • Tractate 11, section 1Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · Introducing the spies sent into Canaan, Gregory affirms the one Spirit speaking in both testaments and recounts the spies' report and the people's rebellion.
  • Tractate 12, section 4Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The scarlet cord in Rahab's window is the blood of Christ's passion, shown through faith, which preserves the household of the Church in the end-time destruction, as the Passover blood did.
  • Tractate 14, section 2Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · Midian's locust-like host figures the demonic powers; the barley loaf rolling in a trough is Christ born of Mary, who overthrows the devil; the three hundred in three companies figure the cross and the Trinity; the lapping 'dogs' are believing Gentiles.
  • Tractate 20, section 2Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The Spirit came at the incarnation and again on Christ at his baptism so that, resting in Christ's flesh, he might flow from him to the baptized; Gregory lists the Spirit's works in regeneration, sanctification, orthodoxy and the gifts sent at Pentecost.
  • Letter 115Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · The monk charges that Basil, unlike Gregory, does not openly call the Holy Spirit God; Gregory defends Basil's reserve as a prudent economy in dangerous times.
  • Letter 117Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · The end of Gregory's account of the dinner: the company rejected his defence of Basil's reserve; he asks Basil how far to go in calling the Spirit God.
  • Letter 173Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory thanks Gigantius for his invitation and his orthodoxy, rejoicing that he was made a herald of the Trinity, but illness and winter keep him from coming.
  • Letter 179Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory's anathemas continue: against two Sons, against a Christ indwelt only by grace, against refusing worship to the Crucified, and against adoptionism; Christ is one, of two natures.
  • Letter 191Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory rejects the Apollinarians' expectation of a restored Judaism and their graded Trinity (great, greater, greatest), confessing Father, Son and Spirit as one in nature, essence and power.
  • Letter 193Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory ends his first letter to Cledonius, mocking the Apollinarians' new psalms; in a second letter he declares he holds the faith of Nicaea, adding that the Holy Spirit is God.
  • Letter 273Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · The end of a letter urging a bishop to fight for the Trinity; then Gregory rebukes a grieving friend for mourning without philosophy, urging the middle way between insensibility and excess.
  • Letter 293Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory urges Eudoxius to choose God above all, since the prize of virtue is to become god and to be lit by the light of the Trinity.
  • To Constantius 4.1Hilary of Poitiers · 360 · The bishops offer the emperor their own creeds instead of the faith confessed in baptism.
  • To Constantius 4.2Hilary of Poitiers · 360 · Some confess the baptismal names while emptying them of their real meaning.
  • To Constantius 5.2Hilary of Poitiers · 360 · Hilary lists the shifting creeds of the past year, from silence about the terms to outright condemnation of ousia.
  • To Constantius 5.3Hilary of Poitiers · 360 · Bishops now dispute whether the Son is wholly or partly like the Father, as if they could judge heavenly mysteries.
  • To Constantius 11.1Hilary of Poitiers · 360 · Hilary gives a scriptural confession of faith in Father and Son as a pledge of what he will defend.
  • Against Constantius 9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · Constantius bears Christ's name but denies the Father's witness to the Son, making Father and Son mere titles.
  • Against Constantius 12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · Hilary reports as an eyewitness the parties at the council of Seleucia (359): homoiousians, anomoeans, and the Nicene Egyptians.
  • Against Constantius 13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · Hilary reports the blasphemous sermon of the bishop of Antioch read at Seleucia.
  • Against Constantius 14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · An anomoean explains to Hilary that the Son is "like the Father" by will but "unlike God" in nature.
  • Against Constantius 16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · Constantius bans unscriptural words only when they guard the faith, while admitting new ones that serve heresy.
  • Against Constantius 17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · Constantius proclaims an unscriptural "likeness" to suppress the scriptural equality of the Son with God (John 5).
  • Against Constantius 18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · John 10:30–38 teaches the Son's equality with the Father, which "likeness" is meant to suppress.
  • Against Constantius 19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · Philippians 2 teaches that the Son in the form of God is equal to God, as he is truly man in the form of a servant.
  • Against Constantius 20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · Scripture calls man like God (Gen 1:26), but "our image" shows equality between Father and Son, not mere likeness.
  • Against Constantius 21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · Scripture calls the Son God's image and equal but never "like"; likeness is used of man and of Christ's sinless flesh.
  • Against Constantius 22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · Hilary accepts "like" only after "equal" and "one"; Constantius uses "like" to deny the Son's birth, nature, and equality.
  • Against Constantius 23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · Hilary traces Constantius's shifting creeds from Antioch (341) through Serdica, Sirmium, and Ancyra, each later abandoned.
  • Against Constantius 25Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · Constantius forced bishops to condemn homoousion, homoiousion, and even "substance", reversing their own earlier judgments.
  • Treatise on the Mysteries 2.13.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · All the Old Testament history reveals the Father and the Son, and Christ as God and man.
  • Treatise on the Mysteries 2.14.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Scripture teaches posterity the Father and the Son from the beginning; the text then breaks off.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 0.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The eighth day is figured in Psalm 8's title "for the winepresses," in Psalm 6's "for the eighth," and in the same title on Psalms 80 and 83.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 2.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Because Father and Son are one in divinity, honour and insult to one are honour and insult to the other; both laugh at and mock their enemies.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 2.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Before explaining God's anger, Hilary insists that God is unchangeable and free of passions, being wholly self-sufficient.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 2.23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · "Today I have begotten you" cannot refer to the Son's eternal generation, which is before all time; the Gospels and apostles will show its meaning.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 2.30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Acts 13 refers Psalm 2:7 to the resurrection, and Matthew 28 shows that the risen Christ received all power.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 61.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God's one utterance reveals two: power belongs to God the Father and mercy to the Lord, the Son, to whom all judgment is given; Father and Son are confessed together, neither without the other.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 62.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Prophecy speaks of the future as past; the saint will appear before God in his Holy One, Christ, in whom the Father is seen.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 63.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Against heretics: the Son is eternal with the Father, the Word and Wisdom of God, creator, lawgiver, speaker in the prophets, and the risen one who glorified the flesh.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 67.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Hilary lists heresies that break the church’s peace: two Gods of law and Gospel, Christ as mere man, the Son as a creature, and the Father become flesh.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 91.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Beyond the visible works Moses described, Paul teaches that all things, visible and invisible, were made through Christ, in whom the Father works daily.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 91.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The Son, equal to God, does nothing of himself but what he sees in the Father’s will, which he knows through shared love and nature.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 91.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God works on the Sabbath, sustaining all creation through the Son; no day of God is without work.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 91.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God’s rest is Christ, in whom the Father’s fullness dwells and in whom the Father rejoiced at the completed creation; the impious will not enter this rest.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 118.4.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The enlarged heart is one opened by faith to receive God's teaching and indwelling, and Wisdom, who is Christ, walks freely in its broad places.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 118.10.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Man's double nature of soul and body, and God's plural "Let us make", explain why the psalmist says he was made by God's hands.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 120.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · In verse 3 the Holy Spirit, the other Advocate, speaks through the prophet to bless the one who confesses God as his help.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 121.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The nations confess Christ as God, a testimony against Israel, which received every gift yet rejected the law, the prophets, and Christ himself.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 122.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God's true heaven is the Son, in whom the Father dwells by the same nature, since the visible heaven will pass away.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 122.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God also dwells in believers: the Father dwells in the Word made flesh, the heavenly Adam, and through him in those made heavenly in Christ.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 122.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christians confess one God without denying that Christ is God: Scripture names Father and Son each as God and Lord, one from one, of the same substance.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 129.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'propitiation' with God is the only-begotten Son, who took away sins on the cross; since Father and Son are one, the verse fits either.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 131.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ's death was a sleep like that of Jacob's fearless lion of Judah; the image shows both his impassible security in death and his oneness with, yet distinction from, the Father.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 131.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · 'My throne' and 'your throne' are the same because Father and Son are one, sharing one substance and glory without difference.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 134.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'gods' over whom God is supreme are not idols; Christians confess one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ, God from God, neither of whom has a counterpart.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 135.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · 'Alone' does not exclude the Son, God's Wisdom, through whom the Father works; the works of the Son are the Father's.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 137.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Confessing God's name refutes heretics who separate the God of the law from the God of the Gospel: he is the God of the patriarchs and the Father of the Only-begotten.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 138.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Father and Son are one in power and nature, not merely in will; the Father is 'greater' only as Father, by generation, which is why the Son 'cannot attain' to him in that respect.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 138.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Wherever the Son goes, heaven, hell, or the ends of the sea, the infinite Father is present; the Son does not go beyond him.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 138.28Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Though Christ's wonders were his own power, he ascribes them to the Father's works out of reverence; only the Son knows the Father's works 'well'.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 138.32Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The Greek behind 'unperfected' means 'unwrought': what exists without having been made, which is proper to the eternal God, whom the Son's eyes have seen.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 138.35Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The apostles 'saw' the Father's eternity in the Son, as Christ told Philip, not by seeing the invisible nature but through the works, since Father and Son are one in nature.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 144.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Since Father and Son are one in substance, nature, and works, the praise of God in the psalm is praise of both.
  • Tractates on the Psalms 148.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God created by command through the Son, as Genesis, John, Paul, and Wisdom in Proverbs testify; the Son was with the Father from before the ages.
  • Commentary on Ephesians 1.1Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul’s opening places all hope in Christ, who is the will of God, inseparable from the Father yet distinct as a thought is from the mind that conceives it.
  • Commentary on Ephesians 1.11Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · God works all things through Christ, who is his will and motion, and everything that comes to pass was predestined by him.
  • Commentary on Ephesians 3.9Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul enlightens all about the mystery hidden from the ages in God: that Christ, begotten of the Father without beginning in time and through whom all things were created, would come in the flesh to save humanity.
  • Commentary on Ephesians 4.5Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, given in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and baptism given otherwise is no baptism; and there is one God, since God is in the Son and the Son in God.
  • Commentary on Ephesians 5.2Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Love, which sums up the whole law and the mystery of Christianity, is to be lived as Christ loved us and gave himself as a fragrant offering to God.
  • Commentary on Galatians 4.4Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · In the fullness of time the Father sent his eternal Son, born of a woman and made under the law in Israel, to redeem those under the law and make believers sons by adoption, and sent the Spirit of the Son, by whom, knowing the Father, they cry “Abba, Father.”
  • Commentary on Philippians 2.6Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Christ, the form of God, which for Victorinus is the life and understanding of the Father who is Being, equal with God, freely emptied himself, not by losing his power but by taking a true human body and a slave’s lowliness, obedient to the Father even to death on the cross.
  • Commentary on Philippians 2.9Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Victorinus explains that the Logos, exalted after the cross, received the name above every name; he reads Paul as implying that the name “Son” was given after the passion, while noting that catholic teaching holds the Father and Son always existed, and he explains how the Son’s name is above all others yet equal to the Father’s.
  • Commentary on Philippians 3.21Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · At the resurrection Christ will transform the lowly body into the likeness of his glorious, spiritual body by the power of God working through him, and will subject all things to God, to whom, as 1 Cor 15:28 says, the Son himself is subject.
  • Tome to the Antiochenes 3Athanasius of Alexandria · 362 · The council sets the terms for reunion at Antioch: anathematize Arianism, confess the Nicene faith, and deny that the Holy Spirit is a creature.
  • Tome to the Antiochenes 5Athanasius of Alexandria · 362 · The council rejects the so-called creed of Sardica and records how those who spoke of three hypostases and those who spoke of one hypostasis explained themselves and were found to agree in the Nicene faith.
  • Tome to the Antiochenes 11Athanasius of Alexandria · 362 · Paulinus of Antioch subscribes to the Tome, confessing three perfect subsistents in one Godhead, the true incarnation of the Word, and the Nicene faith.
  • Oration 1.7Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory’s father, like Abraham, offers his son; the people are urged to follow their true shepherds in the faith of the one Godhead of Father, Son, and Spirit, and not strange voices.
  • Oration 2.36Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Teaching on the last things and above all the Trinity is most dangerous, between fusing the three and dividing them.
  • Oration 2.37Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory names three errors about God, Sabellian fusion, Arian division, and tritheist polyarchy, and rejects all three.
  • Oration 2.38Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · A long stretch of the oration: right teaching on the Trinity, the difficulty of teaching mixed congregations, the presumption of untrained teachers, Paul as the model pastor, the prophets' warnings against bad shepherds, the greatness of the priesthood, and the strife that disgraces the church.
  • Oration 6.3Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory lists the griefs of the schism and celebrates the regained unity, offering his speech to God as his thanksgiving.
  • Oration 6.11Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The father's party accepted the separated party's leaders in love, and the monks accepted the father's orthodoxy despite the creed he had signed; both had kept the same faith in the Trinity.
  • Oration 6.12Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Agreement about God is the strongest bond of concord; God and the angels are at peace, and the devil works through faction.
  • Oration 6.17Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Israel prospered while united and fell through faction; Gregory distinguishes good from bad peace, urges reconciliation with the father, and ends with a confession of the Trinity.
  • Oration 11.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory calls for spiritual rather than self-indulgent celebration of the martyrs, confesses the Trinity, and closes with a prayer for peace.
  • Oration 12.1Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory gives himself wholly to the Spirit’s leading and asks why his aged father wanted him as a fellow shepherd, citing Aaron’s sons and Joshua.
  • Oration 13.4Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory charges the new bishop to take up his people despite opposition, to teach the worship of Father, Son, and Spirit in three hypostases and one glory, and to shepherd faithfully.
  • Oration 16.9Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · At the last judgment there will be no advocate or second chance; the righteous will see the Trinity, which Gregory calls the kingdom of heaven, and the wicked will suffer separation from God and endless shame.
  • Oration 18.15Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory describes his father’s consistent life, his ordination, his reform of a neglected church, and his orthodox teaching on the Trinity, and alludes to a quarrel in the church that he settled.
  • Oration 19.17Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory closes by asking for obedience in return for his words and with a doxology to the Trinity.
  • Oration 20.2Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory argues from the Old Testament that only the purified may approach God, sets out the doctrine of the Trinity between Sabellius and Arius, answers objections to the Son’s eternal generation, and urges purification and humility before speaking of God.
  • Oration 21.12Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory laments the sophistical theology that entered the Church, describes Arius’s death and his followers’ errors, and praises Athanasius’s balanced teaching on the Trinity.
  • Oration 21.22Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory condemns the synods of Seleucia and Constantinople (359–360), which replaced “of the same essence” with an ambiguous “like according to the Scriptures” and forced bishops to sign it.
  • Oration 21.28Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory describes Athanasius’s entry into Alexandria on a colt amid branches and garments, like Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, and his reconciling rule after his return.
  • Oration 21.33Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory tells of Julian’s death in Persia and how the emperor Jovian recalled Athanasius, who then confessed in writing one Godhead and essence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Oration 21.34Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory describes the different responses to Athanasius’s confession and places himself among those who confessed the truth openly.
  • Oration 21.35Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory praises Athanasius for reconciling Greeks and Latins who used different terms (hypostasis, person) for the same faith, describes his death, and closes with a prayer to him.
  • Oration 22.12Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory proposes the worship of the one Godhead in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the one rule of piety, and laments that the orthodox still quarrel among themselves despite so many heresies.
  • Oration 23.1Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory rejects both tritheism and an Arian view that makes the Son and Spirit creatures, sets out the Trinity as one Godhead from one timeless principle, and rejoices in the reconciliation of the orthodox before their opponents.
  • Oration 24.4Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory urges his hearers to guard their senses and stand firm as the martyrs did, offers his speech to Cyprian as a prize, and asks his intercession for the flock.
  • Oration 25.12Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory describes the outrages committed by the Arians in Alexandria, Hero’s scourging and four years’ exile in the Oasis, and urges him to confute paganism and heresy, setting out the doctrine of Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • Oration 26.18Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory, unafraid of his enemies, laments the clergy who joined the schism of Maximus, and closes with a prayer to the Trinity for their return.
  • Oration 32.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory says zeal without knowledge has split the Church into parties and multiplied rival views of Christ and the Spirit, and states the faith in one God the Father, one Son, and one Spirit.
  • Oration 32.21Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory advises the unlearned to keep to the faith they were taught, leaving speculation about the Trinity to the wise, and to be quick only in confessing the faith.
  • Oration 32.23Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory lists the saving goods of the faith that are common to all, above all the knowledge of the Trinity, and ranks them above rare attainments.
  • Oration 33.15Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory contrasts the Arians’ churches and crowds with his small flock, which holds the faith of the Fathers, worshipping one Godhead in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Oration 33.17Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory refuses a baptism that makes the Son or Spirit a creature and appeals to the baptismal confession into the one name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Oration 34.2Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory praises Egypt for feeding the world with grain and with sound doctrine, through Athanasius and his successor Peter, who withstood every pressure without betraying the Trinity.
  • Oration 34.9Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory sets out the basic distinction between God, the uncreated Lord subsisting as Father, Son, and Spirit, and creation, and calls all to worship the one Godhead in three.
  • Oration 34.10Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory argues that no creaturely mark can be shown in the Son or the Spirit, who share all that belongs to the Father except causation and sonship, and calls on his opponents to abandon their sophistries.
  • Oration 34.11Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory says that he fears the threat against blasphemy of the Spirit, which consists in denying his Godhead, and refuses a baptism that falsifies any of the three.
  • Oration 34.12Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory argues that if the Spirit were not God he could not deify the baptized, and that a baptism denying his Godhead would deceive and blacken those who receive it.
  • Oration 34.13Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory gathers Scripture for the Trinity: the cherubim’s threefold holiness, David’s “in your light we see light,” John’s teaching on the Word and the other Paraclete, and Luke’s account of Ananias, who lied to the Spirit as to God.
  • Oration 34.15Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory shows that Paul names the three in varying order to show their equal honour, and distinguishes the hypostases while uniting the one Godhead.
  • Oration 36.11Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory tells his people that their orthodox faith and consistent life are his best defence, and exhorts emperors, courtiers, and nobles to use their positions under God.
  • Oration 37.17Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory urges the eunuchs to be chaste towards the Godhead: to call the Son or the Spirit a creature dishonours the whole Trinity, which, like one pearl, is damaged as a whole if any part is.
  • Oration 37.22Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory calls for cutting off the passions of soul as well as body, Arian and Sabellian errors alike, and appeals to those in power to protect sound doctrine and the persecuted.
  • Oration 37.24Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory closes with a prayer, urging his hearers to bear any loss except the loss of the Godhead, and confesses the worship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • Oration 38.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · God is infinite, without beginning, immortal and eternal; God means Father, Son and Holy Spirit, neither more nor fewer, one lordship and Godhead glorified by the seraphim's thrice-holy.
  • Oration 39.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Turning to the feast, Gregory speaks of God as one light and three: three in properties, hypostases or persons, one in essence or Godhead, divided without division and joined in distinction.
  • Oration 39.10Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Both Sabellius' merging and Arius' division of God are to be rejected as equally impious.
  • Oration 39.12Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · One God the Father, one Lord Jesus Christ, one Holy Spirit: the prepositions mark properties, not different natures; the Father is unbegotten, the Son begotten, the Spirit proceeds, and these properties never change.
  • Oration 39.13Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · God made man to worship him on earth and, when man fell, became man without ceasing to be God, deceiving the deceiver; Christ's baptism teaches reverence for purification, humility before the church's ministers, and patience before teaching.
  • Oration 39.16Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Christ rises from the water, the heavens open, and the Spirit comes as a dove; after a gap, Gregory names the baptisms of martyrdom and of tears.
  • Oration 39.19Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory rejects the Novatianist refusal to readmit the repentant, warns of the final baptism of fire, and ends with the hope that the baptized will become perfect lights before the Trinity.
  • Oration 40.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · God, contemplated in Father, Son and Spirit, is the first light; the angel is the second, man the third; the visible light of creation is another.
  • Oration 40.34Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory applies Christ's healings to the baptized: the cleansed leper should be grateful, the withered hand stretched out in giving, the deaf and blind open to the Word and the light of the Trinity, and the gift guarded with care.
  • Oration 40.41Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory entrusts to the baptized the confession of Father, Son and Holy Spirit: one Godhead and power in three, each God by himself, the three one God together.
  • Oration 40.42Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory answers those who fear that calling the Son “begotten” makes God suffer: he fears instead that calling the Son or Spirit a creature divides God.
  • Oration 40.43Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · To subordinate the Son to the Father and the Spirit to the Son insults God; the Father is “greater” only as cause, not in nature; Gregory offers to bear the controversy himself while the baptized keep the unity of the three.
  • Oration 40.44Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory declares that he baptizes only in the faith of the undivided Trinity; those who will not accept the full Godhead of the three must seek another baptizer.
  • Oration 40.45Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory writes on the hearts of the candidates a “new decalogue” of faith: creation from nothing, evil not created by God, the incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension and return of the Son, judgment, and good works; the rest is taught after baptism.
  • Oration 41.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Pentecost marks the end of the events of Christ's bodily life and the beginning of the work of the Spirit, who comes as Master, blowing where he wills.
  • Oration 41.6Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Those who call the Spirit a creature are wicked servants; those who call him God are lofty but must speak prudently to the weak, who may confess the Spirit's nature in other words.
  • Oration 41.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory appeals to the ascetics who are sound on the Son but not on the Spirit to confess the Trinity as one Godhead or nature; he admires their life and would accept any loss to have them glorify the Trinity with him.
  • Oration 41.11Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The Holy Spirit is eternal, ranked with Father and Son, deifying and not deified, Lord and giver of gifts; he has all that the Son has except being begotten, as the Son has all the Father's except being unbegotten.
  • Oration 41.12Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Christian talk about the Spirit belongs to the church and the sober, not to theatrical mockery; Gregory now sets out his own teaching.
  • Oration 41.13Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The Spirit worked in the angels, the patriarchs and prophets, and in the disciples in three stages, culminating at Pentecost, when he came essentially; Gregory explains “another Paraclete” and the tongues of fire, their division and sitting, and the upper room.
  • Oration 41.14Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The Spirit, promised to abide for ever, creates with the Son both creation and the new birth, and transforms shepherds, goatherds, youths, fishermen, tax collectors and persecutors into prophets, apostles and evangelists.
  • Oration 42.6Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory prophesies that his once tiny flock, revived like Ezekiel's dry bones, will grow further, and warns those who divide the Godhead that their power is a shadow.
  • Oration 42.7Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · God promises to enlarge his people; Gregory tells the Arians, proud of their buildings and numbers, that a faithful few in the open air are worth more to God than many who deny the Godhead.
  • Oration 42.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · God values the saved and pure doctrine above numbers and buildings; in prophetic style Gregory has God promise to give the churches back to those who confess the Son and the Spirit.
  • Oration 42.15Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory argues that those who speak of three hypostases and those who speak of three persons mean the same thing, three distinguished by properties, not natures, in one essence.
  • Oration 42.17Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory accepts the terms unbegotten, begotten and proceeding, but rejects calling any of the three a creature, still less an instrument made for our sake.
  • Oration 42.22Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory asks the bishops to release him with their prayers and to choose a successor who will not merely please, and bids farewell to his church of the Anastasia, the great church, the clergy, the people, the court, the city, East and West, the angels and the Trinity.
  • Oration 43.30Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · When the Arian emperor Valens attacked the church, Basil, at Gregory's urging, returned from Pontus, reconciled with his bishop, and led the defence of the faith in the Trinity.
  • Oration 43.31Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · After the Arians' defeat Basil served his bishop loyally as counsellor and assistant, and so in effect came to govern the church of Caesarea.
  • Oration 43.58Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory praises Basil's writings (the Hexaemeron, the books against Eunomius, On the Holy Spirit, his homilies), defends his reserve in calling the Spirit God, compares him with the great figures of the Old and New Testaments, describes those who imitated his outward manner, and comes to his death.
  • Oration 43.60Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory calls every class of Basil's people to join his praise, offers the oration to Basil, and asks his intercession and to be received with him into the contemplation of the Trinity.
  • Oration 44.3Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · God is the first, uncreated light, the angels are second lights, and the created light that began the world is a third, which dispelled the primeval darkness.
  • Oration 45.2Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Easter is the feast of feasts; after the Easter vigil of lights, Gregory offers a discourse on the Word, beginning from God himself.
  • Oration 45.4Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · God is infinite, without beginning, immortal and eternal; God means Father, Son and Holy Spirit, neither more nor fewer, one lordship and Godhead glorified by the seraphim's thrice-holy.
  • Oration 45.27Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Against those who confuse the Son with the Father and those who sever him from God, Gregory insists on distinction in number and union in Godhead, and declares that he will contend for the Trinity with the Trinity's help.
  • Tractates 1.1.5Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno challenges the disputer to show real powers of faith instead of probing the divine nature by argument, citing Sirach, Romans and 1 Timothy against curiosity.
  • Tractates 1.1.6Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno concludes that God's servant should avoid quarrelsome questions and honour the Trinity by faithful living rather than argument.
  • Tractates 1.2.9Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno hymns the love of God, which created and redeemed man, brought about the incarnation and cross, inspires martyrs and almsgiving, and is one in the Trinity.
  • Tractates 1.14.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno describes the spiritual church built on Christ, the one cornerstone, with seven columns, the living sea of the font, three members of one fullness, and twelve gates guarded by the cross.
  • Tractates 1.15.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno argues from Psalm 50 that the speaker who defers to 'the Most High' is the Son, refuting Jews and Arians who deny that the Son is God.
  • Tractates 1.15.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno cites Malachi 1:10–11 on the clean sacrifice of the Gentiles and explains Psalm 50:14–15 of the Son, who is one in majesty with the Father.
  • Tractates 2.1.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno answers those who deny the Son's equality with the Father from 'Let us make man in our image', which shows one work and one image of both.
  • Tractates 2.1.2Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno answers that the Son who executes the Father's word is not inferior, since Father and Son are in each other with the Holy Spirit.
  • Tractates 2.2.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno refutes the view that matter is eternal and teaches that God alone is the principle, the Father begetting the Son with the Spirit in one co-eternity, illustrated by two seas joined by a strait.
  • Tractates 2.3.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno teaches that Christ is the Beginning, eternally embraced in the Father's mind and born as God from God, equal in all things.
  • Tractates 2.4.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno teaches that the Son came forth from the Father's mouth to create the world, equal to the Father in all things.
  • Tractates 2.5.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · In a second sermon on 'In the beginning' Zeno teaches that the Father uttered the Son as Word from his heart, that how he was begotten cannot be known, and that the Son created the world as one with the Father's will.
  • Tractates 2.6.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno explains 1 Corinthians 15:24: the kingdom handed to the Father is the temporal kingdom of the assumed man, while as God the Son always reigns with the Father in one kingdom.
  • Tractates 2.6.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno concludes that the Son's subjection to the Father is one of love, not inferiority, since Father and Son share one kingdom, substance and majesty.
  • Tractates 2.7.2Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno warns against prying into God's nature and from John 1:1–3 and 10:30 teaches two persons with one substance and one power.
  • Tractates 2.8.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno teaches that only God knows God and distinguishes Christ's eternal birth, not to be inquired into, from his birth in the flesh.
  • Tractates 2.13.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno interprets Jacob's dream: Jacob and the stone are Christ, and the ladder is the two Testaments, like the two-edged sword and Isaiah's tongs.
  • Tractates 2.14.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno allegorises the story of Tamar: Shelah is the Gentile people, Tamar the church, and Judah's pledges the law, the cross and the seal of faith, by which the church is justified.
  • Tractates 2.35.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno invites the candidates to the font like a bath, where they will be anointed, given the threefold coin of the Trinity, and clothed in white.
  • Tractates 2.44.2Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno playfully assures his hearers that every newly baptized 'loaf', large or small, has the same weight, stamped with the Trinity.
  • Tractates 2.69.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno interprets the three young men in the furnace as a figure of baptism with the Spirit and fire, in the presence of the Trinity.
  • Tractates 2.71.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno sees in the sevenfold-heated furnace the spiritual number and the grace of baptism for the three young men.
  • Tractates 2.73.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno describes the contest of fire and faith in which, by the sacrament of the Trinity, the fire spared the three young men and burned their executioners.
  • Tractates 2.74.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno retells the story of the three young men, fortified by the Trinity, who sang in the furnace while their executioners were burned.
  • Against Eunomius 1.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil exposes how Eunomius praises the Fathers' creed and then 'corrects' it, mocks his proof that God is unbegotten, argues that 'Father' is the better name, and begins his account of conceptualization (epinoia).
  • Against Eunomius 1.14Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that God's essence is known only to the Son and the Spirit, that we know God from his activities, and that reading the biblical images of God literally leads to absurd notions of his essence.
  • Against Eunomius 1.16Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil explains 'unbegotten' as the mind's recognition that God's life has no beginning, and exposes Eunomius's use of the word to deny that the Father begets a Son who shares his nature.
  • Against Eunomius 1.17Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil shows that if the Father has no comparison or fellowship with the Son, Christ's words that whoever sees him sees the Father would be false.
  • Against Eunomius 1.18Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil shows that Eunomius's denial of all comparison between Father and Son overturns the scriptural titles of the Son as seal, image, form of God, radiance, and stamp.
  • Against Eunomius 1.19Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil quotes Eunomius's denial that Father and Son share a common essence and explains the sense in which the church does confess one essence and one Godhead with distinct properties.
  • Against Eunomius 1.20Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil distinguishes natural order, such as that of a cause to what comes from it, from order by design, and grants that the Father is prior to the Son as cause but not in nature or time.
  • Against Eunomius 1.22Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil quotes Eunomius's argument that because God is simple the Son cannot be like him, and asks why the Son, who is equally simple, cannot be like the Father.
  • Against Eunomius 1.23Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that since the Son, like the Father, is incorporeal and formless, it is pious to compare them.
  • Against Eunomius 1.24Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that the Jews drew the right inference that calling God Father means equality, and shows that Eunomius's view of 'Father' as an activity contradicts his claim that the Father is greater.
  • Against Eunomius 1.25Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that 'the Father is greater' in John 14:28 refers to the Father as cause and origin of the Son, not to a difference in power, dignity, size, or essence.
  • Against Eunomius 1.26Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil exposes the contradiction of calling the Father both 'greater' and 'incomparable,' and argues that belittling the Son removes the knowledge of the Father himself.
  • Against Eunomius 1.27Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil concludes Book 1: if the Father is incomparable, the Son would be no different from creatures, contrary to his words 'I and the Father are one,' and Eunomius's argument refutes itself.
  • Against Eunomius 2.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues from the names Peter and Paul that names signify distinctive features, not essences, so a difference of names cannot prove a difference of essence between Father and Son.
  • Against Eunomius 2.11Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil exposes the sophism in Eunomius's claim that the Son's essence 'was not before its own constitution,' showing that it implies the Son came from nothing and the Father became Father later.
  • Against Eunomius 2.12Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that God is eternally Father, so the Son eternally exists, with nothing between them; the Father is prior only as cause.
  • Against Eunomius 2.13Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that any interval between Father and Son would make the Son younger than an age or a time, contradicting Scripture that all things, the ages included, came to be through him.
  • Against Eunomius 2.14Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil answers Eunomius's dilemma ('God begot the Son either when he was or when he was not') from John 1:1: the Word 'was' in the beginning, beyond which nothing can be conceived, and John's prologue proclaims his eternal begetting.
  • Against Eunomius 2.16Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that the mind cannot think beyond the Son, the light of the soul, and offers images of an impassible, timeless begetting: radiance from light, a seal's impression, thoughts arising with the mind.
  • Against Eunomius 2.17Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil answers Eunomius's claim that a Son who 'was' before his begetting would be unbegotten: the Son is eternally begotten, and 'eternal' and 'unbegotten' are different notions.
  • Against Eunomius 2.22Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil answers Eunomius's warning against a 'human' begetting: faith in Father and Son, into whom Christians are baptized, is the heart of the Gospel, and the names indicate a relation, not bodily passion.
  • Against Eunomius 2.23Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that the names Father and Son, applied to God, point to the impassible cause, and that Christ himself transfers the name 'Father' from human beings to God.
  • Against Eunomius 2.24Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that even if 'Father' were taken figuratively, Scripture's language of begetting points to kinship of nature, not passion; the manner of the begetting is ineffable but must be believed; and Eunomius contradicts himself about names and essences.
  • Against Eunomius 2.25Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil quotes Eunomius's dilemma about the Father and Son as 'light' and shows that the opposition he posits between unbegotten and begotten admits no common ground.
  • Against Eunomius 2.26Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil shows that Eunomius's reasoning would make the Son's 'light' the opposite of light, that is, darkness, and exposes the logical fallacy that consequents of contraries must themselves be contraries.
  • Against Eunomius 2.27Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that Eunomius's formula would deny that the Son is light, life, and power, contrary to Scripture, and explains that darkness, death, and weakness belong to the powers that fell away by choice, not to any essence.
  • Against Eunomius 2.28Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that 'unbegotten' and 'begotten' are distinguishing properties of Father and Son within one essence, not opposed essences, so that the one Godhead is known as Father and Son without contrariety.
  • Against Eunomius 2.29Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil answers the charge that God would be composite unless 'light' and 'unbegotten' were identical: God is wholly light, life, and goodness, and 'unbegotten' indicates a property, as do the other divine names.
  • Against Eunomius 2.30Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil rebuts Eunomius's claim that a 'law of nature' separates the Son's essence from the Father's, arguing that natural law, if anything, makes the offspring akin to the begetter.
  • Against Eunomius 2.31Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil shows that Eunomius contradicts himself by calling the Father's essence 'free of all laws' and yet bound by a 'law of nature,' and turns his chain of dignity, activity, and image into a proof that the Son is the image of the Father's essence.
  • Against Eunomius 2.32Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that works reveal a maker's power, not his essence, and that if divine power and essence coincide, Eunomius's argument from works proves the likeness, not the unlikeness, of Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • Against Eunomius 2.33Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil denounces Eunomius as the first to call the Holy Spirit a 'work,' a blasphemy he uses to argue the Son's inferiority.
  • Against Eunomius 2.34Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil concludes Book 2: making the Spirit a creature of the Son alone separates the Spirit from God and lowers the Son, contrary to Scripture, which calls the Spirit both God's and Christ's.
  • Against Eunomius 3.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil opens Book 3: Eunomius claims the saints taught that the Spirit is third in dignity and order and infers on his own that he is third in nature; Basil answers that rank does not imply a different nature, as the ranks of angels show.
  • Against Eunomius 3.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil turns from the Spirit's names to his activities: the Spirit makes the heavenly powers firm, perfects human beings, sends the Lord, and fills all things.
  • Against Eunomius 3.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil answers Eunomius's dilemma (creature, offspring, or unbegotten) by confessing that the manner of the Spirit's being is beyond our knowledge, while giving him the names Scripture gives; he then explains that Amos 4:13 speaks of wind and John 1:3 does not number the Spirit among created things.
  • Hexaemeron 2.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · The Spirit of God over the waters is the Holy Spirit, who, as a Syrian interpreter explained, brooded over the waters like a bird to make them life-bearing.
  • Hexaemeron 3.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · God does not speak as we do: Scripture presents God commanding in order to point to the Word, the fellow worker through whom creation was made.
  • Hexaemeron 3.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Water can rest above the firmament; "firmament" means something firm, not a crystal or ice; and "God made" after "Let there be" points to the Son as maker.
  • Hexaemeron 6.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · The sun and moon were made after the plants so that no one would think them the source of light or growth; they are vehicles for the light already created, and "God said … God made" points to two persons.
  • Hexaemeron 9.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Faith overcomes wild beasts; turning to man, Basil argues from "Let us make man in our image" that God spoke to his Son, the one image of the Father, against Jewish and Anomoean interpretations.
  • Homilies 15.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Father, Son and Spirit share one uncreated nature: the Son is the perfect image, having by nature all the Father has; the Spirit is holy by nature, one and undivided, and works every gift in the Church.
  • Homilies 16.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Expounding John 1:1, Basil shows that the Word's “beginning” has no beginning before it and that the fourfold “was” refutes the Arian “there was when he was not,” while “Word” and “with God” exclude both passion in the begetting and Sabellian confusion.
  • Homilies 23.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · The hirelings are those who lead for their own profit, then and now; Basil condemns schism over Christ's words and turns to the heretics' use of “I know my own and my own know me.”
  • Homilies 24.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · The Sabellians renew Judaism by making Father and Son one person, the Anomoeans renew paganism by worshiping a created Son; Christ's own words show two persons and one nature.
  • Homilies 24.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · One essence without two gods: the Son is the Father's perfect image and radiance; the Spirit is a distinct person, inseparable from Father and Son, ranked with them in baptism, and not a creature, as the Pneumatomachians' sophisms claim.
  • Against Auxentius 6Hilary of Poitiers · 364–365 · The Arians give Christ titles that also fit angels and men while denying that he is true God; the people, hearing the words, believe rightly.
  • Against Auxentius 8Hilary of Poitiers · 364–365 · Hilary analyzes how Auxentius's written creed attaches "true" to "Son" rather than to "God" and keeps the one divinity in the Father alone.
  • Against Auxentius 11Hilary of Poitiers · 364–365 · Auxentius grants Christ only titles that Scripture also gives to men, Israel, and even the devil, while denying his true deity.
  • Against Auxentius 14Hilary of Poitiers · 364–365 · Auxentius's creed: one only true God the Father, and the Son "God, true Son from the true God the Father".
  • Against Auxentius 15Hilary of Poitiers · 364–365 · Auxentius denies teaching two gods, appeals to the council of Ariminum, and accuses Hilary and Eusebius of schism.
  • Against Parmenian the Donatist 2.10Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Parmenian spoke only of the church's endowments and passed over the sacraments, the Trinity and the faith of the believer, in which baptism truly consists and in which the minister contributes nothing of his own.
  • Against Parmenian the Donatist 4.7Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Ps 141:5 is Christ's prayer not to be anointed by any man, all men being sinners; the Father answered it at the Jordan, anointing him with the Spirit descending as a dove.
  • Against Parmenian the Donatist 5.1Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Optatus begins Book 5 on baptism: Parmenian's own figures of the single flood and single circumcision show that baptism, made holy by the Trinity and not by the minister, cannot be repeated.
  • Against Parmenian the Donatist 5.2Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Parmenian praised the waters that brought forth life at creation, but the Trinity worked that without any human minister, as it does in baptism.
  • Against Parmenian the Donatist 5.3Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Since neither side can judge itself, Optatus appeals to Christ's testament in the gospel: "He who has been washed once has no need to be washed again" and "one faith, one baptism" forbid rebaptism, and Catholics receive Donatist converts without it.
  • Against Parmenian the Donatist 5.4Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Baptism has three elements, the Trinity, the believer's faith and the minister; the first two are unchangeable and decisive, while the minister is a changeable worker, since Scripture says that God, not man, washes.
  • Against Parmenian the Donatist 5.5Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Christ did not rebaptize those baptized by John; Paul's rebaptism of John's disciples at Ephesus concerned a different baptism, not a different minister, so it gives no warrant for repeating baptism in the Trinity.
  • Against Parmenian the Donatist 5.7Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Baptism's gift belongs to God, not the minister: the minister is a workman, like a dyer who cannot give color without the dye, or a vinedresser who cannot make the vine grow, as Paul says of himself and Apollos.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:1Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul calls himself an apostle by God's will to mark himself off from false teachers and to distinguish the Son from the Father.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Naming both the Father and Christ in the greeting shows two persons who are one in divinity, with the Father's authority first.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:30Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Through Christ God teaches the truth of the Trinity and shows mercy in redemption.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2:10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Spirit, who is from God and knows his depths, revealed through Paul to men and heavenly powers what the rulers did not know.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · As only a man's spirit knows his thoughts, only God's Spirit, who is also Christ's, knows and teaches the things of God.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2:12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The worldly spirit that speaks through soothsayers and the Sibyl cannot know what God's Spirit reveals.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · No one can correct God's counsel; the Creator of all from nothing can surely beget a Son, and believers share his mind.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Since believers are God's temple and the Spirit dwells in them, the Spirit is God.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The warning against violating God's temple prepares for the case of incest and, compared with 6:19, shows that the Holy Spirit is God.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · In baptism the Corinthians were washed of all sins, justified and adopted, benefits they lost by following bad teachers.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Calling the body both God's temple and the Spirit's temple shows the Spirit is of the same substance as God.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 8:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Against pagan gods, Paul names one God the Father and one Lord Jesus; as God is also Lord, the Lord is also God, in one principle.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · 'Head' means different things: God is Christ's head as begetter, Christ man's head as creator, man woman's head as her source.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:5–6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The same Spirit, Lord and God give the varied gifts, showing the one undivided work and nature of the Trinity.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:9–10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Faith, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues and interpretation all come from one Spirit, whose work is the work of the one triune God.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:24–26Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Son's handing over the kingdom does not end his reign; it means showing, once all worship him, that the Father is the source from whom all things are.
  • Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:27–28Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Son's final subjection means showing himself God from God, so that the Father remains the one principle and all creation confesses one God; it is not a creature's subjection.
  • Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 3:9–10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul longs to see the Thessalonians to teach them the deeper mysteries of the faith, such as the one substance and distinct persons of Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 3:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul prays that the Father and the Son will open his way to the Thessalonians and make them abound in love, blameless at Christ’s coming.
  • Commentary on 1 Timothy 1:17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The doxology belongs to God the Father, the source of all immortality and goodness, who is invisible and acts through the Son, who has been seen.
  • Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ, one with the Father in nature yet distinct in person, became man to be the one mediator who reconciled God and humanity in himself.
  • Commentary on 1 Timothy 6:13–16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul charges Timothy and his successors to keep the commandment until Christ’s coming; the Father alone dwells in unapproachable light and has never been seen, while the Son, sharing all the Father has, is the one who appears.
  • Commentary on 2 Corinthians 1:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The grace of God and of Christ is one gift.
  • Commentary on 2 Corinthians 1:21–22Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Father and Son together confirm, anoint, and seal believers with the Spirit; Paul delayed his visit to spare the Corinthians, as a helper of their joy, not a lord of their faith.
  • Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · In Christ all is made new as he is recognized as God and the world turns from many gods to worship one God in the Trinity.
  • Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:18Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Though Christ redeemed us, all things come from God the Father, whose person is put first.
  • Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:19–21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God the Father was in Christ, one with him in substance, reconciling the world, and gave the apostles the ministry of reconciliation in Christ's place.
  • Commentary on 2 Corinthians 13:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul's closing exhortations to unity and peace end in the Trinitarian blessing, in which the love of God, grace of Christ, and fellowship of the Spirit complete salvation.
  • Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:14Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul urges them to hold the apostolic traditions, and naming the Son before the Father shows their one divinity, the Father who gave his Son for our life and justification.
  • Commentary on 2 Timothy 1:17–18Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Onesiphorus sought Paul out in Roman custody; Paul prays the Father to grant him mercy from the Son at the judgment, as in Gen 19:24.
  • Commentary on Colossians 1:14Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Through Christ come redemption and release from the underworld; he is the image of the invisible God not as something visible but as equal in nature to the Father, seen through his divine works, while the Father never appeared.
  • Commentary on Colossians 1:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ is begotten, not created, before all creation; all things, including the angelic powers, were made through him from nothing and hold together in him; as he made all, so he restores all, first from the dead.
  • Commentary on Ephesians 1:17–19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul prays that the Ephesians may know the hope of their calling; God is Christ's God and Father in a unique sense, as God from God.
  • Commentary on Ephesians 2:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The 'desires of the flesh' mean unbelief and idolatry; nature becomes 'of wrath' by an evil will, not by its substance, and is restored by returning to God.
  • Commentary on Ephesians 2:17–18Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ's death killed the enmity, giving Jews and gentiles access to the Father in one Spirit; gentile believers become fellow citizens like those granted Roman citizenship.
  • Commentary on Ephesians 3:17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Through faith and the Spirit, who is of the Father and of Christ, Christ dwells in believers' hearts.
  • Commentary on Ephesians 3:19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ's love in becoming man and dying for sinners surpasses knowledge; the fulness of faith honours the Son equally with the Father.
  • Commentary on Ephesians 4:5–6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · One Lord, faith, baptism, and God and Father require one mind in the church; the Father dwells in believers by confession and the Spirit.
  • Commentary on Galatians 1:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Father and Son are equally Lord and God; to serve the law alongside Christ insults him, who gave himself to free us from the devil, the law's condemnation and the present age.
  • Commentary on Galatians 3:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Galatians received the Spirit, then visibly manifest in believers, by faith and not by the law, so submitting to circumcision was folly.
  • Commentary on Galatians 3:20Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ is the arbiter who made peace between Jews and gentiles by removing what divided them; as God he is one with the Father; the law, unable to give life, shut all under sin so that faith might receive the promise.
  • Commentary on Galatians 4:6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Spirit of the Son, given to gentile and Jewish believers, confirms their adoption and lets them dare to call God 'Abba'.
  • Commentary on Philippians 1:4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God is Father and Christ Lord, without rivalry: those whom God begets as his children are also servants of the Son to whom he gives them.
  • Commentary on Philippians 2:10–12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The name above every name given to Christ is the divine name he had by nature from his birth from the Father, made manifest after the cross; it was not given to a mere man or by adoption, against the Arians.
  • Commentary on Romans 1:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · On Rom 1:2–4 Ambrosiaster explains that the gospel was promised in the prophets and that the eternal Son, born of David’s seed by the Virgin, was shown to be Son of God in power by the resurrection.
  • Commentary on Romans 2:28–29Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · True circumcision is of the heart, the acknowledgment of the Creator and the Trinity by faith, whose praise is from God.
  • Commentary on Romans 4:23–25Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Abraham’s faith is a pattern for those who believe in the God who raised Jesus; through Christ’s death and resurrection believers are forgiven, justified and adopted as sons of God.
  • Commentary on Romans 8:8–9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those who follow worldly wisdom cannot please God; the Spirit of God, who is also the Spirit of Christ, dwells only in those who do not follow the flesh in thought or deed.
  • Commentary on Romans 8:27Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God knows the Spirit’s intercession, for the Spirit is of the same substance as God and asks what pleases God and profits us.
  • Commentary on Romans 8:34Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ, who died and rose for us and sits at God’s right hand, cannot condemn us but intercedes for us, as for Peter; his intercession marks the distinction of persons, not inequality.
  • Commentary on Romans 9:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster lists Israel’s privileges, lost by rejecting the Saviour, and argues at length that “God over all, blessed for ever” refers to Christ, who is worshipped as God with the Father as one God.
  • Commentary on Romans 10:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Lord on whom believers call is the Son, called Angel and God, who appeared to Moses; but one must believe and hear the preacher in order to call on him.
  • Commentary on Romans 11:36Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · All things are from the Father, through the Son of the same substance, and in the Holy Spirit who is from the Father; therefore creatures cannot know God’s counsel, and to him is glory.
  • Commentary on Romans 15:9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The gentiles, saved by mercy alone, praise God, as the psalms and Deuteronomy foretold, joining Israel in one people, as the Jerusalem church accepted in the case of Cornelius.
  • Commentary on Romans 16:25–27Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · In the closing doxology Ambrosiaster explains the mystery hidden for ages and now revealed as the Trinity, God not being solitary but with the Son and the Spirit from eternity, and gives glory to the Father through the Son in the Spirit.
  • Commentary on Titus 2:11–12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God’s grace revealed in Christ teaches us to confess the Creator in the unity of the Trinity and to live godly lives, awaiting the glory to be revealed at Christ’s judgment; faith without good works is vain.
  • Commentary on Titus 3:4–7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God saved us by mercy, not works, through the washing of rebirth and the Spirit poured out through Christ, who helps us do good works and so inherit the kingdom.
  • Letter to the Africans 4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 369 · The bishops contrast Nicaea with the Arian councils that forbade speaking of God's essence or hypostasis, and show from Exodus, Jeremiah and Hebrews that hypostasis and essence mean God's very being.
  • Letter to the Africans 5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 369 · The bishops explain how the council of Nicaea came to write “from the essence” and “of the same essence” because the Arians could twist every scriptural phrase, and cite earlier bishops and Eusebius of Caesarea for the term.
  • Letter to the Africans 7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 369 · The bishops argue that the Son's oneness with the Father cannot be a likeness of virtue and will, as the Arians say, for that belongs to changeable creatures, but must be a likeness of essence.
  • Letter to the Africans 8Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 369 · The bishops argue that the Son has all that the Father has by essence, not by virtue, since God is simple and without qualities, and that he is therefore of the same essence with the Father.
  • Letter to the Africans 9Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 369 · The bishops explain that “of the same essence” means what the Nicene anathemas mean, that the Son is no creature, and urge the Africans to reject every council but Nicaea.
  • Letter to the Africans 11Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 369 · The bishops close by noting that the Nicene creed also confesses the Holy Spirit, so that the faith is in the holy Trinity, into which Christians are baptized.
  • Question 3, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The line from Seth to Abraham, David, and Christ shows that all who believed in the one God were Christians from the beginning; Christ’s coming revealed the persons within the one God and completed the law.
  • Question 21, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Man is God’s image because all humanity comes from one man as all things from one God; woman, made from man, is not the image of God, and so is veiled and does not teach.
  • Question 23, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Souls are not generated from souls with the body, since only God, being simple, can beget the simple, as in the Son’s generation, which Photinians and Arians reject.
  • Question 40, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The barren woman told to rejoice is the heavenly Jerusalem, our mother, who is Life, deserted by Adam; Father, Son, and Spirit are one life, in faith in which we are reborn.
  • Question 41, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The “spirit of God” over the waters (Gen 1:2) need not be the Holy Spirit, since Scripture often uses “my spirit” for the life-breath of humans and animals.
  • Question 41, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Only the Spirit who is from God and consubstantial with him is God; other spirits are creatures, and the spirit over the waters was a created spirit of a lower rank.
  • Question 45, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Unlike Babel’s “let us go down,” addressed to angels, “let us make man in our image” cannot be addressed to angels, since God and angels share no common image; the same God spoke and made.
  • Question 45, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · “Let us make” shows distinct persons in one God: the Father speaks, the Son makes through the Spirit, and the image of all three is one; man is God’s image as the one source of all humanity.
  • Question 48, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Before creating, God begot from himself a Son equal to him in every way, the Word hidden in him from eternity, called Son to show that he is from the Father and consubstantial with him.
  • Question 51, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit sanctified Mary and formed a holy body in her, while the “power of the Most High,” Christ, overshadowed her, dwelling in her womb as much as human nature could hold.
  • Question 52, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The house that Wisdom built is the church, bought with Christ’s blood, or his body; though the Spirit formed the body, the works of Father, Son, and Spirit are one.
  • Question 59, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Jesus’ “earthly things” were the wind example; as human sonship helps us believe in God’s true Son, so the wind makes credible the incomprehensible work of the Spirit.
  • Question 59, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Acts compares the Spirit’s coming to a mighty wind, and Scripture calls the wind “spirit,” but the Holy Spirit comes from heaven to enlighten believers.
  • Question 71, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God, Father or Son, has never been seen in his nature, only in images, as emperors are known by their portraits; John 1:18 explains this.
  • Question 71, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Only the Son has seen the Father; the God who appeared to the patriarchs was the Son, so God is both seen and unseen.
  • Question 72, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · “The law through Moses, grace and truth through Christ” means that Moses’ precepts were true but his history was veiled until Christ revealed its meaning and fulfilled its promises.
  • Question 76, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Scripture is bitter to the faithless and heretics: Photinus, Sabellius, Arius, Marcion, and the Manichees, who reject marriage, are all refuted by the Gospel of John.
  • Question 87, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Faith in three persons is faith in one God, revealed after it had been preached, and the author illustrates it by number speculation on three and nine.
  • Question 91, section 10Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ is called the Word, power, and wisdom of God to show that he is from God and not a second god.
  • Question 93, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit was with the apostles before the passion by his divine nature, shared with Christ, but was given to believers only after Christ was glorified.
  • Question 97, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Against the Arians, Christ is called the true Son of God, which means he was born from God’s substance; God’s power does not make false things true.
  • Question 97, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ is God’s own Son, born of his substance, and therefore equal to him, as Paul and John testify.
  • Question 97, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ’s sayings that he speaks and acts from the Father do not lower him but show that he is consubstantial with the Father and has his origin from him.
  • Question 97, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Everything Scripture ascribes to the Father it also ascribes to the Son, so the Arians misread the passages that show Christ’s true sonship.
  • Question 97, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Father and Son differ only as unbegotten and begotten; the one image in Gen 1:26, the Jews’ charge against Jesus, and Isaiah 45 show that they share one nature.
  • Question 97, section 6Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Isaiah’s words show that the Son, in whom God is and who is himself God, shares one substance with the Father.
  • Question 97, section 7Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The prophetic text “This is our God; no other shall be compared with him … he was seen on earth” refers to the Son, who is therefore the one God, equal to the Father.
  • Question 97, section 8Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Father and Son are two by birth but one God by nature; since all things were made through Christ, he is not made but born, and the Arian “there was when he was not” is condemned.
  • Question 97, section 13Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Arian argument that a Son begotten by will must come after the will fails, because in God will and begetting are one.
  • Question 97, section 15Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ calls the Spirit “another Paraclete” and “the Spirit of truth,” titles that are also his own, which shows that Son and Spirit share one nature.
  • Question 97, section 16Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Lord of hosts in Isaiah 6 is identified by John with Christ and by Paul with the Holy Spirit, which shows that the three are one God.
  • Question 97, section 17Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit is not inferior for being named third; in Isaiah 48 the Son says he was sent by God and his Spirit, as the Spirit is sent by Father and Son.
  • Question 97, section 18Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Paul calls the Spirit “Lord” and says only the Spirit knows what is in God, which shows that the Spirit is of God’s own divinity.
  • Question 97, section 19Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · In 1 Cor 12:4–11 Paul names Spirit, Lord, and God in reverse order and ascribes one work to all three, showing their one divinity, while the Spirit distributes gifts by his own will, which is God’s.
  • Question 97, section 20Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit works all things as the finger of God, calls and appoints apostles and bishops, and is called God in the story of Ananias and in Paul’s language of the temple.
  • Question 97, section 21Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Scripture preaches one God yet shows the Son and Spirit to be God, so that the Trinity, in which salvation lies, is worshiped as one divinity.
  • Question 109, section 20Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster concludes that Melchizedek, “made like the Son of God,” is of the same nature as the Son and is the third person of the Trinity appearing in human form.
  • Question 109, section 21Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Son and Spirit are called priests of the Father because, though of one substance with him, they are sent as his image and envoys, the Spirit ranking after the Son.
  • Question 113, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Son came because the world had been made through him and because the devil had usurped the Son’s own place as second after the Father.
  • Question 114, section 31Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ is named from the anointing of Israel’s kings, but is King by his birth from the Father; those who come to know him love him, and daily pagans, even learned and noble ones, abandon Jupiter for Christ.
  • Question 122, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Son is called “the Word of God” because, as God is never without his word, the Son is always with God and is from God, and so is God.
  • Question 122, section 6Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · “God with God” does not mean two gods, since the Word is God from God, sharing one nature and will, and honored in the Father’s glory.
  • Question 122, section 7Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · John begins with the Word because questions concern the Son, not the Father; since God is simple and undivided, what is from God is rightly called God.
  • Question 122, section 8Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Human sonship and human speech illustrate the Son’s divine origin only in part, since he is born simply from the simple God and is a living reality, not a passing sound.
  • Question 122, section 10Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Son is called Son, Word, Wisdom, and Power of God according to what he is, how God speaks, teaches, and works through him.
  • Question 122, section 11Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Word, power, and wisdom are titles of God himself, and they belong to Christ because he is wholly God from God.
  • Question 122, section 12Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · John states plainly that Christ is God and was always with God, showing that the one God is not solitary, while Son and Spirit, being from the one, do not divide his unity.
  • Question 122, section 13Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · What proceeds from God’s substance, the Son and Spirit, has no beginning, unlike creatures made from nothing by his will; only the Trinity is without beginning.
  • Question 122, section 22Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Creation “through him” reflects the Son’s oneness of substance with the Father, and “unto him” the power to create and give life that the Father gave him in begetting him.
  • Question 122, section 23Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · As the image of God, the Son fully resembles the Father and can do all the Father does, so that the Father is seen in him.
  • Question 122, section 25Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Son is the perfect image of the Father and shares it with the Spirit; only the true Son is worthy to see the Father directly.
  • Question 122, section 26Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Son is equal to the Father in substance but second in rank and cause, as Christ said, “the Father is greater than I.”
  • Question 122, section 27Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Paul distinguishes Father, Son, and Spirit as “from whom,” “through whom,” and “in whom” all things are, yet includes all three within the one God.
  • Question 123, section 11Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ not only restored human beings by washing away sin but improved them, giving the Spirit as the sign of adoption as God’s sons when the Trinity was revealed.
  • Question 123, section 12Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit promised by Joel was poured out only after Christ’s glorification, in the washing of regeneration, and is the pledge of eternal life.
  • Question 125, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster rejects Eusebius’s claim that the Holy Spirit does not know the mystery of Christ’s birth, since the Spirit shares God’s substance and so knows what is God’s.
  • Question 125, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · If the Spirit shares God’s substance, he must share God’s knowledge; only creatures learn, God knows by nature.
  • Question 125, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · In God knowledge is not acquired but is identical with his substance.
  • Question 125, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Being consubstantial with the Son, the Spirit knows the Son’s birth by his very substance, as the Son does.
  • Question 125, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son, sharing their one substance, and so cannot be ignorant of the Son’s birth.
  • Question 125, section 6Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · As the Son came from God, the Spirit proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son, so the Father’s substance and divinity are in him.
  • Question 125, section 7Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · To deny the Spirit’s knowledge is to disparage the Son from whom he receives, for receiving from Christ means proceeding from God.
  • Question 125, section 8Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Since the Son knows all that is God’s and the Spirit receives from the Son, the Spirit knows what is in God.
  • Question 125, section 9Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Paul says that only the Spirit of God knows what is in God, just as Christ says only the Son knows the Father; both statements express the shared divine nature.
  • Question 125, section 10Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Son reveals the Father to his own Spirit, who receives from the Son; no creature could receive such knowledge, since God dwells in inaccessible light.
  • Question 125, section 11Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The objection that the Spirit “searches” and so does not know is answered by Scripture’s use of “search” for God’s own perfect knowledge.
  • Question 125, section 12Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit’s “searching the depths of God” means that nothing in God, not even his hidden will, is unknown to him.
  • Question 125, section 13Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · As only a person’s own spirit knows his mind, only God’s Spirit, who is God himself, knows what is in God.
  • Question 125, section 14Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Only one who is himself God can know God’s secrets, so the Spirit who knows them is God.
  • Question 125, section 15Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God does not deliberate but knows by nature, and the Spirit, sharing God’s one substance, shares his one mind and will.
  • Question 125, section 16Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Father, Son, and Spirit have one will, which is why the Spirit is called both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ.
  • Question 125, section 17Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Since God dwells in us by his Spirit, the Spirit is God.
  • Question 125, section 18Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Believers become sons of God by adoption through receiving the Spirit, who comes from God and so is a sign of deity within them.
  • Question 125, section 20Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God’s judgments are unsearchable to creatures but searchable to the Spirit, which shows that the Spirit has the divine nature.
  • Question 125, section 21Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Since salvation is given in the name of Father, Son, and Spirit, the Spirit must share their divinity; a creature could not be counted with the Creator.
  • Question 125, section 22Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit is third in order and rank but equal in divine substance, as the Son is second but not lesser.
  • Question 125, section 23Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit, like the Son, is called Paraclete, advocate, and truth, and is sent as the Son is sent; the three have one power.
  • Question 125, section 24Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster ends by referring to his fuller treatment of the Trinity against the Arians.
  • Letter to Epictetus 2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius lists the errors in the memoranda sent to him: that Christ's body is of the same essence as the Godhead, that the Word changed into flesh, that the body was eternal, and that Christ and the Word are two.
  • Letter to Epictetus 4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius refutes the claim that Christ's body is of the same essence as the Word's Godhead, showing that it would make the Father earthly and Mary unnecessary.
  • Letter to Epictetus 8Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius explains that “the Word became flesh” means that he became man, not that he was changed, and he rejects the claims that Christ's flesh was eternal or immortal.
  • Letter to Epictetus 9Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius shows that it is the opponents' own view that would make a Tetrad, and that the incarnation adds nothing to the Trinity but brings immortality to the body.
  • On Virginity 2Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Virginity belongs first to God (the Father who begets without passion, the Son, the Spirit) and the angels; Christ was born of a virgin to show that only purity can receive God, who now dwells spiritually in every virginal soul.
  • Letter 1.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · A third stroke and an attempt to stab the woman fail, the sword bending back to its hilt.
  • Letter 15.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome complains that a party at Antioch demands that he confess "three hypostases", a term he fears implies three substances.
  • Letter 15.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome asks Damasus to rule whether he must say "three hypostases", arguing that the term implies three natures and professing one substance in three coequal persons.
  • Letter 15.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome asks Damasus for a ruling on the term and for guidance on which bishop of Antioch to recognize.
  • Letter 17.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome protests that the monks of the desert brand him a heretic, though his Trinitarian faith is that of Damasus and Peter of Alexandria.
  • Letter 41.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome lists the Montanists' errors: Sabellian views of the Trinity, condemnation of second marriage as adultery, extra Lents, a hierarchy that ranks bishops third, and refusal of penance.
  • Letter 41.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome rejects the Montanist claim that God's saving revelation reached its fullness through Montanus and his prophetesses.
  • Letter 51.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Epiphanius lists Origen's teachings that the Son cannot see the Father, that souls are fallen angels imprisoned in bodies, and his allegorical proof texts.
  • Letter 54.17Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome adds Deborah, Naomi, and the poor widow of the Gospel as examples, interpreting them spiritually.
  • Letter 55.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains that the Son's subjection to the Father in 1 Corinthians 15:28 means the subjection of his body, the church and humanity, so that God may be all in all.
  • Letter 65.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains 'My heart has belched out a good word' of the psalmist's inspired speech and, as some interpret, of the Father's eternal begetting of the Word.
  • Letter 65.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains 'Your throne, O God' as addressed to the Son, who is God, and refers the anointing to the humanity he assumed, against Photinus and Arius.
  • Letter 78.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains the title and number of the forty-two stations, comparing them to the forty-two generations from Abraham to Christ.
  • Letter 80.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Rufinus explains that, like Jerome with Origen's homilies, he has removed or corrected passages of On First Principles which he believes heretics corrupted.
  • Letter 84.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes how the Origenists evade condemnation, arguing that Nicaea's silence about Origen does not clear him, and that they use ambiguous formulas.
  • Letter 84.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome says he would still praise Origen's talent if others did not praise his errors, lists those errors, and contrasts his own practice with Rufinus's claim to have 'corrected' Origen.
  • Letter 92.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus lists doctrines ascribed to Origen (the Son inferior to the Father, the end of Christ's kingdom, the devil's restoration, prayer to the Father alone, a non-lasting resurrection body, angels fallen into their offices) for which his books were condemned.
  • Letter 93.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The Palestinian bishops anathematize those who teach the Son's inferiority, all who contradict the Nicene faith, and Apollinaris's teaching that Christ assumed an incomplete humanity.
  • Letter 93.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The Palestinian bishops confess the eternal Trinity and promise not to receive those whom Theophilus has excommunicated.
  • Letter 96.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus argues that to end Christ's kingdom would be to end his divinity, and affirms the eternal unity of Father and Son.
  • Letter 96.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus closes by urging repentance, prayer, almsgiving, and care for the sick and imprisoned, confesses the Trinity, and announces the dates of Lent and Easter for 401.
  • Letter 98.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus rejects Origen's teaching that the Spirit and the Word act only in rational beings, citing the consecration of baptismal water and the eucharistic elements and Christ's miracles.
  • Letter 98.16Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus argues that Origen contradicts himself by making Christ's soul one with the Son as the Son is one with the Father, while also calling it inferior to the Word.
  • Letter 98.25Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus closes with an exhortation to repentance and virtue and announces the dates of Lent and Easter for 402.
  • Letter 100.16Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus urges faith in the one Godhead of Father, Son, and Spirit and in the incorruptible resurrection, prayer for the emperors, and fasting through which virtue governs the body and lifts the soul to heaven.
  • Letter 106.44Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome settles three readings in Ps 72 (LXX 71), seeing the Trinity in the threefold 'Lord God, God of Israel'.
  • Letter 120.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reconciles John 20:22 and the promise of Pentecost: the apostles first received the grace to forgive sins, then at Pentecost the fuller gifts of power and tongues; he rejects the Montanist claim and argues for the Spirit's divinity.
  • Letter 121.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome rejects Marcionite and Arian readings of Rom 5:7 and explains that Paul contrasts the rarity of dying for a just man with Christ's dying for the ungodly.
  • Letter 124.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome lists the teachings on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in book 1 of Origen’s On First Principles that he regards as heretical, especially the subordination of the Son and Spirit.
  • Letter 124.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome quotes Origen’s argument that the Father comprehends the Son but the Son cannot fully comprehend the Father.
  • Letter 124.14Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reports Origen’s view that bodies are made and dissolved as rational creatures fall and rise, and that God, angels and human souls are “in a certain way” of one substance.
  • Synodal Letter 96Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · The synod upholds Nicaea, whose creed suffices on the Spirit for careful readers; the baptismal command of Matt 28:19 shows three hypostases and one nature against Sabellius, the Anomoeans, Arians and Pneumatomachi.
  • Synodal Letter 98Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · The Spirit is not a creature but is named in baptism; the synod confesses one principle and three hypostases, urges peace and unity, and requires the Spirit to be glorified with the Father and the Son.
  • On the Holy Spirit 1.3Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Basil explains that the treatise began when some objected to his using two forms of the doxology.
  • On the Holy Spirit 2.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The heretics use the prepositions "from whom," "through whom," and "in whom" to argue that Father, Son, and Spirit differ in nature.
  • On the Holy Spirit 3.5Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The heretics borrowed a philosophers' classification of causes, in which each kind of cause has its own preposition, and applied it to God.
  • On the Holy Spirit 4.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture does not use "from which" only of matter, and the heretics' borrowed rules would make the Son and the Spirit alien in nature to the Father.
  • On the Holy Spirit 5.7Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Paul uses "from him" and "through him" together of the same subject, so the prepositions do not mark different natures.
  • On the Holy Spirit 5.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Whether Rom 11:36 speaks of the Son or of the Father, the opponents' rule for the prepositions fails.
  • On the Holy Spirit 5.9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture uses "from whom" of the Son and of the Spirit, not only of the Father.
  • On the Holy Spirit 5.10Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture uses "through whom" of the Father and of the Spirit as well as of the Son.
  • On the Holy Spirit 5.11Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture uses "in" of the Father too, so by the opponents' own logic the same wording shows the same essence.
  • On the Holy Spirit 6.13Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The opponents say the Son is "after" the Father and the Spirit "under" both, and so object to the doxology "with the Son."
  • On the Holy Spirit 6.14Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Son cannot be "after" the Father in time, for his begetting is beyond all time, as John's "In the beginning was the Word" shows.
  • On the Holy Spirit 6.15Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · "Sitting at the right hand" shows the Son's equal honour with the Father, not a lower place.
  • On the Holy Spirit 7.16Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The church uses both "with" and "through": "with" to glorify the Son, "through" to give thanks for his gifts, and "with" is the old usage of the fathers.
  • On the Holy Spirit 8.17Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture calls Christ by many names: some show his nature, others his benefits to us, and "through him" fits the latter.
  • On the Holy Spirit 8.19Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · All the Father's gifts come to us through the Son, who works with the Father's own power, not as a servant or tool.
  • On the Holy Spirit 8.20Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The "commandment" the Son receives is not an order to a subordinate but the timeless sharing of one will between Father and Son.
  • On the Holy Spirit 8.21Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Christ's obedience shows that his saving work comes from the Father, while his words of command show his own authority.
  • On the Holy Spirit 9.22Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Scriptures' names for the Spirit lead the mind to a divine, infinite, and life-giving nature, present to all yet shared by each as by one alone.
  • On the Holy Spirit 9.23Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit draws near to a soul cleansed of passions, shows it the image of God, and makes it spiritual, even to the point of becoming god by grace.
  • On the Holy Spirit 10.24Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Lord himself joined the Spirit with the Father and the Son in the baptismal command, so the church may rightly do the same.
  • On the Holy Spirit 10.25Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The attack on the church's doxology is really an attack on the faith and on the apostolic tradition.
  • On the Holy Spirit 10.26Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · We were saved and baptised into Father, Son, and Spirit, and must never abandon that baptismal confession.
  • On the Holy Spirit 11.27Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Those who deny the Spirit break the confession they made at baptism, and without the Spirit there is no true faith in the Son or the Father.
  • On the Holy Spirit 12.28Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Baptism must always be given in the names of Father, Son, and Spirit, since faith and baptism are joined and both rest on the same three names.
  • On the Holy Spirit 13.29Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Paul names the angels in a charge only as witnesses; the Spirit, as Lord of life, is named with the Father and the Son for a different reason.
  • On the Holy Spirit 13.30Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Preachers call heaven, earth, and even stones as witnesses, but the Spirit is ranked with God by nature, as the Lord himself ranked him.
  • On the Holy Spirit 14.31Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Baptism "into Moses" in the cloud and sea was only a type of Christian baptism, which it foreshadowed.
  • On the Holy Spirit 16.37Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture shows the Spirit working together with the Father and the Son; Paul names the Spirit first only because we meet the giver of gifts first.
  • On the Holy Spirit 16.38Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · In the creation of the angels the Father is the principal cause, the Son the creator, and the Spirit the one who perfects and sanctifies them.
  • On the Holy Spirit 16.39Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit was present in all God's saving work, above all in Christ's anointing, ministry, and resurrection gift, and he orders the church.
  • On the Holy Spirit 16.40Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · At the judgment the Spirit will be the reward of the righteous, and to be cut off from him will be the punishment of sinners.
  • On the Holy Spirit 17.41Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · If "subnumeration" means dividing a common class into its members, it would make Father, Son, and Spirit of one essence, the opposite of what the opponents intend.
  • On the Holy Spirit 17.42Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Basil mocks the idea that counting something second makes it inferior.
  • On the Holy Spirit 17.43Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Counting does not change the nature of what is counted, and the baptismal formula ranks the Spirit with the Son as the Son is ranked with the Father.
  • On the Holy Spirit 18.44Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Lord handed down the names Father, Son, and Spirit without numbering them, and each is proclaimed as one without any idea of many gods.
  • On the Holy Spirit 18.45Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Father, Son, and Spirit are each one, yet there are not three gods, just as a king and his image are not two kings.
  • On the Holy Spirit 18.46Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit proceeds from God as the breath of his mouth, not by begetting, and glorifies the Son as one of his own nature.
  • On the Holy Spirit 18.47Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The knowledge of God runs from the Spirit through the Son to the Father, and God's gifts from the Father through the Son to the Spirit; counting them "first, second, third" would make three gods.
  • On the Holy Spirit 19.48Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit shares the names of Father and Son—holy, good, right, Paraclete—which shows that glory is due to him.
  • On the Holy Spirit 19.49Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit's workings in creation, in Christ's coming, in redemption and resurrection, and his commanding speech in Scripture show his greatness.
  • On the Holy Spirit 19.50Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · That the Spirit intercedes for us does not make him lower, since the Son also intercedes; Scripture speaks of him as one who can be grieved and provoked, and who knows the things of God.
  • On the Holy Spirit 20.51Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The claim that the Spirit is neither slave nor master but free fails: among men slavery is not by nature, but every creature serves God, so the Spirit is either a creature and a slave or above creation and a sharer in God's rule.
  • On the Holy Spirit 21.52Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture calls the Spirit "Lord": in Paul's prayers for the Thessalonians and in "the Lord is the Spirit," which Basil explains by the veil over the letter of the law.
  • On the Holy Spirit 22.53Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Like the Father and the Son, the Spirit is beyond the world's sight and is seen only by the pure in heart.
  • On the Holy Spirit 23.54Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Angels are in one place at a time, but the Spirit is everywhere at once; to recount his wonders is itself to glorify him.
  • On the Holy Spirit 24.55Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture gives glory to men, Israel, the heavenly bodies, and even the ministry of the law; the Spirit, joined with the Godhead in faith, baptism, and every gift, cannot be denied glory with the Father and the Son.
  • On the Holy Spirit 24.56Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit is good by nature, knows the depths of God, and gives life with the Father and the Son, so he cannot be ranked with creation.
  • On the Holy Spirit 24.57Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit is God's gift, but a gift of life and power, as the Son too was given; to belittle him for this is ingratitude.
  • On the Holy Spirit 25.58Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture often uses "in" where it means "with," and the opponents' own doxology ("through the Son in the Spirit") is not found in Scripture as a single formula.
  • On the Holy Spirit 25.59Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · "With" and "and" link the names equally, but "with" also shows the distinct hypostases and their inseparable fellowship, refuting both Sabellius and those who separate the persons in time.
  • On the Holy Spirit 25.60Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · "With" expresses conjunction and "in" the relation to a place or sphere; Basil offers peace on "and" as in the baptismal formula, but the opponents insist on "in the Spirit" as lowering him.
  • On the Holy Spirit 26.61Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · "In the Spirit" has many senses—as form in matter, sight in the eye, an art in the craftsman, reason in the soul, and parts in a whole—each showing the Spirit's work in believers.
  • On the Holy Spirit 26.62Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit is called the "place" of the saints—the place of true worship and of the sacrifice of praise—and the saint in turn is a place for the Spirit.
  • On the Holy Spirit 26.63Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · In relation to the Father and the Son the Spirit is better said to be "with" them, since he coexists with them eternally; "in" fits his grace in us, and the doxology "in the Spirit" confesses our weakness.
  • On the Holy Spirit 26.64Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Worship "in the Spirit" also means worship in his light: as the Father is seen in the Son, the Son is seen in the Spirit, so the Spirit is inseparable from them in worship.
  • On the Holy Spirit 27.65Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Answering the charge that "with the Spirit" is a novelty, Basil turns to the origin, force, and scriptural basis of "with".
  • On the Holy Spirit 27.67Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Even the confession of faith in Father, Son, and Spirit is not written as such; if it follows from baptism, the doxology may follow from the faith, and one word handed down from the fathers should be allowed.
  • On the Holy Spirit 27.68Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · "In" expresses the Spirit's grace toward us and "with" his fellowship with God; as we are baptized, so we believe, and as we believe, so we glorify.
  • On the Holy Spirit 28.69Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture says believers live, reign, and are glorified "with Christ"; it is absurd to deny the Spirit the same "with".
  • On the Holy Spirit 28.70Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Men expect to be glorified with Christ yet deny the Spirit that glory; the present confusion foreshadows a failure of faith, and blasphemy against the Spirit is unforgivable.
  • On the Holy Spirit 29.72Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Basil cites earlier writers for the Spirit's place in the doxology: Dionysius of Alexandria's closing "with the Holy Spirit," Clement of Rome, Irenaeus, and Eusebius.
  • On the Holy Spirit 29.73Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Origen, Julius Africanus, the ancient lamp-lighting hymn, and the martyr Athenogenes also glorify the Spirit with the Father and the Son.
  • On the Holy Spirit 29.74Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Gregory the Wonderworker, whose tradition his churches kept unchanged, handed down the disputed doxology; Firmilian, Meletius, the East, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, and the West use it too.
  • On the Holy Spirit 29.75Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Basil is no innovator, since his usage has the support of nations, custom, and great teachers; he will endure persecution rather than fear the Lord's threats against blasphemy of the Spirit.
  • CreedAnonymous · ascribed to 381; first attested 451 · The creed associated with the Council of Constantinople (381), expanding the Nicene creed above all on the Holy Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 1.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Many, including Hypatius from Egypt, have asked him to write on the faith from Scripture.
  • Ancoratus 2.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's words lead to the one God, away from idolatry, which Scripture calls fornication.
  • Ancoratus 2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · John calls Christ the only-begotten God, so the Son is God with the Father.
  • Ancoratus 2.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son is not foreign to the one God; there is a Trinity in unity.
  • Ancoratus 3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Only by the Holy Spirit can anyone confess Jesus as Lord.
  • Ancoratus 3.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The second saying shows Christ's witness is God's; Father, Son, and Spirit are true.
  • Ancoratus 3.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Scripture calls the Father true God and light, the Son only-begotten God and true light.
  • Ancoratus 4.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Scripture calls the Son true light but the Father only light.
  • Ancoratus 4.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · No one would deny the Father is true light just because the word is absent.
  • Ancoratus 4.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · If the Son is true light, so is the Father who begot him.
  • Ancoratus 4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · As the Father is true light without the word, so the Son is true God without the word.
  • Ancoratus 4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The terms applied to Father and Son balance each other.
  • Ancoratus 4.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Combining the terms, we confess one Godhead and one power.
  • Ancoratus 5.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Scripture speaks likewise of the Spirit as the Spirit of truth.
  • Ancoratus 5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit works with the Son, leading and anointing him.
  • Ancoratus 5.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit speaks in the prophets; Amos's “creating spirit” refers to wind.
  • Ancoratus 5.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son is the uncreated one who always is, as Moses and John attest.
  • Ancoratus 5.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Father and Son both are; the Son is eternally begotten, not merged with the Father.
  • Ancoratus 5.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father was never without the Son.
  • Ancoratus 5.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · In God there is no time.
  • Ancoratus 5.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The names Father and Son imply each other.
  • Ancoratus 6.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father was always Father; one must not blaspheme but believe he truly begot the Son.
  • Ancoratus 6.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son truly is with the Father.
  • Ancoratus 6.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son is Son by nature and consubstantial with the Father, not adopted.
  • Ancoratus 6.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Confessing “consubstantial” refutes Sabellius.
  • Ancoratus 6.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Each of the three truly subsists.
  • Ancoratus 6.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Consubstantial means one Godhead, not three gods.
  • Ancoratus 6.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Calling Father and Son God does not make two gods.
  • Ancoratus 6.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The three names signify one Godhead.
  • Ancoratus 6.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit is not a second son but proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son.
  • Ancoratus 6.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Trinity is always of one substance and one Godhead.
  • Ancoratus 7.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit is third in the baptismal name and seals the one faith and baptism.
  • Ancoratus 7.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Trinity never admits addition.
  • Ancoratus 7.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Each person of the Trinity is perfect, without merging or separation.
  • Ancoratus 7.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Paul names Spirit, Lord, and God together in the gifts.
  • Ancoratus 7.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · We speak of God piously, not as comprehending him.
  • Ancoratus 7.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God's honor infinitely exceeds our mind.
  • Ancoratus 7.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Nothing in the Trinity is created; the Son is eternally begotten.
  • Ancoratus 7.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Father unbegotten, Son begotten, Spirit neither, all uncreated and of one substance.
  • Ancoratus 8.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Each divine name is unique.
  • Ancoratus 8.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son is only-begotten, true God from true God.
  • Ancoratus 8.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit is named neither Son nor Father.
  • Ancoratus 8.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's words show the Spirit is of the same substance and uniquely named.
  • Ancoratus 8.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The name God is common to all three.
  • Ancoratus 8.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit is of Father and Son, not by composition.
  • Ancoratus 8.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Baptism in the one divine name shows the Spirit is not foreign to the Godhead.
  • Ancoratus 8.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · If Son and Spirit were creatures, baptism in their name would make no sense.
  • Ancoratus 9.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Lying to the Spirit is lying to God.
  • Ancoratus 9.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Acts and Paul show that the Spirit is God.
  • Ancoratus 9.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The saints are God's temple because the Spirit dwells in them.
  • Ancoratus 9.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father revealed the Son and the Spirit to Peter.
  • Ancoratus 10.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The faith rests on the threefold witness of Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 10.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The heavenly beings cry “Holy” three times.
  • Ancoratus 10.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The threefold “Holy” is exact: neither two nor four.
  • Ancoratus 10.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Three cries in the singular show three persons, one God.
  • Ancoratus 10.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Three subsistent persons, one Godhead and substance.
  • Ancoratus 10.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Naming one person of the Trinity implies the others.
  • Ancoratus 10.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Honoring the Father honors the Son and vice versa.
  • Ancoratus 11.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · No father wants his son diminished, still less God the Father.
  • Ancoratus 11.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Diminishing the Son dishonors the Father.
  • Ancoratus 11.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Only Father and Son know the Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 11.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Those who call the Spirit foreign to God ignore Paul.
  • Ancoratus 11.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Paul uses the human spirit as an example for God's Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 12.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Paul compares God's Spirit to the human spirit.
  • Ancoratus 12.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Paul avoids implying that God is composite.
  • Ancoratus 12.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit searches the depths of God.
  • Ancoratus 12.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit's searching is not the forbidden prying of which Sirach warns.
  • Ancoratus 12.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit does not search God as an outsider would.
  • Ancoratus 12.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The indwelling Spirit enables the saints to glorify God deeply, unlike the Arians.
  • Ancoratus 14.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Paul's words show the Spirit is not foreign to God.
  • Ancoratus 14.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The opponent of the Spirit harms only himself.
  • Ancoratus 15.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Some say the Spirit searches but does not comprehend God's depths.
  • Ancoratus 15.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The word “comprehends” did not need to be added.
  • Ancoratus 15.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Scripture says God “searches” too, without implying ignorance.
  • Ancoratus 15.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · No one would say God fails to comprehend what he searches.
  • Ancoratus 15.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit's searching implies full knowledge.
  • Ancoratus 15.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · As of the Father, so of the Spirit: searching means knowing.
  • Ancoratus 15.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · “Let us make man” includes the Son and the Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 15.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Word and the Spirit create with the Father.
  • Ancoratus 16.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Father and Spirit both search and know.
  • Ancoratus 16.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Angels do not search God's depths; the saying about the day is introduced.
  • Ancoratus 16.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Everything the Father has belongs to the Son.
  • Ancoratus 16.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Godhead, life, light, immortality belong to Father and Son alike.
  • Ancoratus 16.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father's knowledge is also the Son's and the Spirit's.
  • Ancoratus 16.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit distributes gifts as he wills, showing his authority.
  • Ancoratus 16.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Prayer to Father and Son brings the Spirit, who shows the Son is not ignorant.
  • Ancoratus 17.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · “The Father is greater” is the Son's honoring of the Father.
  • Ancoratus 17.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father is not greater in any respect of Godhead.
  • Ancoratus 17.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son's session at the right hand refutes both Sabellius and Arius.
  • Ancoratus 21.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father knows the day both by awareness and by act, having committed judgment to the Son.
  • Ancoratus 22.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Angels do not know the appointed times, but the Son shares the Father's authority.
  • Ancoratus 22.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Angels are created; Father, Son, and Spirit are uncreated.
  • Ancoratus 22.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father gave the Son and the Spirit to the church, which is sealed in their name.
  • Ancoratus 22.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Trinity is a unity in Trinity and Trinity in unity.
  • Ancoratus 24.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · “All the works of the Lord” includes every creature.
  • Ancoratus 24.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit enumerated all creatures to distinguish them from God.
  • Ancoratus 24.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · All creatures were made by God through the Word and the Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 24.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The youths did not count the Son or the Spirit among creatures.
  • Ancoratus 25.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Some claim the youths knew neither Son nor Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 25.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Daniel knew the Son of God and was filled with the Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 25.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · They omitted Son and Spirit from the list of creatures deliberately.
  • Ancoratus 25.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Even the highest angels are among the works that bless God.
  • Ancoratus 26.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The angels glorify the Trinity with the threefold Holy.
  • Ancoratus 26.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Three, not two or four, “holies” honor the Trinity.
  • Ancoratus 26.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The three are equally holy.
  • Ancoratus 26.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Father, Son, and Spirit together gave this knowledge of God.
  • Ancoratus 28.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Before the incarnation the Father said “Let us make man.”
  • Ancoratus 28.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · “Let us make” shows the Son was with the Father.
  • Ancoratus 28.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · “Our image” shows one Godhead, refuting the Anomoeans.
  • Ancoratus 28.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son is fellow creator, not a mere instrument.
  • Ancoratus 28.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Father and Son work together.
  • Ancoratus 29.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · An objection: the Father always comes first.
  • Ancoratus 29.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The order of Father and Son does not mean many principles.
  • Ancoratus 29.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · “The Lord rained … from the Lord” shows two persons.
  • Ancoratus 29.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Angels worship the Son, showing one kingdom of Father and Son.
  • Ancoratus 30.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father is God of the Son by the flesh, Father by nature.
  • Ancoratus 36.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The passions belong to his humanity, not to a diminished Godhead.
  • Ancoratus 39.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Old Testament speaks in the person of each of the three.
  • Ancoratus 40.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Father draws to the Son, Son leads to the Father: one Godhead.
  • Ancoratus 43.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · If the Son is not from the Father, the Father would lack Wisdom.
  • Ancoratus 43.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Created and begotten are incompatible.
  • Ancoratus 43.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · In God, what is begotten is not created.
  • Ancoratus 43.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Creating and begetting cannot both apply.
  • Ancoratus 46.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Opponents say begetting would imply passion in the Father.
  • Ancoratus 46.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · No one should imagine God suffering in begetting.
  • Ancoratus 46.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God is not a body that swells in begetting.
  • Ancoratus 46.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · As Spirit, the Father begot the Son without passion or time.
  • Ancoratus 47.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · An illustration from creatures will be offered.
  • Ancoratus 47.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The sun kindles fire through glass without being diminished.
  • Ancoratus 47.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Much more does God beget the Word without loss.
  • Ancoratus 47.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Fire lights many lamps, yet can be gathered from many.
  • Ancoratus 47.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Unlike fire, the persons do not merge.
  • Ancoratus 48.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The illustrations are not allegories or equations.
  • Ancoratus 48.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Begetting does not attach passion to God.
  • Ancoratus 48.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Human passions must not be ascribed to God.
  • Ancoratus 50.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son is Love from Love.
  • Ancoratus 52.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Arian dilemma: did the Father beget willingly or not?
  • Ancoratus 52.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · “Once” implies time; the Arians use words deceptively.
  • Ancoratus 52.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Both answers to the dilemma seem to fail.
  • Ancoratus 52.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father begot by the transcendence of his nature, beyond will and necessity.
  • Ancoratus 52.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God begot the Word in his transcendent nature, not by deliberation.
  • Ancoratus 63.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Readers of Origen's On First Principles should see his errors.
  • Ancoratus 63.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Epiphanius cites Origen's view on what each rank can see.
  • Ancoratus 64.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · He will gather more testimonies that the Trinity is consubstantial.
  • Ancoratus 66.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ and his Spirit dwell in the righteous.
  • Ancoratus 67.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The mystery of the Trinity is grasped by faith and hearing.
  • Ancoratus 67.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God reveals himself; the Trinity is believed from Scripture.
  • Ancoratus 67.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Salvation comes from faith through hearing.
  • Ancoratus 67.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A rhythmic confession of three persons, one Godhead.
  • Ancoratus 67.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Only the Son reveals the Father, through the Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 67.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The three reveal themselves in various likenesses.
  • Ancoratus 67.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Scripture shows three persons at work in light and Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 68.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ and the Spirit do the same works.
  • Ancoratus 68.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Parallel sayings about the Spirit and the Word.
  • Ancoratus 68.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit and the Lord both direct the apostles.
  • Ancoratus 68.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit sends, as Christ sends.
  • Ancoratus 68.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit legislates as the Lord does.
  • Ancoratus 68.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit directs missions as Christ did.
  • Ancoratus 68.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit speaks as Christ speaks.
  • Ancoratus 68.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Bound by the Spirit, prisoner of Christ.
  • Ancoratus 68.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit testifies as the Lord does.
  • Ancoratus 68.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit of holiness and the Holy One.
  • Ancoratus 68.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Circumcision in the Spirit is circumcision of Christ.
  • Ancoratus 68.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit dwells as Christ does.
  • Ancoratus 68.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Firstfruits of the Spirit and Christ the firstfruits.
  • Ancoratus 68.14Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Spirit and Christ both intercede.
  • Ancoratus 68.15Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Spirit and Lord both sanctify.
  • Ancoratus 68.16Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God reveals through the Spirit and the Son.
  • Ancoratus 68.17Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Receiving the Spirit and having Christ within.
  • Ancoratus 68.18Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit's indwelling is God's indwelling.
  • Ancoratus 69.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Justification comes from both Christ and the Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 69.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Spirit, Lord, and God work together.
  • Ancoratus 69.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Grieving the Spirit is provoking the Lord.
  • Ancoratus 69.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit speaks as the Lord Almighty.
  • Ancoratus 69.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit dwells as Father and Son do.
  • Ancoratus 69.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit rests on Christ and sends him.
  • Ancoratus 69.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Seraphim's threefold cry.
  • Ancoratus 69.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A catena of texts on the Spirit culminating in his deity.
  • Ancoratus 69.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Both the Spirit and Christ appoint ministers.
  • Ancoratus 70.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Son and Spirit create with the Father; the Spirit is worshiped.
  • Ancoratus 70.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Co-creators cannot be creatures.
  • Ancoratus 70.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Worshiping a creature breaks the first commandment.
  • Ancoratus 70.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The names of Father, Son, and Spirit in Scripture.
  • Ancoratus 70.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son is light from light.
  • Ancoratus 70.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son is power, wisdom, and life from the Father.
  • Ancoratus 70.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit is Spirit from Spirit, giver of gifts.
  • Ancoratus 70.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit, like the Son, announces God's counsel.
  • Ancoratus 71.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit's procession does not make two sons.
  • Ancoratus 71.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Father, Son, and Spirit are true light, not by name only.
  • Ancoratus 71.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Creatures are sons or offspring only by adoption or figure.
  • Ancoratus 71.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The true Father never began to be Father.
  • Ancoratus 71.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The true Son is not newly a son.
  • Ancoratus 71.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Spirit and Son are not creatures like spirits and angels.
  • Ancoratus 71.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Contrasts between the uncreated three and creatures.
  • Ancoratus 71.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · More contrasts between Creator and creatures.
  • Ancoratus 72.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Only the Holy Spirit is Spirit of Father and Son.
  • Ancoratus 72.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The one Spirit distributes many gifts.
  • Ancoratus 72.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit leads, blows where he wills, and gives new birth.
  • Ancoratus 72.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's promises of the Paraclete.
  • Ancoratus 73.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Only Father and Son know the Spirit, and only the Spirit knows them.
  • Ancoratus 73.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A litany of the Holy Spirit's titles.
  • Ancoratus 73.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son is Son by nature; the Spirit is not a son.
  • Ancoratus 73.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The eternal Trinity is glorified in the church.
  • Ancoratus 73.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Moses proclaims one God, the prophets a duality, the Gospels the Trinity.
  • Ancoratus 73.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Revelation advances like the courts of the temple.
  • Ancoratus 73.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The one Godhead dwells in the righteous and unites all threes.
  • Ancoratus 73.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · All creation cries “holy” to the Trinity; a doxology.
  • Ancoratus 74.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · He has gathered Scripture on the Trinity for the faithful.
  • Ancoratus 74.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · No time preceded the Son, through whom all things were made.
  • Ancoratus 74.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Son and Spirit are eternal.
  • Ancoratus 75.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Some misread John 1:3 against the Holy Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 75.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Son and Spirit are uncreated; all else was made through them.
  • Ancoratus 81.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The exalted Christ commanded baptism in the threefold name.
  • Ancoratus 81.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The baptismal command shows three distinct, subsistent persons.
  • Ancoratus 81.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A heretic may use orthodox words deceptively.
  • Ancoratus 81.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Some liken the Trinity to body, soul, and spirit in man.
  • Ancoratus 81.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The heretical analogy of the Trinity to the parts of a man.
  • Ancoratus 81.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · At the Jordan the three are seen distinctly.
  • Ancoratus 81.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son sits at the Father's right hand, not merged into him.
  • Ancoratus 81.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's going and the Spirit's coming show two hypostases.
  • Ancoratus 94.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · We know God's plan only in part.
  • Ancoratus 94.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God is the God of the living patriarchs.
  • Ancoratus 108.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Father and Son both ask while knowing.
  • Ancoratus 115.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · He was the one addressed in “Let us make man.”
  • Ancoratus 115.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father took counsel with Son and Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 115.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Genesis 19:24 shows two Lords.
  • Ancoratus 116.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Sabellians deny distinct Son and Spirit.
  • Ancoratus 116.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Arians separate the Son from the Father's substance.
  • Ancoratus 116.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Pneumatomachi are the Arians' offspring.
  • Ancoratus 117.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The baptism in the Jordan refutes the Sabellians.
  • Ancoratus 117.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father bears witness to the Son.
  • Ancoratus 117.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit descends to purify the waters of baptism.
  • Ancoratus 117.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · John 14:10 refutes the Arians.
  • Ancoratus 117.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Two testimonies against the Pneumatomachi.
  • Ancoratus 117.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Song of the Three and the Seraphim.
  • Ancoratus 118.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Peter's rebuke of Ananias.
  • Ancoratus 118.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit searches God's depths, so he is of God's substance.
  • Ancoratus 118.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · One Trinity, one church, one baptism, one faith.
  • Ancoratus 118.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The creed: first article, on the Father.
  • Ancoratus 118.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The creed: second article, on the Son.
  • Ancoratus 118.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The creed: third article, on the Spirit and the church.
  • Ancoratus 118.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Nicene anathemas.
  • Ancoratus 118.14Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · This faith was handed down by the apostles and the bishops of Nicaea.
  • Ancoratus 119.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The second creed: on the Father.
  • Ancoratus 119.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The second creed: the Son's eternal generation.
  • Ancoratus 119.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The second creed: the Spirit's work.
  • Ancoratus 119.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The second creed: the Spirit uncreated, proceeding from the Father.
  • Ancoratus 119.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The anathemas of the second creed.
  • Ancoratus 119.14Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Request for prayer and doxology.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 8.5.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Within Israel's monotheism the prophets knew the Trinity; they worshipped at the tabernacle.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 9.2.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Pentateuch hints at resurrection and the Trinity within monotheism.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 9.5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Pentateuch speaks of the Holy Spirit given to the seventy elders.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 9.5.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Genesis reveals the Son alongside the Father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 21.5.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The same God and Spirit speak in both Testaments.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 23.5.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God, not angels, made man in “our” image.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 23.5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Father created man with the Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 23.5.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Holy Spirit also shared in creation.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 24.9.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ willingly took flesh and suffered.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 25.6.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The one God is Father, Son, and Spirit, three hypostases.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.30.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Church everywhere received from the apostles faith in one God the Father, Creator.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.30.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · And in one Christ Jesus, Son of God, incarnate for our salvation.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.30.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · And in the Holy Spirit, who foretold Christ's birth, passion, resurrection, ascension and return.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 32.1.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · There is one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with no deficiency; all else is his good creation.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.11.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Such division would separate the Son from the Father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.21.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church confesses one uncreated Trinity and a creation from nothing.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 36.6.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · One God the Father, one Son, one Spirit.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 36.6.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The consubstantial Trinity created all things good from nothing.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 36.6.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A Trinitarian doxology.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.16.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · There are not three principles, and Christ has no other father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.16.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's words 'I am in the Father' exclude a false father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.16.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ teaches that his true Father is the good Creator and warns those who dishonour the Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.16.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The one God, the Father, eternally begets a Son who is good, love, life, truth and light like him.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 44.4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · 'Let us make' shows the Father speaking with the Son and the Spirit.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 44.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Son is the maker of man, to whom the Father spoke.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam, not born of marriage but formed by God, would on Tatian's view be saved first.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.3.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · By supplying the missing part with clay, Christ shows he is the creator.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.1.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Phrygians are orthodox on the Trinity but split off over prophetic gifts.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.11.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ glorified the Father and the Spirit; Montanus glorifies only himself.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.12.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Holy Spirit speaks in Scripture in the persons of Father, Son, and Spirit, never against itself.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.12.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit of the Father and the Son would not say 'Do not listen to me.'
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.12.14Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Father, Son, and Spirit act and speak in harmony.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.13.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ came freely, not under compulsion, unlike the spirit in Maximilla.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.21.30Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · John 5:18 refutes those who make the Son inferior to the Father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 54.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ foresaw those who would call the Spirit a creature.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 54.3.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Annunciation's wording safeguards the unity of the Trinity.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 54.3.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The wording prevents confusing the Spirit with the incarnate Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 54.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Only the Son reveals the Father and himself.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.5.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit never took flesh, so could not be Melchizedek.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.9.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Father spoke “Let us make man” to the eternal Word, not Melchizedek.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.9.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Genesis and Paul show Father and Son together.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.9.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul’s silence about the Spirit in 1 Cor 8:6 does not diminish the Trinity.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.9.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Baptism in the triune name and Paul show the Spirit’s place.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.9.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture never counts Melchizedek among the Trinity; the heresy comes from the devil.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.9.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Some identify Melchizedek with the Father of Christ.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 56.3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Against many principles, 1 Cor 8:6 is cited.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.1.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Noetus taught that the Father suffered.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.1.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Noetus defended himself as glorifying one God who suffered.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.1.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The presbyters answered that they too worship one God, rightly.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.2.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Noetians cite texts about the one God.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.2.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Noetians identify the Father and the Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.2.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They cite Baruch 3 on God appearing on earth.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.2.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Noetian confession makes the one God Father and suffering Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.2.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Noetus and Theodotus err at opposite extremes.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.3.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Identifying Father, Son, and sufferer is audacious and blind.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A son must be son of someone else.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.3.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · No one begets himself; the Son is begotten of the Father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.3.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Isaiah shows the Father speaking of his Son and Spirit.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.3.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Father’s voice points to a real Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.3.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Son prays to the Father, so he is not the Father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.3.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The voice at the Transfiguration distinguishes Father and Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.3.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The plural “are” in John 10:30 marks two persons.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “I go, he comes” shows Son and Spirit are distinct.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · At Christ’s baptism the three appear distinctly.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The dove shows the Spirit distinct from the Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If Noetus were right, Scripture would have to be rejected.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Worship of the Trinity is not polytheism.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · One God the Father, from whom the Son is eternally begotten.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Father and Son share one Godhead, will, and lordship.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit proceeds from the Father and is the Spirit of Christ.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church confesses one Godhead in three perfect subsistences.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture proclaims one God as a consubstantial Trinity.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.5.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · 1 Cor 8:6 signifies one principle, not polytheism.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul knows the Son as both Lord and God.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.5.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul distinguishes Father and Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.5.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Calling the Son “Lord” implies he is God.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.5.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul speaks in the Spirit, so the Trinity is not omitted.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.5.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Neither title excludes the other.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.5.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Each title implies the other for Father and Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.5.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit does not commend itself, as an example for us.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.5.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · One God, one Lord, and one subsistent Holy Spirit.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.7.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God is “in” the Son, in whom the Father is known.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.7.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Father raised up the Son as king.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.7.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Father raised Christ, as Paul says.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.9.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “Handed over by my Father” presupposes the Father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.9.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “I go to the Father” refutes Noetus.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.10.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture guides to the middle way between extremes.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.10.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Against Arius, John 10:30 affirms unity.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.10.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Against Noetus, John 17 compares the unity to the disciples’ unity.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.10.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Unity is of Godhead and will, not merging of persons.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.10.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus told Philip he who sees him sees the Father, not that he is the Father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.10.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “Me” and “the Father” are distinct.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.10.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Son is not the Father, yet not alien from him.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.8.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Peter shows the Spirit is God.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.13.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Donatists are also said to be Arian.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.1.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Sabellians hold three names in one hypostasis.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.1.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They compare the Trinity to body, soul, and spirit.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.1.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They also compare the Trinity to the sun.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.1.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Heat is the Spirit, light the Son, form the Father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.1.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit warms each worthy person.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.2.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They cite texts on God’s oneness.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · That gospel makes the Savior teach Sabellian views.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.2.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The simple are misled into denying Son and Spirit.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.3.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church confesses one God, a monarchy.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Monarchy includes the Trinity.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.3.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The three are not interchangeable.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.3.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Against both Sabellius and Arius.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.3.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Trinity is eternal, with three perfect hypostases.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.3.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Father and Son are eternally what they are.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.3.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Son is God from God, begotten not made, yet not the Father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.4.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit proceeds from the Father and shares the same essence.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.4.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit is equal in Godhead, the bond of the Trinity.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.4.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · John 10:30 shows two persons.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The baptismal formula distinguishes the three.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · One name refutes Arius; “and” refutes Sabellius.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.4.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Son glorifies the Father without being lesser.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture teaches the Son’s equality with the Father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.5.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · John testifies to the Spirit and the Father’s voice.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.5.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Father speaking from above refutes Sabellius.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.6.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The dove shows the Spirit is distinct.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.6.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Three subsistent persons, one undivided Godhead.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.6.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Trinity is counted at the baptism.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.6.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Isaiah 42 as cited in Matthew names Father, Servant, and Spirit.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.6.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Father cannot be speaking of himself.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.6.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Ps 110:1 distinguishes two Lords.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.6.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Stephen saw the Son at the Father’s right hand.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.7.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Isaiah’s “I am the first” is taken up.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.7.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The one God is Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.7.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture guards against polytheism.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.7.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture also guards against denying Son and Spirit.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.7.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “Only true God” unites the Trinity, not denying the Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.8.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Son is called “true light,” refuting Arius.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.8.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “True” is shared between Father and Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.8.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “God” and “light” show equal genuineness.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.8.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A doxology to the Trinity.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.4.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen’s teaching gave pretexts to Arius.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.4.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen allegedly said the Son cannot see the Father.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen is charged with making the Son a creature.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.5.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen is said to call the Son a creature.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.8.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · In Origen “generated” means “created.”
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.8.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Genētos differs from gennētos.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.8.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A created God could not be worshiped.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.8.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Worship belongs to the Creator, not a creature.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.8.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If one creature is worshiped, all could be.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.9.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The gospels never call the Son created.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.9.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · John 14 and 10 refute a created Son.
  • Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.9.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Son shares the Father’s honor.
  • On Cain and Abel 1.30Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The "third day" signifies continual devotion or faith in the Trinity, which Abraham worshipped in the three visitors, offering three measures of fine flour as one sacrifice.
  • Apostolic Canon 49Anonymous · ca. 380 · Baptism must be into the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • Apostolic Canon 50Anonymous · ca. 380 · Baptism is by threefold immersion, according to the threefold name.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 2.26.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Presbyters represent the apostles, widows and orphans the altar, and virgins the altar of incense.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 3.16.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The order of baptism: anointing with oil, immersion in the triune name by bishop or presbyter, reception by deacon or deaconess, then chrism.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 3.17.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Father is named as cause and sender, the Spirit as witness.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 3.17.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · A short statement of the Father, the only-begotten Son, and the Spirit sent by Christ.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 5.20.13Anonymous · ca. 380 · The apostles preach the Son as God the Word, through whom the Father created all things.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 6.11.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The apostles proclaim one eternal God, Lord of the Law and Prophets and Father of Christ.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 6.11.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The one God is Father of one Son and, through Christ, maker of the Paraclete and the other orders.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 6.11.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The one Creator rules, gives law, and will raise and judge through Christ.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 6.14.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The catholic teaching: worship the one God through Christ in the Spirit, use the Scriptures, and expect the resurrection and judgment.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 6.26.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Some heretics make Christ a mere man; others make him Father, Son and Paraclete at once.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 7.22.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Baptism is given in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as Christ commanded.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 7.35.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · God alone is holy, and his attributes are without limit; he is the Father of Christ, through whom he created all things.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 7.37.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is asked to receive the church's prayers through Christ in the Spirit.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 7.38.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · God freed us from error through Christ and gave the Spirit.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 7.39.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Catechumens are taught about the Father, the Son, the Spirit, creation, providence and human nature.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 7.40.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christ commanded teaching before baptism.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 7.41.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The baptismal creed confesses the one unbegotten God, the Father.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 7.41.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The creed confesses the Son, begotten before the ages, not created, through whom all things were made.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 7.41.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · The creed confesses the Holy Spirit, the church, the resurrection, forgiveness and eternal life.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 7.44.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · After baptism the newly baptized is anointed with chrism.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 7.48.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Praise is offered to the Father through the Son in the Spirit.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 8.7.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Son is asked to rebuke the evil spirits.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 8.12.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The anaphora praises God for creation and the history of salvation, joins the angels' Holy, recalls Christ's incarnation and passion, offers the bread and cup, calls down the Holy Spirit, and intercedes for the whole church and world.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 8.33.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Slaves rest on the Epiphany and the apostles' days.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 8.37.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The evening thanksgiving praises God, maker of day and night.
  • Apostolic Constitutions 8.48.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The work ends with a blessing and doxology.
  • On Virgins 1.5Ambrose · ca. 377 · Virginity’s homeland is heaven and its author is Christ, born of the Father and of a Virgin; the Church is the virgin mother watered by the Trinity; Paul had no command about virgins, because virginity can be desired but not commanded.
  • On Virgins 1.9Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose urges the virgin to seek Christ, the flower found in enclosed gardens, using verses of the Song of Songs; Christ, white and ruddy, divine and human, seals the virgin, angels guard her, and her sober life keeps her from the causes of sin.
  • On Virgins 3.1Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose recalls the address of Liberius, bishop of Rome, when Marcellina received the virgin’s veil at St Peter’s on Christmas Day: Christ, the eternal Son equal to the Father, is her bridegroom, to be loved and honored as the Father loves and honors him.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.1Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose states the faith in one God against pagans, Jews, Sabellius, Photinus, and Arius, and argues from the baptismal formula and John 10:30 that the Trinity has one name, one nature, and one power.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.2Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that Christ, as God, has all the attributes of the divine nature, and that the scriptural titles Word, Son, Power, and Wisdom show one divinity in Father and Son with a distinction of generation.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.3Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues from Isaiah, Genesis, Psalm 45, Paul, and a passage he ascribes to Jeremiah that Scripture speaks of one God while confessing both Father and Son.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.4Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose finds the one God confessed by the unity of the world, of faith, and of baptism, by the gifts of the Magi, and by the three youths in the furnace.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.7Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · From Paul’s calling Christ the image of the invisible God, from Wisdom 7:26, from John 14:9, and from Gen 1:26, Ambrose argues that the Son is not unlike the Father.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.9Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that if the Father became Father at some point, he would have changed, so the Son’s eternal generation follows from God’s unchangeability.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.10Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that Christ, the everlasting power of God, is everlasting, and that the divine generation is beyond understanding and cannot be measured by human generation.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.11Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues from Ps 81:9 that the Son is neither a “new” nor a “strange” God, and shows that arguments from the custom of human birth lead to absurdities.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.12Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the objection that the Son lacks what sons have by arguing that nothing creaturely applies to God, that both Christ’s eternal generation and his birth from the Virgin are unique, and that they are to be believed, not examined.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.13Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers “how was the Son begotten?” with the image of radiance from light, reads the furnace, Mamre, the Transfiguration, and the burning bush as revelations of the eternal Son, and contrasts simple faith with philosophical disputation.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.17Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that the Son is true God and the Father’s own Son, from Rom 8:32, from his coming forth from God, from his sharing the Father’s work, from the confessions of the apostles and the centurion, and from Isa 65 and 1 John 5:20.
  • On the Christian Faith 1.18Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose quotes the Nicene Creed and its anathemas against the Arians, sees the cross and the name of Jesus in the number of the 318 bishops, and appeals to the Council of Ariminum.
  • On the Christian Faith 2.0Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Opening the second book, Ambrose arranges the scriptural titles of the Son into twelve signs of his property, likeness, and unity with the Father, likens them to the twelve stones of Aaron’s breastpiece, and sums up the faith in short definitions.
  • On the Christian Faith 2.1Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the Arian use of Mark 10:18 (“No one is good but one, God”): Christ spoke as man to one who did not believe him God, and goodness belongs to the one divine nature, which includes the Son.
  • On the Christian Faith 2.3Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that Christ cannot be counted among the so-called gods, since God is one and Father and Son are distinct but not divided in divinity.
  • On the Christian Faith 2.4Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose proves that the Son is almighty from Rev 1:7–8, Zech 2:8–9, Isa 52:6, and John 16:15.
  • On the Christian Faith 2.6Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that the Son, like the Spirit, acts by free will, and that the Father and the Son have one will, as the healing of the leper and the giving of life show.
  • On the Christian Faith 2.8Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains John 14:28 (“the Father is greater than I”) as said of Christ’s humanity, in which he was made lower than the angels, and argues from John 5:18, Phil 2:6, and God’s oath by himself that in divinity the Son is equal to the Father.
  • On the Christian Faith 2.9Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that being sent does not make the Son less, since he is sent by the Father and by the Spirit and himself sends the Spirit, and that Christ speaks sometimes as God and sometimes as man, as in John 6–7 and 17.
  • On the Christian Faith 2.10Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains that the Son’s obedience unto death (Phil 2:8) belongs to his incarnation, shows the one power and work of the Trinity from the passion and from Paul’s prayers, and compares the Son’s subjection to his subjection to Joseph and Mary.
  • On the Christian Faith 2.12Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose appeals to Christ as judge: his session at the Father’s right hand is honor, not inferiority, Father and Son hand everything over to each other in love, and the Seraphim’s threefold “Holy” is praise of one Trinity.
  • On the Christian Faith 2.14Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that Christ has already given sentence in John 5:23, and that an appeal to the Father against it fails, since the Father commanded that the Son be heard.
  • On the Christian Faith 3.2Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose refers Christ’s hunger, tears, sorrow, and being “made” to his human nature, shows from the Psalms and Luke that Christ is the Most High, and argues from Col 2:12–15 that the God who raised us is the Son, not the Father alone.
  • On the Christian Faith 3.3Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that 1 Tim 6:13–16 (“blessed and only Potentate, who alone has immortality”) applies to the Son too, explains how the immortality of God differs from that of souls and angels, and shows that “alone” never separates Father and Son.
  • On the Christian Faith 3.12Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues from the Gospels and the epistles that the kingdom of the Father and of the Son is one, so that their power and divinity are one.
  • On the Christian Faith 3.13Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues from Matt 25:31 and Luke 9:26 that the majesty of the Father and of the Son is one, while the angels only attend it.
  • On the Christian Faith 3.14Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that Scripture itself uses the word “substance” of God and of Christ, citing Heb 1:3, Ps 139, Nahum, Jeremiah, and Ps 89, and that these texts do not mean wealth or a created thing.
  • On the Christian Faith 3.15Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose defends the Nicene word homoousios (“of one substance”) against the Arians, recalling that Eusebius of Nicomedia rejected it, explaining that it signifies distinction of persons and unity of nature, and urging fidelity to the faith sealed by confessors and martyrs.
  • On the Christian Faith 4.3Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the Arian use of 1 Cor 11:3 (“the head of Christ is God”) as said of Christ’s humanity, and distinguishes the unity of Father and Son by nature from the unity of believers by grace (John 17).
  • On the Christian Faith 4.4Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the Arian use of John 5:19 (“the Son can do nothing of himself”) by the verse’s own sequel and by showing that the Son, as the power and wisdom of God, created the world and worked his miracles without copying any pattern of the Father.
  • On the Christian Faith 4.5Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose distinguishes four kinds of impossibility (by nature, by weakness, by lack of skill or authority, and by fixed will) and shows that the first three cannot apply to Christ, so that John 5:19 expresses the unity of will and love between Father and Son.
  • On the Christian Faith 4.6Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that the Son never acts against the Father’s will, as creation and the raising of Lazarus show, so that John 5:19 refers to the unity of their love and operation, not to weakness.
  • On the Christian Faith 4.7Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose contrasts our spoken or inward word with the living, working Word of God (Heb 4:12), who shares the Father’s will and power by unity of substance.
  • On the Christian Faith 4.8Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the Arian claim that the Son is unequal because he did not beget a son: begetting belongs to the Father’s property, not to power or nature, and the Son, of one substance with the Father, has all that the Father has.
  • On the Christian Faith 4.9Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the Arian dilemmas about the Son’s generation (whether he existed before he was begotten, whether generation began, whether it was willed) by showing that the generation is eternal, like radiance from light, and that even human beings such as Jacob, Jeremiah, and John existed in some sense before birth.
  • On the Christian Faith 4.11Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the Arian use of 1 Cor 8:6 (“from whom” the Father, “through whom” the Son) by showing from Rom 11:33–36 and other texts that “from,” “through,” and “in” are said of both Father and Son, so that their power is one.
  • On the Christian Faith 5.1Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that John 17:3 (“you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ”) joins the Son to the Father, and that Christ, being neither a false god nor a god in name only, is true God, the same yesterday, today, and for ever.
  • On the Christian Faith 5.2Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that calling the Father “the only true God” does not exclude the Son, since Scripture uses “alone” of God where both Father and Son act, as in creation, and the Son alone shares the Father’s life, immortality, and work.
  • On the Christian Faith 5.3Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the Arian charge that one substance means two gods: Scripture uses plurality for things of different substance, while Father and Son, being of one substance, are one God, to be served and worshiped together.
  • On the Christian Faith 5.7Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains that John 17:23 does not make men equal to the Son in the Father’s love, that John 17:5 speaks with the feeling of the first man, and that the Son’s being “sent” implies no inferiority, since the lesser may send the greater.
  • On the Christian Faith 5.9Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the Arian argument from the order of names in the baptismal formula by showing that Scripture often names the Son before the Father.
  • On the Christian Faith 5.11Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains that the Son’s speaking what he hears from the Father expresses their unity of will, and gives a series of arguments that the Son is not a creature.
  • On the Christian Faith 5.16Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the Arian use of Mark 13:32 (“nor the Son”) by noting that older Greek manuscripts of Matthew lack the words, by explaining them of Christ’s human nature, and by arguing that the Creator of the ages, who foretold the signs, the place, and the order of the end, cannot be ignorant of the day.
  • On the Christian Faith 5.18Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose gives two explanations of “nor the Son” (love that withholds useless knowledge, and the human condition Christ assumed), then argues that the Son, who has all that the Father has, is less only according to the flesh, and that no creature may sit in judgment on the Father and the Son.
  • On the Christian Faith 5.19Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose turns in prayer to the Father: no one may measure God or judge between the Father and the Son, and Arius, claiming to know God wholly, outdoes Paul in presumption and imitates the devil’s boast.
  • On Noah 47Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · Noah, like a friend rather than a slave, did all God commanded; the names 'Lord' and 'God' point to the Father and the Son, or to God's power to punish and to pardon.
  • On Noah 58Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · The 'spirit' that ended the flood was not wind but the creative power of the divine Spirit.
  • On Noah 99Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · 'In the image of God' points to the Father and the Son, and because man is made in God's image, God avenges violence against him.
  • PreambleAnonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Preface: the Roman council adds anathemas concerning the Holy Spirit, because some had begun to say that the Spirit was made through the Son.
  • Anathema 1Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on those who do not confess the Holy Spirit to be of one power and substance with the Father and the Son.
  • Anathema 2Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on the Sabellians, who identify the Father with the Son.
  • Anathema 3Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on Arius and Eunomius, who call the Son and the Spirit creatures.
  • Anathema 4Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on the Macedonians, who are Arians under another name.
  • Anathema 8Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on those who make the Word an expansion or contraction of the Father, without real substance and destined to end.
  • Anathema 10Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever denies that the Son and the Spirit always exist.
  • Anathema 11Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever denies that the Son is born of the Father's divine substance.
  • Anathema 12Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever denies that the Son is God, almighty, all-knowing, and equal to the Father.
  • Anathema 16Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever denies that the Holy Spirit is truly from the Father and true God.
  • Anathema 17Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever denies that the Spirit is almighty, all-knowing, and everywhere present.
  • Anathema 18Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever calls the Spirit a creature or made through the Son.
  • Anathema 19Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever denies that the Father made all things through the Son and the Spirit.
  • Anathema 20Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever denies the one divinity, power, glory, kingdom, and will of the three.
  • Anathema 21Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever denies three true and equal persons who together create, sustain, judge, and save.
  • Anathema 22Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever denies that the Spirit is to be worshipped by all creation like the Father and the Son.
  • Anathema 23Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Whoever is orthodox about the Father and Son but not about the Spirit is a heretic.
  • Anathema 24Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever calls the three "gods" rather than one God, or calls the Father alone God; Christians are baptized into the one divinity of Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • On the Making of Man 6Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · Just as one human mind works through many senses, God is not divided by his many powers; and since the three persons make one image, they cannot be unlike in nature, as the Anomoeans claim.
  • On the Making of Man 16Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · Man’s greatness lies not in being a little world but in being made in God’s image, which belongs to the whole of humanity as one; the division into male and female was added afterward, in view of the foreseen fall, and does not belong to the divine archetype.
  • 1.3Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius describes Lazarus's sufferings and the rich man's hardness, explains Abraham's bosom as an image pointing to Christ, and says that poverty is praised only when joined to humility.
  • 8.8Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius expounds Christ's words to Paul, explains his three days of blindness, and describes Paul's preaching of Christ as God in the synagogues of Damascus and his return to Jerusalem.
  • 12.4Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius describes the angels' joy and the devil's defeat at Stephen's death, foresees Paul's conversion, and explains that the vision of the Father and the Son as distinct persons was given to guard against the confusion of the hypostases, the Spirit being present earlier in the narrative.
  • 21.3Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius explains why the psalm is said to have been both sung to the harp and sung as a song, before and after the victory, and recalls how the patriarchs and Moses were saved by hoping in God.
  • Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 3Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · The kingdom of God is knowledge of the Trinity.
  • On the Trinity 1Faustinus · ca. 380–384 · Faustinus sets out the Arian position and refutes it from John 1, Philippians 2, Colossians 1, Genesis 1, and 'I and the Father are one,' arguing that the Son is eternal, equal, and of one substance and will with the Father.
  • On the Trinity 2Faustinus · ca. 380–384 · Against the claim that God made the Son from nothing, Faustinus cites the Father's voice at the baptism and transfiguration, Peter's confession, John's 'only-begotten' texts, God's gift of his Son compared with Abraham's offering of Isaac, and Psalm 110:3, 'from the womb I begot you.'
  • On the Trinity 3Faustinus · ca. 380–384 · Faustinus proves the Son almighty and unchangeable from Zechariah, Revelation, Wisdom, the Psalms, and Isaiah, and explains Christ's weaknesses as belonging to the human nature he assumed.
  • On the Trinity 4Faustinus · ca. 380–384 · 'The Father is greater than I' refers to the Son's emptying of himself in the form of a servant, or, as some catholics hold, to the Father's being the source of the Son, not to any inequality of deity.
  • On the Trinity 6Faustinus · ca. 380–384 · Proverbs 8:22, 'the Lord created me,' does not make Wisdom (Christ) a creature: Wisdom was begotten before it was 'created' for God's works, and 'created' can mean being made something for others, as God is 'made' our refuge.
  • On the Trinity 7Faustinus · ca. 380–384 · Faustinus briefly confesses the Holy Spirit as truly holy, of the same substance with the Father and the Son, not a creature, and explains his refusal of communion with heretics and those who compromised the faith.
  • Theological Oration 2 (Or. 28), On the Doctrine of God 1Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · After describing the true theologian, Gregory begins his treatment of God by invoking the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
  • Theological Oration 2 (Or. 28), On the Doctrine of God 31Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Even the angels, pure intelligible beings who serve and praise God, surpass human understanding, how much more the Trinity itself.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 1Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory turns from criticizing his opponents to setting out the orthodox doctrine of God, promising brevity.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 2Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Christians worship a divine monarchy that is not one person but one nature shared by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: the unbegotten, the begotten, and the one who proceeds.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 3Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Son and the Spirit are eternal with the Father; they have the Father as cause but no beginning in time.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 4Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Son’s begetting is incorporeal and free from passion, as different from ours as his virgin birth was.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 5Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · God is Father eternally and in the proper sense; biblical tenses show that “he begot” need not imply a temporal beginning.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 6Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory turns the Eunomian dilemma about the Father begetting “willingly or unwillingly” back on its authors.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 7Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Applied to the Father’s own existence, the Eunomian question about will proves absurd.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 8Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · No one can explain how the Son was begotten; since we do not understand even our own birth, God’s begetting must be honoured in silence.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 9Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The question whether the Father begot a Son who already existed or did not is as meaningless as the liar paradox or asking whether time is in time.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 10Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · If “unbegotten” were God’s substance, the begotten Son could not be God; but unbegotten and begotten are properties within one and the same nature.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 11Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Being unbegotten is a property of the Father, not the divine substance; the Son, begotten of the Father, is equally God.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 12Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Being unbegotten and being God are not the same, or the Eunomian logic would make the Son’s substance older than the Father’s.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 13Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory refutes the argument that the Son’s begetting must have begun or be unfinished, and insists that God has one substance and name, properly shared by the Son.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 14Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Eunomian appeal to equivocal names, like the land dog and sea dog, fails because it is meant to make the Son unequal to the Father.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 15Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Father is greater as the Son’s cause, but the Eunomians fallaciously conclude that he is greater in nature.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 16Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · “Father” names neither a substance nor an activity but a relation, which implies that the Son shares the Father’s nature.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 17Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory lists the lofty biblical titles of the Son, God, Word, Wisdom, Power, Image, Lord, which show his eternal Godhead.
  • Theological Oration 3 (Or. 29), On the Son 21Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory closes by urging his opponents to put faith before argument, and prays that they may become true believers while the Church keeps the Trinity safe.
  • Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 7Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Father is “greater” as the Son’s cause, while the Son is equal to him in nature.
  • Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 11Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Son cannot act apart from the Father because they share one being and authority; he does the Father’s works not by copying but with equal power.
  • Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 12Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · When the Son says he came not to do his own will, he means that he has no will separate from the Father’s; they share one Godhead and one will.
  • Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 13Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · “The only true God” and “no one is good but God” exclude false gods and address a questioner, not the Son; otherwise similar texts would exclude the Father.
  • Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 19Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · God’s common titles express his authority or his saving plan; the proper names Father, Son, and Holy Spirit distinguish the three.
  • Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 20Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory explains the Son’s divine titles, Son, Only-begotten, Word, Wisdom, Power, Truth, Image, Light, Life, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption, Resurrection.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 1Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Having defended the Son, Gregory turns to those who reject the Holy Spirit’s Godhead as unscriptural.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 2Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory admits the difficulty of the subject and leaves to others a word study of “spirit” and “holy,” turning directly to the argument.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 3Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Applying John 1:9 in turn to Father, Son, and Spirit, Gregory proclaims one light and one God in three.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 4Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · If the Spirit were not eternal, the Godhead would once have been incomplete, and the Spirit could not deify us.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 5Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory surveys opinions on the Spirit, from the Sadducees and Greek philosophers to Christians who call him an activity, a creature, or an undefined power.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 6Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Spirit is not an accident or activity but a being who acts; and since we believe in him, he is not a creature but God.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 7Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory rejects the Eunomian dilemma that the Spirit must be either unbegotten, a second son, or a grandson, and warns against applying bodily kinship terms to God.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 8Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Spirit “proceeds” from the Father: neither unbegotten nor begotten, and therefore neither creature nor son, but God.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 9Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Unbegottenness, begetting, and procession distinguish Father, Son, and Spirit as three persons in one divine nature, against both Sabellius and the Arians.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 10Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Spirit is God and consubstantial with the Father; although no earthly analogy is adequate, nature shows beings of one substance that come to be in different ways.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 11Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Adam, Eve, and Seth came to be in different ways yet share one human nature, a faint image of how the Son and Spirit share the Father’s substance.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 12Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Worship in the Spirit is worship of the Spirit, since to worship one of the three is to worship all three; and the Spirit was not made through the Son.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 13Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · To the charge that three who are God make three Gods, Gregory replies first to those who worship the Son: their defence against “ditheism” answers the charge of “tritheism.”
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 14Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · There is one God because there is one Godhead, undivided in three, like the one light of three joined suns.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 15Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The unity of the Godhead is not like the abstract unity of a species such as humanity, whose members are divided and changeable.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 16Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Unlike the quarrelling, divided gods of Greek myth, Father, Son, and Spirit are one in substance and power.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 17Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Eunomian argument that only things of one substance are counted together would save them from tritheism only by denying the Son and Spirit’s Godhead.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 18Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Number indicates quantity, not nature: Scripture counts together things of different natures and counts singly things of the same nature.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 19Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Using 1 John 5:8 and common equivocal names, Gregory shows that the Eunomian rules about counting and names prove nothing about substance.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 20Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The order in which the three are named, the titles “God” and “Lord,” and the prepositions “from,” “through,” and “in” do not show inequality of nature.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 21Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory replies to the charge that the Spirit’s Godhead is unscriptural by first discussing how Scripture uses things and names.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 23Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Eunomians’ own key terms, “unbegotten” and “without beginning,” are not in Scripture by name but are inferred from it, as is the Spirit’s Godhead.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 26Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Revelation of the Trinity was gradual: the Old Testament showed the Father, the New the Son, and now the Spirit makes himself clearer, as Jesus himself revealed him step by step.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 27Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Spirit’s Godhead was among the things the disciples could not yet bear, which Jesus promised the Spirit would teach them later.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 28Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory confesses one Godhead in Father, Son, and Spirit: since the Spirit deifies us in baptism, he must be worshipped as God.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 29Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory gathers the many scriptural titles and works of the Holy Spirit, which show him to be God.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 30Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Scripture’s teaching on blasphemy against the Spirit and on Ananias and Sapphira shows that the Spirit is God; lowlier expressions refer him to the Father as source.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 31Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory tests the analogy of source, spring, and river and finds it inadequate for the Trinity.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 32Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The analogy of the sun, its ray, and its light, and that of a reflected sunbeam, also fall short.
  • Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 33Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Rejecting all earthly analogies as inadequate, Gregory resolves to hold to the reverent faith taught by the Spirit and to worship the one Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Not Three Gods, to Ablabius, part 1Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–385 · Gregory takes up Ablabius's question: if Peter, James, and John are called three men because they share one nature, why should Father, Son, and Spirit, who share one Godhead, not be called three Gods?
  • Not Three Gods, to Ablabius, part 2Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–385 · Gregory argues that calling those who share one nature "many men" is a loose habit of speech, since the nature is one and undivided, and that in speaking of God such looseness is dangerous; he adds that "Godhead" names not the divine nature itself, which is unnameable, but something understood about it.
  • Not Three Gods, to Ablabius, part 3Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–385 · Divine names signify what God does or is not, not what he is; Gregory derives "Godhead" (θεότης) from "beholding" (θέα) and shows from Scripture that seeing belongs equally to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Not Three Gods, to Ablabius, part 4Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–385 · Gregory states the objection that if "Godhead" names an activity, the three should be called three Gods as three orators are, and answers that men in one occupation each act separately, whereas every divine activity goes out from the Father, proceeds through the Son, and is perfected in the Holy Spirit, as with the one gift of life.
  • Not Three Gods, to Ablabius, part 5Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–385 · Since the one life and every divine work is worked by Father, Son, and Spirit together, as one movement of the good will from the Father through the Son to the Spirit, they are not three life-givers or three Gods; Gregory illustrates this from the Father who judges all through the Son.
  • Not Three Gods, to Ablabius, part 6Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–385 · All providence is one work of the Trinity, not cut three ways; as the one God is called Saviour of all though the Son saves in the grace of the Spirit, so there are not three Gods; and since the divine nature is infinite and above every name, "Godhead" cannot name it.
  • Not Three Gods, to Ablabius, part 7Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–385 · What has no outline cannot be counted, as gold made into many coins is still one gold; Scripture follows common usage in saying "men," but keeps "God" in the singular; the persons are distinguished only by cause and caused (the Son directly from the Father, the Spirit from the Father through the Son), which names how they are, not what they are.
  • To the Greeks, on common notions, part 1Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Gregory argues that "God" names the one divine essence, not the persons, so that while we say "Father and Son and Holy Spirit" we never say "God and God and God," and the three are one God as they are one essence.
  • To the Greeks, on common notions, part 2Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · We say "three men" only by a loose habit caused by human births, deaths, and changing numbers and by each man's coming from a different parent; none of this applies to the Trinity, whose persons never increase or decrease and come from the one person of the Father, so the three are one God.
  • To the Greeks, on common notions, part 3Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Scripture calls God one and never three, while it speaks of "three men" by condescension to human habit, as it speaks of God's eyes and ears; Gregory then states the opponents' argument that "God differs from God only as such a God" and begins to expose it as a sophism by distinguishing essence from hypostasis.
  • To the Greeks, on common notions, part 4Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · "Such" distinguishes either essences (man from horse) or hypostases (Paul from Peter by baldness, height, sonship); since "man" names the common essence, "such a man" and hence "two" or "three men" are not proper speech, and much less may one say "such a God and such"; the Maker of all is one God in three persons or hypostases.
  • On the Lord's Prayer 1159Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The Spirit who cleanses from sin and Christ who made purification for sins have one activity and therefore one nature with the Father; against the Pneumatomachians, Gregory argues that the Spirit’s “coming” and cleansing do not make him inferior, since the Father too “comes” and forgives sins.
  • To Simplicius on Faith, part 2Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Christ is both divine by nature and human by the economy; the Son is eternal as the radiance of the Father's glory is never without the lamp, and as the express image of the Father's hypostasis he cannot be less than the Father, since the Word was in the beginning and wholly with God.
  • To Simplicius on Faith, part 3Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Being unbegotten or begotten makes no difference of nature, as Adam and Abel are both human; the Holy Spirit too is uncreated, giving what creation receives and sharing every divine name except Father and Son; Amos 4:13 speaks not of the Holy Spirit but of the spirit God creates in believers through the "thunder" of the gospel.
  • Homily 5.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · On Christmas Day the preacher celebrates Christ's birth of a virgin who remained a virgin, a birth attested by the whole Trinity, and calls Mary's womb a temple higher than the heavens.
  • Homily 22.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Epiphany commemorates the star, the wine at Cana, and Christ's baptism, by which he sanctified all waters for our regeneration; the three gifts of the Magi confess the one God in Trinity.
  • Homily 22.2Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The closing sentence of the homily: the faithful must neither divide the unity of God nor confuse the persons of the Trinity.
  • Homily 29.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Epiphany commemorates three works of the Trinity: the Magi's worship, Christ's baptism, in which Father, Son, and Spirit were revealed, and the wine at Cana, which the Creator of water could easily make.
  • Homily 34.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Whatever event Epiphany marks, Christ's baptism shows his humility and sanctifies the waters; John points to the Lamb of God, the heavens open, and the Trinity is revealed.
  • Homily 34.2Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · A second version of the preceding homily: the three Epiphany mysteries, John's testimony to the Lamb of God, and the revelation of the Trinity at Christ's baptism, which consecrated all waters.
  • Homily 35.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Christ fulfilled every ordinance of the law, circumcision, purification, and baptism; John's protest and Christ's reply show his humility, and the Spirit and the Father's voice confirm the sacrament of baptism.
  • Homily 62.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Pentecost is kept with a vigil and joy like Easter; Christ sits at the Father's right hand as King and Judge, and stands, as Stephen saw him, as the advocate of Christians.
  • Homily 63.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Pentecost marks not the ascension, which was on the fortieth day, but the coming of the Spirit, who teaches what Christ promised and is therefore of one substance with him; Christians should purify themselves to receive him.
  • Homily 77.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Celebrating a bishop who withstood the Arians, the preacher expounds “I and the Father are one” and “He who sees me sees the Father”: the Son is distinct in person but one in substance with the Father, and both God and man.
  • Homily 83.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The creed, like the password of Judges 12, distinguishes the faithful from heretics; the preacher explains each article in turn: God the Father, the only Son, the virgin birth, the cross, burial, resurrection, ascension, session, judgment, the Spirit, the Church, forgiveness, and the resurrection of the flesh.
  • Sermon 11.2Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The Epiphany recalls both Cana and Christ's baptism, at which the whole Trinity was present; Christ, sinless, was baptized to purify the waters for us, and the dove and the turning back of the Jordan show the forgiveness of sins.
  • Sermon 13.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Addressing catechumens, Maximus urges them to hurry to baptism, arguing that Christian baptism, given by Christ with the whole Trinity, is a fuller grace than John's baptism of Christ, and that every font is the Jordan.
  • Sermon 27.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Near the end of Lent Maximus likens the fasting Church to Elijah opening heaven for rain, and asks prayers that heaven be opened for the candidates for baptism by the key of Peter, which is faith, set out in the Creed of the twelve apostles.
  • Sermon 48.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · At Pentecost the Spirit's gift of tongues to the apostles shows that the Spirit is God with the Father and the Son, of one will and power, the Trinity working inseparably while some works are attributed to each person.
  • Sermon 49.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · At Pentecost the Spirit came on the apostles who were of one mind; Christ's ascension and the Spirit's descent show the harmony of the divine persons, and the gift of tongues confirms the new faith for all nations.
  • Sermon 50.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Joel's prophecy of the Spirit is fulfilled at Pentecost; the signs at Christ's birth and death, the Church's martyrdoms, and the gift of tongues that reverses Babel show that the Spirit is God and that Christ came to redeem all nations.
  • Sermon 51.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Pentecost shows that the Son and the Spirit, though their works are distinct, have one will and majesty; the Spirit formed Christ's humanity, honoured his baptism, spread the Gospel in every tongue, and has the power to regenerate and forgive sins, and so is God.
  • Sermon 52.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The Spirit who foretold Christ through the prophets and formed him in the Virgin descends at Pentecost; the mutual witness of Son and Spirit shows one Godhead with distinct persons, and the unforgivable sin against the Spirit proves his divinity.
  • Sermon 53.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Baptism's second birth surpasses the first; the Spirit who formed Christ in the Virgin, who remained a virgin after giving birth, is shown to be God, one in will with the Father and the Son, and at Pentecost he gave the apostles all languages for the one faith.
  • Sermon 54.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Pentecost fulfils Christ's promise of the Spirit, who teaches what Christ reserved and so is of one substance with him; believers who renounce worldly desire and keep God's law will receive the same Spirit.
  • Sermon 92.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · On a martyrs' feast, Christians are urged to imitate the martyrs by resisting the devil's temptations, now more dangerous than pagan persecution, and to confess the Trinity of one substance.
  • Sermon 113.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Christ's words on the Father and the Son (Matt 11:27) show their one substance; after a gap, the sermon expounds his gentle yoke and light burden, which free us from the devil's yoke.
  • Tractate 2.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The second instruction explains the font: the renunciation, the water made effective by the Holy Spirit, the threefold questioning on the creed and the Trinity, the meaning of the Church and the resurrection of the flesh, and the threefold immersion as burial with Christ.
  • Tractate 5.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · A treatise against the Jews, in many places lacunose: the younger brothers of Genesis figure the Christian people preferred to the Jewish; Christ is the Son and Word through whom God created, foretold in the law, Psalms and prophets, born of a virgin, and seen by the patriarchs; Abraham was justified by faith, not circumcision.
  • Chapter 2Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains the first article: God the Father almighty is unbegotten, invisible, unchangeable and Creator, and is truly Father of his eternally begotten Son, through whom all was made.
  • Chapter 7Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains the article on the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, sanctifies all, distributes gifts, inspired prophets and apostles, sanctifies at baptism, and whose blasphemy is unforgivable.
  • Chapter 8Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas urges the candidates to keep firmly the faith in the Trinity, the rule received by the apostles with the command to baptize.
  • Chapter 9Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas tells candidates how to answer pagans, Jews and heretics who deny the one Father, the Son’s divinity or the Spirit’s glory: hold to the baptismal profession of the Trinity.
  • Chapter 1Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas opens by warning, with Paul, against curious questions that try to measure God instead of adoring him.
  • Chapter 2Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas passes over Sabellius, who confused the Father with the Son and Spirit, and Photinus, who made Christ a mere man, both already condemned.
  • Chapter 3Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains that Arius, prying into how God begets, denied both Father and Son, and that Nicaea confessed the Son born from the Father’s substance, “of one substance with the Father.”
  • Chapter 4Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains that “of one substance” does not mean the Father is divided or diminished but that he begot a perfect Son, distinct from him, who has all that the Father has and is to be honoured equally.
  • Chapter 5Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas argues that honouring the Son honours the Father, and that sayings like “the Father is greater than I” distinguish the Son from the Father without lessening his divinity.
  • Chapter 7Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas concludes that Christ is both impassible as God and passible in the flesh, that the Father and Son share one kingdom, will and grace, and ends his short commentary with a prayer to the Trinity.
  • Chapter 1Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas turns to the Holy Spirit, whom many, misled by their teachers, think a creature, and promises an account from the Scriptures alone.
  • Chapter 2Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas says that Nicaea simply confessed the Holy Spirit, and describes the dilemma (born or unborn?) by which the Macedonians try to force the conclusion that the Spirit is a creature.
  • Chapter 3Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas answers that Christ said only that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father,” and that John 1:3, spoken by the Spirit himself, concerns creatures, not the Spirit.
  • Chapter 4Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas argues from Col 1:16, Ps 119:91 and Paul’s calling the Spirit “Lord” and “Spirit of adoption” that the Spirit is not among created and serving things but is Lord and free.
  • Chapter 5Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas holds that the Spirit proceeds from the Father in a way no one can know, is a true person who sanctifies and is not sanctified, formed Christ’s body in Mary, rested on him at baptism, and forgives sins through the apostles.
  • Chapter 6Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas proposes to show from the Spirit’s works, as the Father and Son are known by theirs, that he works with them in everything, not in baptism only.
  • Chapter 7Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas argues that if the Spirit renews man in baptism he also created him, citing Psalm 33:6, where the Lord, his Word and his Spirit appear together.
  • Chapter 8Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · From Job 33:4 and Psalm 104:30 Nicetas shows that the Spirit creates, rejects the claim that “Spirit” there means the Son, and says this honours the Father, who creates through his Word and Spirit.
  • Chapter 9Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas shows from Scripture that the Father, the Son and the Spirit alike give life.
  • Chapter 10Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas shows that foreknowledge and knowledge of hidden things belong to God and to Christ.
  • Chapter 11Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas shows that the Spirit, like the Father and the Son, foreknows and reveals the things of God.
  • Chapter 12Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas shows that the Father, the Son and the Spirit are all present everywhere and dwell in the faithful.
  • Chapter 13Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas shows that the Father, the Son and the Spirit all convict and judge, the Spirit slaying the Antichrist and judging every creature.
  • Chapter 14Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas shows that goodness and rightness are ascribed alike to the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
  • Chapter 15Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas notes that the prophets spoke for the Lord, Christ in his own name, and the new prophets for the Holy Spirit, who also sent Paul, as the Father and Christ did.
  • Chapter 16Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains that “Paraclete” (advocate, comforter) is a title of kindness shared by the Son and the Father, so it does not lessen the Spirit.
  • Chapter 17Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · From Ananias, who lied to the Spirit and so to God, and from the unforgivable blasphemy against the Spirit, Nicetas argues that the Spirit is God.
  • Chapter 18Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas sums up the Spirit’s works and concludes that he who is confessed in baptism with the Father and the Son must be worshipped with them.
  • Chapter 19Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas concludes that the Father, Son and Spirit are adored with one worship, since even the Lord’s footstool is to be adored and angels long to look on the Spirit.
  • Chapter 20Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas argues from 1 Cor 14:24–25 that even unbelievers fall down before the Spirit speaking in the prophets, so the faithful should adore him willingly.
  • Chapter 21Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains that the Spirit is not adored separately, as pagans worship many gods, but in one worship with the Father and the Son.
  • Chapter 22Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas concludes that Christians, named from the Father, the Son and the Spirit, must honour the whole Trinity in one faith, as they sing “Holy, holy, holy” in the liturgy.
  • Book of Heresies 51.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some teach that the Son is poured into the Father like a vessel into a vessel.
  • Book of Heresies 51.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Father, Son and Spirit are equally infinite.
  • Book of Heresies 51.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Philastrius states the Trinity of three equal persons, the Son and Spirit from the Father.
  • Book of Heresies 53.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Noetus identified the Father with Christ.
  • Book of Heresies 54.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Sabellius followed Noetus; his followers were cast out.
  • Book of Heresies 66.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Calling the Son only like God makes him like a creature.
  • Book of Heresies 66.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Only the Son is begotten of the Father's substance; creatures are made from nothing.
  • Book of Heresies 66.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Son is true God because begotten of the Father's substance.
  • Book of Heresies 66.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Son's likeness to the Father lies in his works, since he is begotten, not made.
  • Book of Heresies 67.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Semi-Arians deny the Spirit's divinity.
  • Book of Heresies 67.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ joined the Spirit to the Father and Son in baptism.
  • Book of Heresies 67.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · John 1:3 does not imply that the Spirit was made.
  • Book of Heresies 67.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The psalm shows the Trinity creating all things.
  • Book of Heresies 67.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Blasphemy against the Spirit is unforgivable, which shows his divinity.
  • Book of Heresies 68.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Eunomians teach three unequal substances.
  • Book of Heresies 68.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Eunomians deny that the Son is like the Father.
  • Book of Heresies 86.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some refuse to eat with others and deny the Spirit's divinity.
  • Book of Heresies 93.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some make God a composite of three parts.
  • Book of Heresies 93.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · There are three true persons, the sender and those sent.
  • Book of Heresies 93.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The three persons share one equal substance and divinity.
  • Book of Heresies 93.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Trinity is known by faith and exceeds human speech.
  • Book of Heresies 93.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Sending distinguishes the persons without separating them in place.
  • Book of Heresies 93.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Son sent by the Father remains everywhere with him.
  • Book of Heresies 93.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ taught three true persons of one substance.
  • Book of Heresies 109.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some say God instituted paganism, but the Trinity was known from the beginning.
  • Book of Heresies 109.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Genesis shows God speaking and making.
  • Book of Heresies 109.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Genesis already reveals the Trinity.
  • Book of Heresies 109.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Genesis and the psalms speak of the Spirit.
  • Book of Heresies 109.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Trinity was preached from the beginning, as the psalms show.
  • Book of Heresies 110.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The righteous before Moses already confessed the Trinity.
  • Book of Heresies 110.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Genesis 19:24 and David announce the Trinity.
  • Book of Heresies 110.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The psalms and prophets speak of the Word and the Spirit.
  • Book of Heresies 112.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Christian faith was known from the world's beginning.
  • Book of Heresies 112.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ's baptismal command confirms the ancient faith.
  • Book of Heresies 127.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Son's eternal generation is distinct from his birth in time.
  • Book of Heresies 127.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Son is begotten before all ages and remains with the Father.
  • Book of Heresies 127.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Eternal being and being begotten are compatible.
  • Book of Heresies 127.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Eternity and generation belong together in the Son.
  • Book of Heresies 127.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · To say the Son was first unbegotten and later begotten is confused.
  • Book of Heresies 127.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · That view makes two unbegottens.
  • Book of Heresies 129.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Psalm 1 refers to pagans, Jews and heretics.
  • Book of Heresies 137.9Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Likeness to God comes from faith and good life.
  • Book of Heresies 147.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Those to whom God's word came are called gods.
  • Book of Heresies 152.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The breath is common; the Spirit is given in baptism.
  • Book of Heresies 153.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The threefold cord signifies the Trinity.
  • Book of Heresies 153.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ foresaw that few would keep the faith.
  • Book of Heresies 153.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The threefold cord is the Trinity confessed in baptism.
  • Book of Heresies 153.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Salvation comes from faith in the Trinity.
  • Book of Heresies 156.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The law stands between commandment and grace; the ancients knew the Trinity.
  • Canons on the Letters of Paul 1Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · God is true, eternal, invisible, King and Lord; Christ is his image and firstborn.
  • Eleven Tractates 1.3Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · They condemn heretics who divide the one divine substance, citing texts on the oneness of God and confessing the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Word.
  • Eleven Tractates 1.4Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Christ ascended and opened the way to heaven; three bear witness in heaven and on earth; they will answer point by point, and they anathematize the Patripassian heresy.
  • Eleven Tractates 1.5Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Against the Patripassians they cite the Father–Son texts; against the Novatians, who rebaptize, they confess one baptism.
  • Eleven Tractates 2.44Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Priscillian sets out the creed article by article, each with a Scripture proof.
  • Eleven Tractates 2.45Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · The creed continues with forgiveness and the resurrection of the flesh; baptism in the one name of Father, Son, and Spirit shows the one God in threefold power.
  • Eleven Tractates 2.46Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · They condemn the Arians, Photinus, and the Patripassians, citing Scripture against each.
  • Eleven Tractates 3.62Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · A book whose testimony fulfils the canon cannot be condemned; heresy arises from disputing the creed instead of believing it.
  • Eleven Tractates 3.63Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Christ is one, not divided; Paul and Daniel both quote words of God not found elsewhere in the canon.
  • Eleven Tractates 5.88Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Christ is the cornerstone, door, way, fountain, bread, and vine; all names belong to the one God, Christ.
  • Eleven Tractates 6.100Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · The one God is found under every name—Son, Father, Wisdom, angel, man—so that he is believed to be one.
  • Eleven Tractates 11.142Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · A blessing (benediction) addressed to God the Father: there is one entrance to God, through Christ, by the working of the Spirit.
  • Eleven Tractates 11.143Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · The prayer confesses one God, invisible in the Father, visible in the Son, the Spirit united in the work of both, present in and through all things.
  • Canon 1Anonymous · 381–382 · The council confirms the Nicene faith and anathematizes the Eunomians, Semi-Arians or Pneumatomachi, Sabellians, Marcellians, Photinians and Apollinarians.
  • Canon 5Anonymous · 381–382 · The synod accepts those at Antioch who confess the one Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in agreement with the Western tome.
  • Section 3Anonymous · 382 · The bishops profess the Nicene faith: one divinity, power, and essence of Father, Son, and Spirit in three perfect hypostases, against Sabellians, Arians, Eunomians, and Pneumatomachi, and Christ's full humanity.
  • On the Complaints of Job and David 1.31Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Only God knows wisdom; the Son, who alone knows the Father, revealed it, and for man wisdom is to fear God and shun evil.
  • On the Complaints of Job and David 4.15Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Christ is the true Jordan who divides: as the sword of the Word he searches hearts and apportions earthly and heavenly inheritance, yet is never alone without the Father.
  • On the Complaints of Job and David 4.25Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · The Son was cast from Mary’s womb, not the Father’s, from whom he never departed, being of one substance; from the womb he was always with God.
  • Expositio fidei 1Eunomius of Cyzicus · 383 · Eunomius opens his confession, made at the emperor's command, with faith in the one true God, who alone is without beginning and shares his Godhead with no one.
  • Expositio fidei 2Eunomius of Cyzicus · 383 · Eunomius confesses the Son as the only-begotten God, begotten and created before all creation, like the Father only as Son to Father, the agent of creation, judgment, and salvation.
  • Expositio fidei 3Eunomius of Cyzicus · 383 · Eunomius confesses the Holy Spirit as the first and greatest work of the Only-begotten, subordinate to him, and lists the Spirit's works among the faithful.
  • Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 7Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · The petition recalls the condemnation of Arius at Nicaea and the story of his sudden and shameful death in a privy at Constantinople, after bishop Alexander prayed that he not be received into the church.
  • Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 34Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · The petitioners recall how Lucifer's congregation at Eleutheropolis was attacked, warn that the blood of the faithful brings plagues on the empire, and charge that many bishops now protected by the emperors' edicts hold heresies (Origenist, Anthropomorphite, Apollinarian, and others).
  • Second Apology of David 24Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Other saints did works equal to Solomon’s, but all point to Christ, who surpasses Joshua, Enoch, Elijah, Elisha, and Moses.
  • Second Apology of David 26Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Christ’s question about Psalm 110 refutes not only the Jews but Photinians, Sabellians, and Arians: the Son, distinct from the Father, shares his throne and power.
  • Second Apology of David 39Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Third mystery: David means “humbled,” signifying Christ, humbled in the flesh yet one with the Father in divinity, the Lord in servant’s form.
  • Second Apology of David 62Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · “Great mercy” is understood from God’s “great power,” which made heaven; that power is both the Father’s and the Son’s, showing their one working and majesty.
  • Second Apology of David 63Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · The Holy Spirit too shares the great power that made and established the heavens; as God’s “finger,” he works in unity with the Father and the Son.
  • Second Apology of David 70Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Heresies converge: the Arians, by dividing Father and Son, end up like the Manichees, who split the God of the two Testaments.
  • Second Apology of David 72Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Since Christ forgives the debt owed to the one who lent it, Father and Son are one; otherwise the Arians fall into the Manichees’ two gods.
  • Second Apology of David 73Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Belief in one power, majesty, and strength of the Trinity refutes all heresies: the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son.
  • Second Apology of David 74Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · The Lord’s Prayer shows that the Father forgives, and the Son’s teaching it shows their one power.
  • Apology of the Prophet David 71Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · The Spirit is given and withdrawn only by the Lord’s will, yet acts freely; so the Trinity has one will.
  • Apology of the Prophet David 73Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Some read the right, holy, and princely spirits as the Son, the Spirit, and the Father; David fears to lose the grace he received.
  • Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 5Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Simon cites Deuteronomy and Isaiah for the oneness of God.
  • Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 6Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus says the words are Christ’s and refer to his two comings; faith must precede understanding.
  • Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 9Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Simon objects that Theophilus makes two gods.
  • Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 10Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus argues from the three visitors at Mamre and several psalms, and from the passage of Baruch he ascribes to Jeremiah, that Christ is God beside the Father.
  • Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 13Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Simon objects that Genesis names only God as Creator.
  • Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 14Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus reads “in the beginning” as “in Christ” and points to “Let us make man”.
  • Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 20Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus argues from Nathan’s oracle, Psalms 2, 45, 107, 33 and 147, Isaiah, John’s prologue, Sirach and Proverbs that Christ is the Word begotten from the Father’s heart.
  • Catechetical Oration 1Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Since God is not without reason (logos), he has a Word, which, unlike ours, is eternal, living, all-powerful, and creative, distinct from the Father yet one with him in nature.
  • Catechetical Oration 2Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · By the same analogy God has a Spirit, not a passing breath but a substantial, self-moving power existing in its own hypostasis, inseparable from God and his Word.
  • Catechetical Oration 3Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · The Trinity is a mystery that steers between Jewish and pagan errors, keeping the unity of the nature from the one and the distinction of hypostases from the other.
  • Catechetical Oration 4Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Against the Jew, Gregory argues from Psalm 33:6 that Scripture itself teaches a substantial Word and a Spirit existing in hypostasis.
  • Catechetical Oration 39Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · In baptism one chooses one's own parentage: whoever confesses the Trinity uncreated is born into unchangeable life, but whoever thinks the Son or Spirit a creature is born only into changeable creation.
  • Letter 6 to various bishops, chapter 5Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Neophytes and laymen are not to be ordained presbyters or deacons directly, as had been done under pressure from heretics; clergy should be chosen from those already serving.
  • On Jacob and the Happy Life 2.19Ambrose · ca. 386-390 · Jacob's peeled rods of storax, walnut, and plane signify the mysteries of the Trinity: the evening sacrifice to the Father, Christ's priesthood, and the fruitfulness of the Spirit.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 3.21.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · As the one Spirit gives many gifts, so the one Word is shared among many.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 3.21.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · One Spirit inspired prophets, apostles, and even the craftsmen of the tabernacle.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 4.27.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On verse 32: a heart enlarged by God can run the narrow way and receive the Trinity.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 5.20.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ, who is love, was raised from the dead by his own and the Father’s power.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 5.39.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Fear of the Lord is shaped by the other gifts; without it there is only irrational fear.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 6.3.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ is the Father’s glory; whoever makes him unequal to the Father dishonors the Father.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 6.4.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The letter’s meaning points to the Son, Jesus the Savior, who comes when called.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 8.51.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · At midday Abraham received the Lord with two angels.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 10.16.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The risen Christ breathed the Spirit on his disciples to restore the lost seal.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 10.17.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Having put on Christ, we receive the Spirit, who forgives sins and makes priests to forgive others; the Spirit is God’s hand.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 10.17.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ and the Spirit are the hands that made man; Christ made both soul and body and saves the whole man.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 10.19.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Understanding is a gift of the Spirit, asked for so that we may learn God’s commandments.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 12.18.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Some take “heaven” as the heavenly powers, others as the unchangeable Trinity: the Word abides in the Father.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 12.41.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Paul, having one God and one Lord, belonged wholly to the Word.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 17.29.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · David sought Christ’s face to be enlightened; or the Father’s face is the Son.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 19.17.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Against the Arians: Christ’s generation from the Father is above time; only his passion and birth fall in time.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 19.36.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God, whose Spirit fills the world, is everywhere present.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 19.37.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Ps 139 shows that God and his Spirit are present everywhere.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 19.37.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Ps 139 expresses the Trinity: Christ descended and ascended, and is present wherever Father and Spirit are.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 20.20.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God, rich in mercy, calls us to be rich in love.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 20.32.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Heretics used “I can do nothing of myself” to argue the Son is inferior.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 20.32.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The Son does nothing of himself because Father and Son work as one.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 20.32.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Scripture shows the Son as Wisdom, maker of all and sharer in the Father’s work.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 20.54.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The saint appears daily before God not empty, filled from the fullness of the Word and the Spirit.
  • Exposition of Psalm 118 20.57.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Believe in one God, and distinguish the one Father and one Lord Jesus.
  • On the Happy Life 34Augustine of Hippo · 386 (November) · Augustine identifies wisdom with the Son of God, who is Truth, begotten by the supreme Measure, the Father, and concludes that whoever reaches the supreme Measure through the Truth is happy and enjoys God.
  • On the Happy Life 35Augustine of Hippo · 386 (November) · Augustine says that the happy life is to know piously and perfectly the one who leads us into truth, the truth we enjoy, and the supreme measure to which we are joined, one God; Monica responds with a verse of Ambrose's hymn to the Trinity.
  • Letter 11.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine takes up Nebridius's question why, if the works of the Trinity are inseparable, the incarnation is attributed to the Son alone.
  • Letter 11.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from the threefold structure of every being (existence, form, persistence) that the persons of the Trinity act inseparably.
  • Letter 11.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that the incarnation is attributed to the Son because it gave us a rule and example of life, form being proper to the Son, while the Father is known through the Son and the delight of abiding in that knowledge is the gift of the Spirit.
  • Letter 55.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine relates the first three commandments to the Trinity: images to the Father, God's name to the Son, and the sabbath to the Holy Spirit and future rest.
  • Letter 55.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine counts the fifty days from Passover to the giving of the law and interprets the law in the ark as sanctification in Christ's body.
  • Letter 118.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine shows that one who knows that God is present everywhere whole, like truth, and that the Word is begotten in a unique way, need not trouble about Anaximenes' view that air is God.
  • Letter 119.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Consentius writes to Augustine that divine truth must be grasped by faith rather than reason, as the errors of the Arians and Macedonians show.
  • Letter 119.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Consentius asks Augustine to explain to him, as far as possible, the ineffable divine substance and to correct his errors and his books.
  • Letter 119.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Consentius explains that he had thought of God as an infinite light with form and beauty, and reports an objection to his book about the risen Christ's body.
  • Letter 119.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Consentius quotes the passage of his book on the unity of God and the three persons, by which he argued that Christ is everywhere by divinity, not by body.
  • Letter 120.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine points out that Consentius's request for an explanation of the Trinity contradicts his own claim that reason should not be sought, and asks him to correct it.
  • Letter 120.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes true reason from the false reasoning of the Arians and Macedonians, and notes that philosophers who accepted Christ crucified found the fishermen ahead of them.
  • Letter 120.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine rejects as a kind of idolatry the picture of the Trinity as three bodily masses in heaven sharing a fourth, omnipresent divinity.
  • Letter 120.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes bodily things, images of bodies, and intelligible things like wisdom, and argues that the Trinity must be thought of in the highest kind, free of all bodily likeness.
  • Letter 120.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine teaches that the Trinity surpasses all bodily things and is to be approached through understanding the soul made in God's image, or else held by faith until the promised vision.
  • Letter 120.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sets out the rule of faith on the Trinity, tells Consentius to reject every bodily image of God, and urges him to love understanding.
  • Letter 120.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine rejects the view that the persons are localized in heaven while their common divinity is everywhere, since the divinity can be neither a quality nor another substance.
  • Letter 120.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the divinity cannot be something other than the Trinity, since the three are one God by being of one and the same substance or essence.
  • Letter 130.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Spirit's intercession means that he makes the saints pray with unutterable groanings, giving them a 'learned ignorance' of what they desire.
  • Letter 140.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The unchangeable Word took flesh through a rational soul, against the Apollinarians; 'flesh' means a whole man, and God and man are one person in Christ.
  • Letter 147.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · 'He who has seen me has seen the Father' affirms the unity of substance of Father and Son; as God, neither has been seen by men, though the Son was seen as man.
  • Letter 147.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine quotes Ambrose: God is seen only when and in the form he wills, not in his nature; in the resurrection only the pure in heart will see him, by the mind and not the eyes.
  • Letter 147.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that God appears in forms chosen by his will while his nature stays hidden; Ambrose's wording guards against both Photinians and Arians and against making God mutable.
  • Letter 147.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The godly long to see God not in the forms he assumes but in his own substance, as Moses asked; this is promised for the next life, when we shall see him as he is.
  • Letter 147.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine lists the truths of faith about God's invisibility, the Trinity, and the resurrection body, from which the spiritually mature have learned that mental sight surpasses bodily sight.
  • Letter 147.50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The question of the spiritual body remains, but vision cannot belong only to bodies, since the Father sees the Son, God saw creation before the incarnation, and prophets are called seers.
  • Letter 147.53Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those who grasp Ambrose's words prepare themselves to be God's dwelling and filled with him, not to become God; Jerome too teaches that the Trinity is seen only by the mind's eyes.
  • Letter 148.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine cites Ambrose's commentary on Luke: Christ, the Spirit, and the Father are invisible in their divinity and seen only by spiritual eyes or in assumed forms.
  • Letter 148.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Jerome's statement that the Trinity is seen only by the eyes of the mind, with the promise of Matthew 5:8, excludes any bodily vision of God even in the future.
  • Letter 148.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Athanasius and Gregory also teach that the whole Trinity is invisible by nature and was seen only through assumed creatures, agreeing with Ambrose.
  • Letter 149.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Old Testament sacrifices only signified cleansing; the sinners whose names God will not remember (Psalm 16:4) are those washed in Christ, who speaks in this psalm.
  • Letter 160.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Evodius speculates that God and reason are mutually dependent and coeternal, like Father and Son, or like a seed and the fruitful principle within it.
  • Letter 160.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Evodius argues that the Father and the Son are each known only through the other, and that the Father was never without his Word (reason), and adds a mention of love.
  • Letter 164.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Before the incarnation Christ came "in the spirit" through visions, rebuking Cain and Adam and admonishing others, always together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
  • Letter 169.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that 1 Cor 14:38 (“if anyone is ignorant, he will be ignored”) concerns church order, not inability to understand the Trinity.
  • Letter 169.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · A statement of the faith in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, inseparable in being and work, yet shown separately at Christ's baptism.
  • Letter 169.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Memory, understanding, and will illustrate, imperfectly, how the Trinity works inseparably even when one Person is shown.
  • Letter 169.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The voice and the dove were passing signs, but the man assumed by the Word was united to him in one person, the Word remaining unchanged.
  • Letter 169.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The voice, dove, tongues of fire, and the signs at Sinai were passing signs; God's nature did not change.
  • Letter 169.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whether such signs were bodily or spiritual visions, and whether angels mediated them, need not be decided, so long as God's nature is held to be unchangeable.
  • Letter 170.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The worship (latreia) owed to God alone is owed to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, whose temple we are.
  • Letter 170.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The one Lord God whom alone we serve is the Trinity itself, the Persons distinct but of one nature.
  • Letter 170.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Son is begotten from the Father's substance, coeternal like brightness from flame; the Spirit proceeds and is not made.
  • Letter 170.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Each Person of the Trinity is as great as all three together; they are three yet one God.
  • Letter 170.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Father and Son are relative names, not names of nature, so the Arian argument that the Son is of a different nature fails.
  • Letter 170.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Being from the Father concerns origin, not nature, as Abel was from Adam yet both were men.
  • Letter 170.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God begot the Son without passion and as his equal from eternity; the Son's equality is by nature, not robbery.
  • Letter 170.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ is less than the Father in the form of a servant and equal to him in the form of God.
  • Letter 174.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sends Aurelius of Carthage the finished books On the Trinity, explaining that part of the work had been taken and circulated before completion.
  • Letter 185.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains to Boniface, a military officer, that the Donatists, unlike the Arians, confess one substance of the Trinity and differ only over communion.
  • Letter 187.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The three persons of the Trinity do not divide the world among them but are each and together everywhere, since they are not bodies.
  • Letter 187.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God is present everywhere by his divinity but dwells only in some by grace, which is why we pray 'Our Father, who are in heaven'.
  • Letter 188.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Juliana to confirm Demetrias's disposition, noting that denying God's goodness its source offends the Trinity itself.
  • Letter 194.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Faith that draws people to Christ is the Father's gift, as John 6 shows, given also by the Son and Spirit, since the Trinity's works are inseparable.
  • Letter 219.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine and other African bishops tell the bishops of Gaul that they have received and corrected the monk Leporius, who had denied that God was made man and so introduced a fourth person into the Trinity.
  • Letter 219.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The African bishops explain that Leporius, fearing change in God, had separated the Son of Man from the Son of God, but now confesses Christ as one, God and man, with both natures unchanged, and has signed a retraction.
  • Letter 232.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sketches for the Madaurans the Trinity, the Father as invisible Beginning, the equal Word, and the Holy Spirit as their communion, accessible only to the humble.
  • Letter 238.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine writes to the Arian count Pascentius, setting out his faith in writing since Pascentius refused to have their debate recorded.
  • Letter 238.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine recounts that Pascentius's creed, when written, omitted “Father” and “incomprehensible.”
  • Letter 238.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine recounts that Pascentius anathematized Arius and Eunomius but demanded that the word homoousios be shown in Scripture, while Augustine insisted the thing matters more than the word.
  • Letter 238.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine recounts how an Arian admitted “unbegotten” is not in Scripture yet rightly said, which Augustine applied to homoousios.
  • Letter 238.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine recounts that Pascentius first said “unbegotten” would injure God, then defended it, tore up his written creed, and agreed to a recorded afternoon debate.
  • Letter 238.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine states his faith in the eternal Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the rule of reading texts about Christ according to the form of God or the form of a servant.
  • Letter 238.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that texts on God's sole immortality apply to the whole Trinity, and that if those joined are called one body or one spirit, Father, Son and Spirit are much more one God.
  • Letter 238.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues by analogy with soul and body and the inner and outer man that Father and Son, being one in nature, are not two gods but one God.
  • Letter 238.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that if the unity of the first believers made them one soul and heart, the Father and Son, eternally one in nature, are all the more one God.
  • Letter 238.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that the names Father, Son and Spirit signify relations, not different substances, and that confusing the form of a servant with the form of God leads to error.
  • Letter 238.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that “spirit” as a name of nature applies to Father, Son and Spirit alike, and to all incorporeal natures, while “Holy Spirit” names the relation to Father and Son.
  • Letter 238.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine appeals to the peace of God that surpasses understanding, which unites Father, Son and Spirit far more than it united the first believers, and urges a peaceful search of Scripture.
  • Letter 238.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Deut 6:4, Thomas's confession and 1 Cor 8:5–6 that Father and Son are together the one Lord God.
  • Letter 238.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Rom 11:34–36 that “from him, through him and in him are all things” refers to one Lord, Father and Son together.
  • Letter 238.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Eph 4:5–6 that “one Lord” refers to Christ without excluding the Father, so that Father, Son and Spirit, though distinct, are the one true Lord God.
  • Letter 238.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from 1 Cor 6:19–20 that the Holy Spirit is God, and shows that texts seeming to rank the persons would prove too much.
  • Letter 238.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that John 17:3 should be read as including Christ as the one true God, and that the Father is true by begetting the Truth, not by sharing in it.
  • Letter 238.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine rejects the Arian claim that the Son before the incarnation was visible and corruptible, citing the Wisdom of Solomon on divine Wisdom.
  • Letter 238.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Wis 7:26 that the Father was never without the Son, who is eternally begotten, and confesses the limits of language before Isa 53:8.
  • Letter 238.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine challenges Pascentius to find Scripture calling different substances “one,” and cites the argument that God either would not or could not beget an equal Son.
  • Letter 238.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from John 10:30 and 17:11, 20–23 that “one” is said only of those of the same substance, so the Father and Son are homoousios.
  • Letter 238.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine concludes that Scripture calls things simply “one” only when they share one substance, urges Pascentius to let the truth conquer him willingly, and signs the letter.
  • Letter 239.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Pascentius that the creed he recited is common to both, and asks him to state and defend from Scripture the Arian points on which they differ.
  • Letter 239.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine states the distinctively Catholic point, three distinct persons who are one God, and offers to reply in writing to any objection.
  • Letter 240.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Pascentius replies scornfully, likening Augustine's view to muddy water and a crooked tree, asking which of the three is the one God, and proposing an unrecorded meeting.
  • Letter 241.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine answers Pascentius's insults by pointing to his broken agreement, and denies that he believes in a “three-formed person,” since the one deity makes Father, Son and Spirit one God.
  • Letter 241.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Pascentius to explain 1 Cor 6:16–17, which shows unity without a “two-formed” spirit, and agrees to meet only if their words are recorded.
  • Letter 242.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine thanks the Arian Elpidius for trying to correct him and for sending an Arian bishop's treatise, and wishes him true knowledge from God, quoting 1 Cor 2:12–14.
  • Letter 242.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from John 1:3 that the Son, through whom all things were made, cannot himself have been made.
  • Letter 242.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine reasons from John 1:3 that the Word was neither made through himself nor without himself, and so was not made but begotten.
  • Letter 242.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says the Son's generation cannot be declared, but Phil 2:6 calls him equal to God, and only the pure in heart can see this.
  • Letter 242.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine criticizes the Arian treatise's claim to set forth the “naked truth,” citing 1 Cor 13:12, and excuses the length of his letter by Cicero's example.
  • On Order 1.29Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Licentius argues that Christ, sent by the Father, shows that God too acts by order; Trygetius stumbles in calling only the Father God properly and is corrected, and Augustine tearfully rebukes the young men for their rivalry and vanity.
  • On Order 2.16Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Augustine sets out the two ways of reason and authority, and says that true philosophy teaches the one almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the humility of God's taking a human body for our salvation.
  • Homilies on Matthew 12.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Spirit appeared as a dove for gentleness and to recall the dove of the flood, bringing adoption instead of an olive leaf; it took a form, not a nature, so is not inferior to Christ; Christian baptism, unlike John's, gives the Spirit and makes us sons of God, so we must live as citizens of heaven and store our treasure there.
  • Homilies on Matthew 29.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · In healing the paralytic Christ first forgives his sins and then reveals the scribes’ secret thoughts, proving by deeds what they themselves said belongs to God alone, and so showing his equality with the Father.
  • Homilies on Matthew 38.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ explains that all things are delivered to him by the Father and that he alone knows the Father as the Father knows him; he then calls the weary to his kind yoke and light burden, which is lighter than the burden of sin.
  • Homilies on Matthew 41.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ refutes the charge that he casts out demons by Beelzebul with four answers (the divided kingdom, the exorcisms of their own sons, the binding of the strong man, and “he who is not with me is against me”), then explains why blasphemy against the Spirit is unpardonable; Chrysostom urges his hearers to judge and condemn their own sins now.
  • Homilies on Matthew 54.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · At Caesarea Philippi Christ draws from the disciples, beyond the people’s opinions, Peter’s confession that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, which the Father revealed; he names Peter the rock of the church’s faith and promises him the keys, gifts that show the Son’s equality with the Father.
  • Homilies on Matthew 55.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Those who toil for wealth while neglecting the soul are like slaves in the mines; Christ’s coming in the Father’s glory shows the Son’s one glory and essence with the Father, and his judgment, rewarding each by his deeds, should make us repent more than the Ninevites.
  • Homilies on Matthew 56.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Peter’s offer of three tents shows his love for Christ but also his fear and confusion; the Father’s voice from the bright cloud singles out Christ alone as the beloved Son, equal to him and of one will, whom the disciples must obey even when he goes to the cross.
  • Homilies on Matthew 65.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ answers that the seats at his right and left are given not by favor but to those whose works make them worthy, since the throne at the Father’s right belongs to the Son alone; he rebukes the ten’s indignation by contrasting Gentile rulers with his own example of service unto death.
  • Homilies on Matthew 69.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom compares the parable of the marriage feast with that of the tenants: it shows God inviting the Jews even after the Son’s death, their excuses and murders, the destruction of Jerusalem under Vespasian and Titus, and the call of the Gentiles, the Jews having been addressed first.
  • Homilies on Matthew 71.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ answers the lawyer with the two great commandments, praises his confession of the one God without denying his own Godhead, and by the question about David’s son proclaims himself Lord; Chrysostom then attacks vainglory, especially in almsgiving, which robs the treasure in heaven.
  • Homilies on Matthew 72.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ forbids the disciples to be called Rabbi, father or leader, since God is the true teacher and father and Christ the one leader (which shows the Father and the Son share these titles); humility is the cure, and Chrysostom finds it among the monks, who serve one another with one table and no “mine and yours.”
  • Homilies on Matthew 90.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The grave cloths left in the myrrh, the bribe and the admission that the body was gone all confirm the resurrection; in Galilee the risen Christ sends the disciples to baptize all nations with the promise of his presence to the end. His commands are easy; it is the love of money, not poverty, that enslaves, and poverty is a safe harbor and a school of self-command.
  • On Fleeing the World 27Ambrose · ca. 387-391 · Rachel, the church, hides the idols; life is a shadow full of snares, and the soul longs for the dove’s wings to flee.
  • Hexameron (Exameron) 1.19Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The Son is the invisible image of the invisible Father; all things were created through him and return to God.
  • Hexameron (Exameron) 1.29Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The Spirit over the waters is the Holy Spirit, so that the whole Trinity is at work in creation.
  • Hexameron (Exameron) 2.1Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Ambrose recalls the work of the first day, done by Father, Son, and Spirit, and marvels at the harmony of the world.
  • Hexameron (Exameron) 2.18Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · “God said” and “God made” show Father and Son sharing one name and one operation, against those who make the Son inferior.
  • Hexameron (Exameron) 2.19Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · God's approval of his work reflects the perfect mutual knowledge of Father and Son in one nature.
  • Hexameron (Exameron) 3.32Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Against Manichees, Photinians, and Eunomians, Ambrose argues from Gen 1:26 that the Son is co-creator and equal to the Father.
  • Hexameron (Exameron) 4.5Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The Father commanded and the Son, the Sun of Righteousness, made the sun; the lights, richly endowed, serve and owe the more.
  • Hexameron (Exameron) 6.40Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · God's “Let us make” is addressed not to angels but to the Son, against Jewish and Arian objections.
  • Hexameron (Exameron) 6.41Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The Son, the image of the invisible God, is one in substance with the Father; “Let us make … our likeness” excludes inequality.
  • On the Mysteries 4Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · Water cleanses only with the Spirit and the cross; baptism in the Trinity, foreshadowed by the pool of Bethesda and the dove, truly heals and regenerates.
  • On the Mysteries 5Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · The whole Trinity testifies at Christ’s baptism, and Christ is present at the font through the priests’ prayer; the baptismal confession binds the candidate to equal faith in Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 18Ambrose · ca. 387-392 · Lion and whelp signify the Father and the Son of one nature, the Son being no less than the Father.
  • On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 51Ambrose · ca. 387-392 · The blessings of breasts and womb signify the two Testaments or Mary, and the two births of Christ, from the Father before the ages and from the Virgin, in two natures.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 35.4.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The one Christ is servant in the flesh and Lord, equal to the Father in substance.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 35.22.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · In Christ's light we see the Father.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 35.22.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Father and Son are one light and one name; the Trinity is one substance in distinct persons.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 35.22.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The verse can also be addressed to the Father, with whom the Word, the fountain of life, always was.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.35.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · John never says the Word was made, but that the Word was God.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.35.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The Word is the maker, not a thing made.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.37.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The man in Christ is wholly in Christ, as the Father is in the Son (by example, not equality).
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.24.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · In Christ the image, Father and Son are seen working as one.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 39.18.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · One will of Father and Son means one substance of the Trinity; the human voice of Christ also consented to God’s will.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.20.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The flesh received resurrection, but Christ as God worked it by his own power, the one power of Father and Son.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.35.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The Son, the spotless light, is always with the Father; the Father and the Son honour each other.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.39.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The spiritual senses: inner sight, the fragrance of Christ and the Spirit, and inner food.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.13.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God is pleased in the Son by nature and unity of substance, and with us because he gave us the power to please him.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.20.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God’s name, “I am who I am”, means eternal being; those who deny the Son’s co-eternity deny God.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.20.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God’s proper name is Father of Christ; those who refused Christ, who came in the Father’s name, will receive the Antichrist.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.66.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The “finger of God” is the Spirit of God, as Luke and Matthew show, by whom the heavens were made.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 45.2.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The Son alone is the true light, one with the Father; his tent is in heaven, not on earth.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 47.18.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ, the right hand of God, is full of the Father’s righteousness and power; nothing of the divine majesty is divided between them.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 61.6.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · It is Christ’s human soul, not his Godhead, that is subject to God.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 61.8.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ’s subjection to the Father no more makes him lesser than his subjection to his mother.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 61.8.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ will be subject to the Father “in us”, when all are united in faith and God is all in all.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 61.8.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · When Christ is all in all, God will be all in all; the kingdom of Father, Son and Spirit is one.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 61.9.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · “From him is my salvation”: the Son is always from and in the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father.
  • Explanation of Twelve Psalms 61.9.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Son and Spirit both proceed from the Father, so the Godhead is one; eternal life is to know the Father and the Son.
  • On Free Choice of the Will 2.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–395 · Augustine concludes that God exists, either as truth itself or as what is above it, adding that by faith the begotten Wisdom is equal to the Father; Evodius, not yet wise, already knows something of wisdom.
  • On Free Choice of the Will 3.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–395 · Augustine declines to decide among the four accounts of the soul's origin: error about creatures is harmless if not held as certain, but error about the Creator, whose substance is the Trinity, is pernicious; what matters is where the soul is going, not where it began.
  • On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · Christ is the Power, Wisdom, and Truth of God, to whom we are conformed by love poured out by the Holy Spirit, who, since he restores us to wholeness and is unchangeable, is God and not a creature.
  • On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 1.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · God, the threefold unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the highest good of human beings, and we cleave to him only by love.
  • On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 1.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · Augustine sets Old Testament texts, chiefly from Psalms and the Wisdom of Solomon, beside each New Testament text he has used on love, Christ as Power and Wisdom, the Holy Spirit, and the one God.
  • Canon 1Anonymous · 390 · Genethlius opens the council with a confession of the Trinity, which all the bishops affirm.
  • Sermon 18A.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
  • Sermon 3.8Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
  • Sermon 4.2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
  • Sermon 14.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
  • Sermon 15.2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
  • Sermon 16.2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
  • Sermon 19.2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
  • Sermon 22.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
  • Sermon 34.2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
  • Tractates on Matthew 2.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius describes the opening of the heavens, the descent of the Spirit and the Father's voice at Christ's baptism, foretold in Psalm 29.
  • Tractates on Matthew 2.2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius argues against the heretics that Christ's baptism reveals the Trinity, with the Son a true Son by nature, not by adoption: three persons, one divinity and substance.
  • Tractates on Matthew 11.3Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that going the second mile shows love beyond what is required, and spiritually means leading someone from belief in the Father to faith in the Son and the Spirit.
  • Tractate 0.4Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
  • Homily 2.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom contrasts the shifting, obscure and absurd teachings of Plato and Pythagoras with the certainty, clarity and worldwide reach of John’s teaching, and begins on John 1:1, refusing to rank Father and Son as first and second.
  • Homily 2.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John begins with the Son because the Father was already known as God, calls him “the Word” to exclude any passion in his begetting, and by “In the beginning was” points to eternal being; Chrysostom then urges his hearers to listen with cleansed and undivided souls.
  • Homily 3.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Against those who say “was” in John 1:1 does not prove eternity because it is also used of the earth and of a man, Chrysostom argues that “was” of God signifies eternity while of creatures it is limited by the words “made” and “man.”
  • Homily 3.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John says the Word “was” with God and was God, not that God “made” him as Moses says of the earth; Peter’s “God made him Lord and Christ” refers to the economy of the incarnation, not to the divine nature.
  • Homily 3.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Peter and Paul spoke of Christ as a man to hearers not yet ready for more, as Christ himself revealed his Godhead gradually; but if the Son were a creature John and Christ would have said so, whereas Christ’s words declare his equality with the Father.
  • Homily 4.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John, unlike the other evangelists, begins with the Word’s eternal existence to lift up earthbound minds such as Paul of Samosata’s; “Word” means a subsisting divine person, eternal and co-eternal with the Father.
  • Homily 4.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · As the sun’s radiance is from the sun yet not later than it, so the Son is from the Father yet co-eternal; making the Son later would give the Father a beginning too and contradict Isaiah’s “after me there is no God.”
  • Homily 4.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · “In the beginning was” no more sets a beginning to the Son than “from everlasting to everlasting” does to the Father, and the lack of the article before “God” does not make the Son a lesser God, since John adds the marks of true Godhead: eternity, creation, life and light.
  • Homily 5.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John comprises all creation, visible and invisible, in “all things came into being through him”; Chrysostom rejects the heretics’ punctuation “what has come into being, in him was life,” which they used to make the Spirit a creature, and explains “life” and “light” as the Son’s providence and enlightenment.
  • Homily 7.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Son is begotten radiance of the Father, co-eternal yet with his own hypostasis against Sabellius and Marcellus; rather than pry into God, Christians should repent through confession, forgiving others, almsgiving, prayer and fasting.
  • Homily 15.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Scripture must be read with understanding, not literally, as when it speaks of God’s bosom; the prophets’ visions of God were condescensions, since no creature, not even the angels, sees the divine essence, which only the Son and the Spirit see.
  • Homily 15.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · “In the bosom of the Father” shows that the Son alone knows the Father’s essence exactly, being of one essence, eternal and genuine Son; the clearer revelation through the Son calls for a higher life, in which Christians treat one another as members of one body.
  • Homily 25.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Rebirth from water and the Spirit is a new creation surpassing the first; Chrysostom explains why water is necessary and how the triple immersion signifies burial and resurrection with Christ by the power of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Homily 26.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Rebirth from water and the Spirit is a new creation in which the font is a womb; Chrysostom distinguishes Christ’s birth of the virgin’s flesh and his begetting from the Father’s essence from our birth by grace, and explains the image of the wind.
  • Homily 30.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ appeals to the Father and the Scriptures out of condescension, not need; Chrysostom explains “no one receives his testimony,” warns that disbelieving Christ is disbelieving God, and interprets “God does not give the Spirit by measure” of Christ’s unmeasured share in the Spirit’s working.
  • Homily 38.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ's words to the healed man show grace and divine knowledge; answering the charge of breaking the Sabbath, Christ appeals to the Father's unceasing work and so makes himself equal to God, as the evangelist reports without correction.
  • Homily 38.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · “The Son can do nothing of himself” means not weakness but that he does nothing contrary to the Father; the following verses show his equal power and authority.
  • Homily 39.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ is judge of all so that all may honor the Son as the Father; “has given” means “begot”, and his lofty and humble sayings are mixed for his hearers' sake.
  • Homily 39.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Humble expressions are condescension; whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father; the Son, who has life in himself, will raise and judge all, as the raising of Lazarus foreshadows.
  • Homily 39.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ's humble words about judging as he hears show the unity of his will with the Father's, spoken to suit his hearers; we should forgive others, love our neighbor, and give our goods to buy heaven.
  • Homily 45.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Faith needs both God's drawing and our free choice; the Son's will is one with the Father's; the constant remembrance of the resurrection and judgment restrains sin and refutes belief in fate.
  • Homily 49.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ's teaching is his own yet the Father's, since their teaching is one; he defends his Sabbath healing by the law of circumcision and bids his hearers judge not by appearance but justly.
  • Homily 52.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ’s appeal to the law of two witnesses shows not merely that there are two but that he and the Father are of one essence; no one can know the Father without the Son.
  • Homily 61.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ declares that no one can snatch his sheep from his or the Father’s hand and that he and the Father are one; Chrysostom then urges wives to shape their husbands by a quiet, modest life, adorning the soul rather than the body.
  • Homily 63.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Faith is a great good, enabling the apostles to do greater works than Christ in his name; Chrysostom contrasts the fishermen’s faith with the reasonings of Greek philosophers and of heretics.
  • Homily 64.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ prays aloud at Lazarus’s tomb for the sake of the crowd; Chrysostom argues that his humble sayings are condescension to his hearers’ weakness, while his lofty sayings show his equality with the Father.
  • Homily 68.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The crowd objects that the Christ remains forever; Christ answers that the light is with them only a little longer, urges them to walk in it, and withdraws, alternating lofty and humble words to suit his hearers.
  • Homily 68.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Jews’ unbelief fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy, which foretold it because they would not believe, not causing it; “they could not” means “they would not,” and God hardens only by permitting those who first turn away from him.
  • Homily 69.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Many rulers believe secretly but love human glory; Christ declares that whoever believes in him believes in the Father who sent him, and that he came as light to save the world, not to judge it.
  • Homily 73.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and knowing him is knowing the Father; sins are washed away by baptism and afterward above all by almsgiving, but not almsgiving from injustice.
  • Homily 74.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ's answer to Philip shows that the Son is what the Father is while remaining Son, so that whoever has seen the Son has seen the Father, against both those who sever them and Sabellius.
  • Homily 74.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Son is in the Father and the Father in him, and the works prove their one essence; Christ promises that believers will do greater works in his name.
  • Homily 75.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Love is shown by keeping Christ's commandments; Christ promises another Paraclete, a word that refutes both Sabellius and those who belittle the Spirit, and promises not to leave his disciples orphans.
  • Homily 75.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ promises to come to his disciples, who will live because he lives and will know that he is in the Father; love for him is shown by keeping his commandments, not by grief at his departure.
  • Homily 75.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ will manifest himself to those who keep his commandments, not as a dream or apparition; he promises the Paraclete as teacher and leaves his peace.
  • Homily 75.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · “The Father is greater than I” is said in condescension to the disciples' weakness and does not make the Son of another essence; Christ goes to his death willingly, the devil having nothing in him.
  • Homily 77.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ foretells the world's hatred and persecution of the disciples, consoling them that they share his lot and the Father's, that the persecutors are without excuse, and that the Spirit and they themselves will bear witness.
  • Homily 78.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ rebukes the disciples' excessive sorrow, explains why he had not told them of the coming persecutions earlier, and shows that his departure is to their advantage, since the Spirit will come and convict the world.
  • Homily 78.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment; he speaks what is Christ's and the Father's, not as inferior or as needing to learn, for the Father, Son, and Spirit share one knowledge, one will, and one dignity, as baptism shows.
  • Homily 80.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Son is true God although the Father is called the only true God; he asks the glory he had before the world for his flesh. Chrysostom then attacks luxury, many servants, and needless wants as slavery, praising simplicity and freedom from need.
  • Homily 81.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ has made the Father's name known to the disciples given him; that all the Father's things are the Son's and the Son's the Father's shows their equality, and “you gave me” is said by condescension.
  • Homily 81.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ's commending of the disciples to the Father is said in a human way for their comfort; Judas perished by his own choice, not because Scripture had to be fulfilled.
  • Homily 82.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom explains Christ's prayer that the disciples be kept from the evil one and sanctified in the truth, reading “I sanctify myself” as Christ offering himself as a sacrifice.
  • Homily 82.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ prays for the unity of all believers, a peace greater than signs, and that they may behold his glory; Chrysostom closes by rebuking those who neglect even their own relatives.
  • Homily 86.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ's “Do not touch me” lifts Mary's thoughts to his ascension; that evening he gives the disciples peace and, breathing on them, the authority to forgive sins, a gift shared by Father, Son and Spirit.
  • On True Religion 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Addressing Romanianus, Augustine states that the Christian religion of the catholic Church must be held, and that it rests on the history and prophecy of God's saving dispensation, which leads to knowledge of the Trinity as creator of all things.
  • On True Religion 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine explains that created things can fail because they are made from nothing, yet whatever has any form, and even the capacity for form, is good and comes from God.
  • On True Religion 31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine identifies the unchangeable truth above the mind with God, specifically with the Son, the Father's equal through whom he judges, and explains that the spiritual man may know but not judge this eternal law.
  • On True Religion 36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine identifies the perfect Likeness of the One, which fulfills it without any unlikeness, with the Truth and the Word of God, and traces falsity to souls that love works more than their Maker.
  • On True Religion 43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine argues that the mind judges size and duration by proportion and ordered harmony, and that the measure of order lives unchangeably in the Truth, the Son, the Father's perfect image, through whom all things are made.
  • On True Religion 55Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine closes by urging his readers to worship no creature, neither phantoms, works, beasts, the dead, demons, elements, heavenly bodies, nor even angels, but the one God, the Trinity of one substance, to whom true religion binds us.
  • Homily 10Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390–394 · On Song 4:16–5:2 Gregory reads the bride's banishing of the north wind and summoning of the south wind as the soul's authority over evil and its welcome to the Spirit, the bridegroom's feast as the eucharistic mysteries and a sober drunkenness of ecstasy, and the bride's sleep with a waking heart as the senses stilled while the mind contemplates God.
  • Voluntary Poverty, chapter 63Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · The sun teaches the Son's eternal relation to the Father; the moon's phases teach that prosperity and adversity change gradually and quickly, so neither should move us.
  • On Two Souls 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391–392 · Augustine appeals to his friends still among the Manichaeans, prays to the triune God for them, and defers the defense of Scripture against Manichaean charges to other books.
  • Sermon 1.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine answers that the "beginning" in which God made heaven and earth is the Son, as Christ himself says.
  • Sermon 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even if "beginning" means the beginning of time, the Trinity is present in Genesis, and Scripture often speaks of God without naming the Son.
  • Sermon 7.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against heretics who argue that the Son is a visible creature, Augustine holds that the whole Trinity is invisible by nature and appears through creatures, as the soul appears through the voice.
  • Sermon 7.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The second view: the speaker was a created angel called Lord because God spoke in him, as in prophets; this better fits the three visitors of Abraham, the two at Sodom, and the New Testament's statements that the Law came through angels.
  • Sermon 8.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sanctification comes from the Holy Spirit, to whom the number seven belongs (seven gifts, Pentecost after seven weeks); those who break unity, like Pharaoh's magicians, do not have the Spirit.
  • Sermon 8.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first three commandments concern God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit); Pharaoh's magicians failed at the third plague and confessed "the finger of God," which is the Holy Spirit, who gave the Law fifty days after the Passover as he came fifty days after Christ's death.
  • Sermon 9.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine plays the "ten-stringed psaltery" of the Decalogue instead of frivolous songs: three strings belong to God, the third being the sabbath, the everlasting rest promised in the Holy Spirit.
  • Sermon 9.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Decalogue is divided between the two great commandments: three strings for God, who is a Trinity, and seven for the neighbor, beginning with honor of parents, which Paul calls the first commandment.
  • Sermon 23.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God does not change his nature when he appears; as he made all things by speaking, so he appears in whatever form he wills.
  • Sermon 33.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The three commandments of the first tablet correspond to the Trinity: one God (the Father), not taking the Lord’s name “to vanity” (the Son is no creature), and the Sabbath (the Holy Spirit’s gift of rest), kept spiritually by avoiding sin.
  • Sermon 34.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since the Spirit by whom we love is God, we love God from God; and since God is love, we must not imagine him with a bodily shape, as one would an idol.
  • Sermon 34.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine’s closing prayer, given here in full.
  • Sermon 47.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The “one shepherd, my servant David” is Christ, born of David’s line: one with the Father in the form of God, raised up as servant in the form of a servant, so that both “I will feed” and “He will feed” are true.
  • Sermon 47.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “He will be their shepherd, and I will be their God” shows both the unity of the Godhead and the distinction of persons; Christ, God and man, is the prince in our midst and the mediator.
  • Sermon 51.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Luke’s seventy-seven generations, counted from Christ’s baptism up to God, signify the forgiveness of all sins in baptism, consecrated by the appearing of the Trinity at the Jordan.
  • Sermon 52.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At Christ’s baptism the Trinity is shown distinctly: the Father in the voice, the Son in the man, the Holy Spirit in the dove.
  • Sermon 52.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Though Father, Son, and Spirit seem separated at the baptism, the Catholic faith holds them to be one inseparable God, three distinct persons.
  • Sermon 52.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Asking for prayer in so hard a question, Augustine sets out the problem whether the Father does anything the Son does not, and answers first that the Father does nothing without the Son, through whom all things were made.
  • Sermon 52.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Father not only created all things through the Son but also governs them through him, so neither acts without the other.
  • Sermon 52.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If Father and Son act inseparably, must we say the Father was born and suffered? No: the Creed says the Son, not the Father, was born and suffered, and the Church excluded the Patripassians who taught otherwise.
  • Sermon 52.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The objection is pressed: either the Son does something without the Father, or the Father was born and suffered; Augustine refuses both.
  • Sermon 52.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine’s solution: the birth, passion, and resurrection belong to the Son alone, but the Father and the Son together brought them about; he will prove it from Scripture.
  • Sermon 52.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul shows that the Father brought about the Son’s birth: God sent his Son, born of a woman.
  • Sermon 52.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Son’s birth was also brought about by the Son himself, since he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.
  • Sermon 52.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Both the Father, who handed over his Son, and the Son, who handed himself over, brought about the passion; Judas contributed only his sin.
  • Sermon 52.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Father raised the Son, and the Son raised himself, for he had power to lay down his life and to take it up again.
  • Sermon 52.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Summary: the birth, passion, and resurrection belong to the Son alone, but the Father and the Son brought them about together; the persons are distinct and their working inseparable.
  • Sermon 52.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God is not in space but wholly present everywhere; to approach the mystery, Augustine looks in creation for three things presented separately that work inseparably.
  • Sermon 52.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since man alone was made in God’s image, the likeness of the Trinity should be sought in ourselves, though our image differs greatly from the Son, who is the Father’s perfect image.
  • Sermon 52.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The likeness must be sought in the inner man who hears and sees through the body; and man is the image of the whole Trinity, as “Let us make man in our image” shows.
  • Sermon 52.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the human soul memory, understanding, and will can be counted as three but not separated, a distant likeness of the Trinity.
  • Sermon 52.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even to say the one word “memory” requires memory, understanding, and will working together, though the word names only memory.
  • Sermon 52.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As memory, understanding, and will together produce each name that belongs to one of them, so the Trinity together made Christ’s flesh, the dove, and the voice, each belonging to one person.
  • Sermon 52.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine declines to say which of the three faculties corresponds to which divine person, leaving it to quiet reflection.
  • Sermon 52.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The analogy shows how the three persons can be presented separately through creatures yet work inseparably; Augustine does not equate the faculties with the persons, and urges faith and prayer for further understanding.
  • Sermon 71.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The hard saying about blasphemy against the Spirit seems to leave no hope for pagans, Jews, and heretics, all of whom in some way speak against the Holy Spirit.
  • Sermon 71.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine sets out the doctrine of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit is the communion of the Father and the Son, the gift by which we are gathered into one and our sins are covered.
  • Sermon 71.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Every other sin is forgiven where impenitence is absent; the word against the Son is forgivable not because the Spirit is greater, but because repentance obtains forgiveness of it.
  • Sermon 71.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The difference is not that the Spirit is greater than the incarnate Son; all three persons forgive sins and work inseparably.
  • Sermon 71.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit acts by his own will, yet the working of the Trinity is inseparable; the Father is the source, from whom the Son is born and the Spirit principally proceeds.
  • Sermon 71.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Works proper to one person, such as the voice from heaven, the incarnation, or Pentecost, are still worked by the whole Trinity; so Christ casts out the divided spirit by the Spirit common to Father and Son.
  • Sermon 71.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son, and so the fellowship of the Church belongs properly to him.
  • Sermon 71.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The forgiveness of sins is given only in the Church that has the Spirit; it is the proper work of the Spirit, who is the fellowship of the Father and the Son.
  • Sermon 88.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Philip could not yet see the Father in the Son because the eye of his heart was not healed; faith must come first, for we walk by faith until we come to sight.
  • Sermon 99.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s gift of loosing sins does not mean that men forgive by their own merit: the Holy Spirit, who is God, forgives through the faithful, who are his temple.
  • Sermon 103.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Unity makes a multitude a people rather than a crowd; Scripture commends it, and the one thing needful is the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to whom only a united heart can come.
  • Sermon 105.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · When Scripture is obscure, the believer must knock in prayer to God, who delays so that we may desire more; the three loaves are the understanding of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, food that never runs out.
  • Sermon 117.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Word is the unformed form of all things, beyond time and place, unchanged whether we approach or depart; unlike bodies, which are less in their parts than in the whole, the Word is not less in a part than in the whole.
  • Sermon 117.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Arians, who argue that a born Son must be later and lesser than his Father, the Catholic faith holds that the Word was born of God without a temporal birth, and Augustine asks for prayer as he undertakes to explain how a Son can be born and yet coeternal.
  • Sermon 117.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Fleshly people transfer the order of human generation to God; it would be better to keep silent about the ineffable, but silence would let weak brothers think the Arians unanswerable.
  • Sermon 117.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Without claiming to grasp the ineffable, Augustine will offer likenesses to refute the Arians, who argue from creatures that every parent exists before its offspring.
  • Sermon 117.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine notes that the Creator’s birth may have no likeness in creation, just as his substance and majesty have none, so failing to find one would not defeat his case.
  • Sermon 117.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Arians’ examples show only temporal sons later than temporal fathers; a likeness can be found instead in things coeval, begotten and begetter beginning together, which point to the Son coeternal with the eternal Father.
  • Sermon 117.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Scripture calls Wisdom the brightness of eternal light; just as the brightness of a lamp comes from the fire yet exists together with it, the begotten need not be later than the begetter.
  • Sermon 117.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Son is also called the Father’s image; as the reflection of a shrub growing over water is born with the shrub and yet comes from it, so the Son is always born from the Father, coeternal with him.
  • Sermon 117.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The likenesses fail because light shines less than its fire and a reflection is less than its object, but the Son is fully equal to the Father, as Paul says he did not count equality with God robbery.
  • Sermon 117.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Combining the two kinds of likeness, human generation (same nature, different time) and light from fire (same time, unequal nature), and attributing to God what is praiseworthy in each, gives a Son coeternal and equal in substance with the Father, one God with him.
  • Sermon 118.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Word who was in the beginning was not made, since all things were made through him, but begotten of the Father; Father and Son are one God, and the Arian claim that there was a time when the Word was not is false.
  • Sermon 118.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Son is the Father’s brightness, as Scripture calls Wisdom the brightness of eternal light; as fire is never without its splendor, the Father is never without the Son, who is always born and coeternal.
  • Sermon 119.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The incarnate Christ is eternally God with the Father; John, who drank from the Lord’s breast, proclaimed that in the beginning the Word was, not was made, and was God.
  • Sermon 125.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Only the first to enter the stirred water was healed; the water signifies the Jewish people within the law, and its troubling is Christ’s passion, provoked when he called himself Son of God and equal to God, the Angel of great counsel who is Lord of the angels.
  • Sermon 126.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Arians take John 5:19 to show the Son is lesser, but the next words, “the Son does the same,” must also be heard; Augustine asks for quiet attention to a hard question.
  • Sermon 126.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If the Son made things by copying the Father as a carpenter’s son copies a chest, then the Father would have made something without the Word, against John 1:3; there is only one Son by nature, the others adopted through him.
  • Sermon 126.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Father does nothing except through the Son, as the raising of Lazarus and the healing of the blind man show; the Trinity has one operation, as “Let us make” and “God made” together teach.
  • Sermon 126.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Believers turn to the Word himself: all that the Father does he does through the Son, so they are equal and one; why then does the Son say he can do nothing of himself?
  • Sermon 126.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Word’s seeing is the Word himself, since he is simple; to grasp it, our powers must grow through the commandment of love; “the Son can do nothing of himself” means that he is the Son because he is born of the Father.
  • Sermon 127.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even life without sickness and pain would be worth buying with oneself, but eternal life is more than can be said; Christ, through whom all times were made, is the Son always begotten and always with the Father.
  • Sermon 127.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The eternal begetting of the Son cannot be seen or spoken; it must be believed and worshiped until we pass from faith to sight.
  • Sermon 128.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · John was the lamp prepared to confound Christ’s enemies; Christ bears witness to himself in the martyrs, and gives the Holy Spirit, a gift equal to himself, who pours God’s love into our hearts.
  • Sermon 135.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Arian claim that the Son does another’s works, Augustine replies that by the same reasoning the Father would have another’s things, since the Son says, “All that the Father has is mine.”
  • Sermon 135.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Father and Son hold all things in common, and the Son does the Father’s works “likewise,” not as a servant obeying a command.
  • Sermon 135.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even if the Father commands and the Son obeys, as between a human father and son, they share one nature; the Son, begotten “from the womb before the morning star,” was begotten from the Father’s substance before all time.
  • Sermon 135.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If the Son does the Father’s works, the Father also does the Son’s, as “Father, I will” shows; the Son gives life to whom he will, since Father and Son have one power and one will.
  • Sermon 139.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ alone is Son by nature, others by grace and adoption; therefore he alone can say, “I and the Father are one,” that is, of one nature and substance.
  • Sermon 139.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Of one substance” can be illustrated by earthly comparisons: if the Father is gold, so is the Son, as a human son is of the same substance as his father.
  • Sermon 139.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Arian objection that a father is greater than his son, Augustine replies that this difference is one of age, not nature, and has no place in eternity; a Son of another substance than the Father would be a monster.
  • Sermon 139.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God, who gave creatures the power to beget their own kind, did not beget a Son of another substance; to call the Son degenerate by nature is a greater insult than calling a coward his brave father’s degenerate son.
  • Sermon 139.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine urges prayer for the Arians, many of them Arian by upbringing; by claiming to honor the Father at the Son’s expense they insult both, as a son and father are both insulted when the son is called degenerate.
  • Sermon 140.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Faith in Christ is a great good; but since the Son is from the Father, he commends faith in himself while referring the honor to the Father.
  • Sermon 140.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ has two births, from the Father without time and from the virgin in time; the Son receives all he is from the Father, including his equality, given not to one in need but in his very begetting.
  • Sermon 140.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ says the Father’s commandment is eternal life; John’s Epistle calls Christ, the true Son, true God and eternal life, distinguishing him from those who are sons by grace.
  • Sermon 140.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the claim that Father and Son are one only in will, as the apostles are one with God by obedience, Augustine replies that no apostle or prophet ever dared to say “I and God are one.”
  • Sermon 140.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Son is from the Father yet equal to him, born equal and eternal; a lesser Son would either grow, making the Father age, or remain forever deficient; the Son’s honoring of the Father does not lessen his divinity.
  • Sermon 140.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since the Father’s commandment is eternal life and the Son is eternal life, the commandment is the Son himself, the Father’s Word; this must be believed in order to be understood.
  • Sermon 149.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The threefold descent signifies baptism in the name of the Trinity of the nations from the four quarters, and four times three makes the twelve apostles.
  • Sermon 155.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No condemnation remains because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ sets free; Augustine then asks why the Sinai law, also written by God's finger (the Spirit), did not.
  • Sermon 155.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Believers are “not in the flesh” only because God's Spirit dwells in them; free choice must implore help, for human nature fell even when healthy and cannot rise by its own strength.
  • Sermon 156.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The flesh is a small good created by God, the soul a great good, God the supreme good, Father, Son, and Spirit, one God; the flesh should live by the soul and the soul by God.
  • Sermon 157.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Patience in hope requires meekness that accepts God's discipline; Christ, handed over by the Father and handing himself over in one will, is the way and the example.
  • Sermon 177.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God alone, who made all things and holds their patterns in himself, suffices; the soul that leaves him to have more, like the prodigal son, loses everything, and Adam's first sin was avarice, for God did not suffice him.
  • Sermon 182.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Manichaean argument that a spirit not from God proves a second nature, Augustine answers that the error is not from God but the man is: the spirit's vice must be healed, not its nature separated, since only the Trinity is immutable and creatures are good but changeable.
  • Sermon 183.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The full confession joins Christ's “Son of Man” with Peter's “Son of the living God”; the Arian, who says “in the beginning God made the Word,” denies John's “in the beginning was the Word” and so denies the Son.
  • Sermon 183.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The true Son is Son by nature, equal to the Father in the form of God, who emptied himself by taking the form of a servant without losing the form of God; the Arian who denies his equality denies the Son and so Christ come in the flesh.
  • Sermon 183.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Eunomians, who deny the Son is even like the Father, deny Christ, and so deny that Christ has come in the flesh.
  • Sermon 183.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Sabellian, who makes the Son the same as the Father, describes someone who is not Christ and so denies that Christ has come in the flesh.
  • Sermon 183.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Donatists who deny the Son's equality with the Father deny Christ; most Donatists, however, confess the same faith in the Son as Catholics.
  • Sermon 186.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, made visible by a perpetual virgin, became man without ceasing to be God: one person, God and man, so that the Trinity remains a Trinity.
  • Sermon 188.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No human words can explain the eternal Word, since he formed the mind that makes words and was begotten, not made.
  • Sermon 195.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Isaiah's “Who shall declare his generation?” fits both of Christ's births: the eternal birth from the Father and the virginal birth from Mary are both beyond telling.
  • Sermon 196.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Both of Christ's births are beyond words: the eternal begetting without beginning and the birth from a virgin who remained a virgin.
  • Sermon 212.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At the handing over of the Creed, Augustine explains its name and summarizes its articles: the almighty Father, the Son equal to him who in the form of a slave was born, suffered, rose, and will judge, the Spirit from both, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection.
  • Sermon 213.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As only Son, Christ is equal and coeternal with the Father; conceived of the Spirit and born of the Virgin, he is our only Savior and Redeemer.
  • Sermon 213.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit is equal to the Father and the Son; the Catholic Church throughout the world, once unfaithful through idolatry, has been made a virgin in faith and, like Mary, gives birth to Christ's members in baptism.
  • Sermon 214.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Son is begotten of the Father's substance, not made from nothing; he is God from God, coeternal and equal to the Father by nature.
  • Sermon 214.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and receiving from the Son, is God, since we are his temple; Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct, equal, and one God.
  • Sermon 215.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Son is true God from true God, one with the Father; both his eternal birth and his virginal birth are beyond words, and can only be believed and praised.
  • Sermon 215.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit is God, through whom we receive forgiveness, resurrection, and eternal life; the three are one God, and no other gospel than the Church's may be accepted.
  • Sermon 217.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ prays for us as man and grants what he asks as God; he refers all to the Father, the source from which he, also a source, is born.
  • Sermon 225.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Before his birth from Mary, Christ existed as the eternal Word, not made but through whom all things were made.
  • Sermon 225.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit and the Son himself wrought Christ's flesh in Mary, who, having resolved on virginity, asked how she would conceive.
  • Sermon 244.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Do not touch me” means: do not believe me only a man; Christ ascends to the Father for whoever understands him as God equal to the Father, as well as the man who was crucified.
  • Sermon 244.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Photinians, who think Christ only a man, and Arians, who think him a lesser and created God, have not touched him; the Son is born eternally, without time, and his generation cannot be told.
  • Sermon 252.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Forty, the days of the risen Lord on earth and of the great fasts, signifies wisdom dispensed in time; ten, the fullness of wisdom (seven for creature, three for the Trinity), times four, the number of temporal things, makes forty.
  • Sermon 261.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ is always God, equal to the Father; to ask what kind of God he is, piety seeks by believing and learning together under the one heavenly teacher, while vanity seeks by quarreling.
  • Sermon 261.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Through Christ the man we reach Christ God, who is both the way and the goal; one person, Word, soul, and flesh, he speaks sometimes as God, sometimes according to his soul, sometimes according to his flesh.
  • Sermon 264.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ stayed forty days to strengthen the disciples’ faith, but ascended so that they would stop loving him carnally and learn to see with the heart the Word equal to the Father.
  • Sermon 264.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “The Father is greater than I” rebuked and consoled disciples fixed on Christ’s flesh: he is less as man, equal as God, unchanged by taking flesh as a senator by prison clothes; he withdrew outwardly to fill them inwardly.
  • Sermon 264.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one equal God; the Son is called less only because of the flesh he took, which is why Scripture never calls the Spirit less.
  • Sermon 265.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ was glorified twice, in resurrection and ascension, and so gave the Spirit twice: by breathing on the disciples after rising, and at Pentecost after ascending.
  • Sermon 265.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine admits he does not know why the Spirit was given twice, but proposes that the two givings commend the two commandments of the one charity: on earth for love of neighbor, from heaven for love of God.
  • Sermon 265.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Charity belongs to the Holy Spirit, for, as Paul says, God’s charity has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit given to us.
  • Sermon 267.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit is to the Church what the soul is to the body, giving life to all members with different functions; a member cut off from the Church, like a heretic, loses the Spirit’s life.
  • Sermon 270.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ had to go away so that the disciples, attached to his human form as Peter was when he feared the passion, might become spiritual and receive the Spirit; Peter’s confession was from the Father, his fear from the flesh.
  • Sermon 270.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Charity, the gift of the Spirit, fulfills the law; fear of punishment makes obedience slavish, while chaste fear, like a faithful wife’s, remains forever.
  • Sermon 270.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit is signified by seven: sanctification first appears on the seventh day, God’s rest signifying our rest after good works, which the true sabbath keeps by not sinning; and Isaiah names seven gifts of the Spirit.
  • Sermon 270.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pentecost, seven weeks of seven days plus one, joins the seven of the Spirit, who gathers the humble into one body from all tongues, with the one that commends unity.
  • Sermon 277.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We should not define the spiritual body rashly; but God is not a body, is not seen in a place, and is whole everywhere at once, as the Word is whole with the Father, in the Virgin, and in the infant.
  • Sermon 277.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Until the question is settled we must hold firmly that the body will rise spiritual and that the Trinity is invisible as it is immortal and incorruptible; meanwhile we should cleanse our hearts to see God.
  • Sermon 277.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine does not deny that the risen flesh may see God, but finds no clear testimony; what must be held firmly is that God is not a body or in a place, and that the body will rise spiritual and immortal.
  • Sermon 293.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As the groomsman to the bridegroom, John stands to Christ, who as man is mediator between God and men, wholly God and wholly man; Paul calls the mediator ‘the man Christ Jesus’ because the one God is Father, Son and Spirit.
  • Sermon 301.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Judas, the Father and the Son all ‘handed over’ Christ, but Judas from avarice and God from mercy; good was made from Judas’s deed, but he is repaid only for what he did.
  • Sermon 341.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The mind's virginity is the integrity of faith, which the serpent, now through Arian questions, tries to corrupt by promising knowledge.
  • Sermon 341.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Arians, Augustine holds together “the Father is greater than I” and “I and the Father are one”: the Son is equal in the form of God and less in the form of a servant.
  • Sermon 341.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Before the incarnation the Word cannot be shown to be partly equal and partly less, as if God were a body with measurable qualities.
  • Sermon 341.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In God power, wisdom, and justice are one and the same, and even “just” is said of him only because human speech has nothing better; the worthiest praise is silence.
  • Sermon 341.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since God has no parts or qualities, the Son is equal to the Father in every way according to divinity and less only in the form of a servant: this is the rule for reading Scripture.
  • Sermon 361.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ could rise because he is God, but he died and rose in the form of a servant he took from us; sinless, he bore our mortality as Jacob wore borrowed skins, so his resurrection gives hope to his members.
  • Sermon 369.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Son's eternal generation from the Father, without before or after, surpasses every likeness in flesh or soul; the mind must ascend in the heart, and where it cannot understand, believe.
  • Sermon 372.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A Christmas sermon: Christ's two births, from the Father always and from his mother once, are both ineffable, yet the servant must not be silent on the Lord's birthday.
  • Sermon 380.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Arian reading of John 1:15 ("was made before me"): the evangelist did not say "God made the Word" as Moses said "God made heaven and earth," but "In the beginning was the Word"; what God made through the Word cannot include the Word.
  • Sermon 380.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Arians compare "the Word was" with "the earth was" (Gen 1:2), but Genesis first says "God made heaven and earth"; John says no such thing of the Word, and "he comes after me" refers to Christ's human birth.
  • Sermon 384.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A sermon on the Trinity against the Arians opens by praising God as incomprehensible, greater than all the heavenly goods he has prepared and than everything he has made.
  • Sermon 384.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Arians who rank Father, Son, and Spirit as greater and lesser: this makes three gods and a divided kingdom; as the sun's course, light, and heat, or fire's motion, light, and heat, cannot be separated, neither can the Trinity.
  • Sermon 384.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Testimonies to the Trinity from Genesis, the prophets, the Psalms, the Gospel, and Paul; after rejecting the heretics, the preacher praises the catholic faith that saves, baptizes, and sanctifies every state of life.
  • Commentary on Galatians 1.2John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul's apostleship came directly from Christ; Chrysostom refutes Arian arguments from 'through' and 'raised him,' and Manichaean claims that the present life is evil.
  • Commentary on Galatians 3.5John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Christ the mediator gave the law; the law is not against the promises but shut all under sin and served as a tutor until faith came; through baptism believers put on Christ and become sons of God and Abraham's seed.
  • Homily 1.1 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains why Paul calls himself an apostle “by command of God,” why the teacher is most exposed to the devil’s attacks, and in what sense Timothy is Paul’s “true child in the faith.”
  • Homily 4.2 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains that Paul was pardoned as an example to all sinners, defends the Son’s equal incorruptibility and lordship against the heretics, and in the moral part urges glorifying God in body and soul, especially by rejecting cosmetics and vanity about beauty.
  • Homily 18.1 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains Paul’s final charge before God and Christ, who confessed before Pilate, the doxology to the immortal and invisible King, which he applies also to the Son, and the command that the rich hope in God and be rich in good works.
  • Homily 7.4 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The veil is removed when one turns to the Lord, who is the Spirit; believers, beholding the Lord’s glory with unveiled face, are transformed by the Spirit, whose lordship Chrysostom proves against those who refer the verse to the Son; worldly cares quench this glory and make men slaves of money and lust.
  • Homily 8.3 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul preaches Christ, not himself, and makes himself the Corinthians’ slave; God the Father, who created light, has shone in their hearts with a light greater than Moses’ glory, revealing the Trinity, and has put this treasure in fragile earthen vessels to show that the power is his.
  • Homily 11.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Christ still has his body, but freed from its weaknesses; whoever is in Christ is a new creation, receiving all things new, the heavenly realities in place of the old types; God, the one offended, took the first step to reconcile the world through the Son, not counting sins, and entrusted the apostles with the ministry of reconciliation.
  • Homily 29.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains Paul's warning that Christ, though 'crucified out of weakness', lives and is powerful among the Corinthians, distinguishing three meanings of 'weakness'; Paul prays they will do no evil so that he need not prove his power by punishing them (2 Cor 13:3–9); Chrysostom ends by denouncing vainglory as the pursuit of shadows, a madness worse than frenzy.
  • Homily 30.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains the holy kiss as kissing the entrance of Christ's temple, the mouth that receives the Lord's body in communion, defends the full deity of the Spirit and the Son from Paul's varied naming of the persons in the closing blessing (2 Cor 13:12–14), and urges love of God, who commands everything for our good, as his rules on marriage, reconciliation and almsgiving show.
  • Homily 4.4 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The Antichrist’s false signs will convict unbelievers who rejected Christ; Elijah will come to strengthen the faithful; God chose the Thessalonians for salvation through sanctification and faith; unwritten tradition is as trustworthy as letters; Paul asks prayer, and Chrysostom begs his people to pray for their bishop, with whom they share the same table, baptism and Spirit.
  • Homily 3.2 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom shows that one can share in the crowns of saints living and departed, refutes Marcionite use of “the Lord … from the Lord,” describes the fearful judgment as an act of God's love meant to rouse us, and warns that we who blame greedy officials are equally guilty, since God judges the will and not the size of the deed.
  • Homily 6.1 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul urges humility by Christ's example, and Chrysostom, likening Phil 2:6–8 to a two-edged sword, sets out the errors of Sabellius, Marcion, Marcellus, Photinus, Arius, and others, and begins to refute them from “the form of God”.
  • Homily 6.2 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom argues from “equal with God” against Sabellius and from “the form of God” against Arius, rejecting a “small” and “great” God as a pagan idea, and explains that humility belongs only to one who could rightly claim more.
  • Homily 6.3 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Abstaining from wrongdoing earns no praise, so Phil 2:6 cannot mean that a lesser Son merely refrained from grasping at equality; Christ's example of humility works only if the Son is equal to the Father, and “being in the form of God” means being truly God.
  • Homily 7.1 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom gives the true sense of “did not count it robbery”: the Son held equality with God by nature, not by seizure, and therefore could freely lay aside his glory and humble himself without fear of losing it.
  • Homily 7.2 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Against Marcion's phantom Christ, Paul of Samosata's mere man, the Arians, and those who deny Christ a soul, Chrysostom explains “likeness”, “fashion”, and “as a man”: the Word, remaining God, truly took human nature, obeyed as Son to the shameful death of the cross, and his exaltation and worship redound to the Father's glory.
  • On Illustrious Men 86Jerome · 392–393 · Marcellus of Ancyra, writing against the Arians, was accused of Sabellianism but claimed communion with Julius and Athanasius.
  • On Illustrious Men 100Jerome · 392–393 · Hilary of Poitiers, exiled to Phrygia, wrote twelve books against the Arians (On the Trinity), On the Synods, and commentaries on the Psalms and Matthew.
  • On Illustrious Men 109Jerome · 392–393 · Didymus the Blind of Alexandria, learned despite blindness, wrote many commentaries and On the Holy Spirit, translated by Jerome.
  • On Illustrious Men 116Jerome · 392–393 · Basil of Caesarea wrote against Eunomius, On the Holy Spirit, and the Hexaemeron homilies.
  • On Illustrious Men 117Jerome · 392–393 · Gregory of Nazianzus, Jerome's teacher, wrote orations, poems, and works against Eunomius and Julian, and on the Holy Spirit.
  • On Illustrious Men 120Jerome · 392–393 · Eunomius, the outspoken Arian, has been answered by Apollinaris, Didymus, Basil and the two Gregories.
  • On Illustrious Men 133Jerome · 392–393 · Amphilochius of Iconium wrote on the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
  • On Faith and the Creed 3Augustine of Hippo · 393 · The Son is the Word through whom the Father created all things and through whom the hidden Father is made known.
  • On Faith and the Creed 4Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Unlike our words, which we make, God begot his Word from himself, the perfect expression of what he is.
  • On Faith and the Creed 5Augustine of Hippo · 393 · The Son is neither made, nor begotten in time, nor inferior to the Father; both those who identify him with the Father and those who call him a creature are excluded.
  • On Faith and the Creed 6Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Augustine reads “The Lord created me” of Christ's humanity, the humble way back to God, and distinguishes the only-begotten Son by nature from sons by adoption.
  • On Faith and the Creed 16Augustine of Hippo · 393 · The Holy Spirit is consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father and the Son; each is God, yet the Trinity is one God, not three gods.
  • On Faith and the Creed 17Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Examples of spring, river, and drink, of root, trunk, and branches, and of three cups from one spring show that three things can share one name, though they are not likenesses of God.
  • On Faith and the Creed 18Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Texts that seem to make the Son less than the Father refer either to his assumed humanity or to his receiving his being from the Father, not to an inequality of nature.
  • On Faith and the Creed 19Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Augustine reports, without adopting it, the view that the Holy Spirit is the deity and mutual love that unites the Father and the Son, with its scriptural proofs.
  • On Faith and the Creed 20Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Whatever the truth of that view, the faith is to be held firmly: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each God, one God of one substance, each always himself.
  • Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393 · Augustine begins by insisting that obscure matters in Genesis be treated by inquiry, not assertion, within the bounds of the catholic faith, which he then summarizes: creation from nothing by the Trinity, evil as sin or its punishment, and redemption through Christ.
  • Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393 · Augustine defends Genesis 1:2 against the Manichees, reading “earth,” “abyss,” and “water” as names for the one formless matter God made from nothing, and weighs whether “the Spirit of God” is the Holy Spirit, a created vital spirit, or air.
  • Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393 · On “Let us make man to our image and likeness,” Augustine distinguishes image from likeness, presents the Son as Likeness itself in which creatures participate, places the image in the human mind, and concludes that man was made to the image of the whole Trinity.
  • Letter 1.20Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Against the Pneumatomachi: Christ's command to baptize in the one name of the Trinity teaches the Spirit's oneness of essence; one who rejects Christ's teaching will not be moved by ours.
  • Letter 1.59Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Blasphemy against the Son of Man is pardonable because his Godhead was hidden in the flesh; blasphemy against the Spirit is not, because it attributed to Beelzebul works whose divine power was plain.
  • Letter 1.60Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Christ's "Spirit of God" (Matthew) is called "finger of God" in Luke; as a finger belongs to the body's substance, the Spirit is of the divine essence.
  • Letter 1.67Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · At Christ's baptism the Father's voice showed him the true Son and revealed the three hypostases of the Trinity, refuting Montanus and Sabellius.
  • Letter 1.97Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Christ's giving of the Spirit with power to forgive sins shows that the Spirit has divine authority, one with the Father and the Son.
  • Letter 1.109Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The Spirit, named with Father and Son in baptism and making the bread Christ's body, cannot be a creature; a second letter says an ascetic must embrace every hardship and humbly remember his body's origin and end.
  • Letter 1.138Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Against a Sabellian: in "I and the Father are one", "one" shows the one essence and the plural "are" the two hypostases.
  • Letter 1.241Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Since God never changes, he is always Father, so the Son is co-eternal.
  • Letter 1.246Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Arius and Eunomius vied in blasphemy, calling the Son a creature and a servant.
  • Letter 1.247Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Sabellius's teaching of one three-faced hypostasis abolishes the Trinity; the Godhead is one, the hypostases three.
  • Letter 1.353Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · "The Son can do nothing of himself" shows not weakness but the identity of will, and so of essence, between Father and Son.
  • Letter 1.422Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · "The Father is greater" implies sameness of essence, since only things of one kind can be compared.
  • Letter 1.445Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Paul's "milk" is the use of the law to lead converts by degrees to the perfect doctrines, such as the Trinity.
  • Letter 1.473Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · "Glory as of the Only-begotten" does not imply inferiority; "as" confirms, as in "how good is God".
  • Letter 2.142Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The Godhead is one substance in three hypostases; the Old Testament already hints at the Trinity, as even Philo recognized in his "second God" and two powers and his account of the image in the burning bush; the doctrine was veiled at first so that Israel would not fall into polytheism.
  • Letter 3.18Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Against the Arians, Isidore argues that the Son is eternal, and that the titles Radiance, Imprint, Word and Son each show something of his divinity.
  • Letter 3.27Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Scripture's plural expressions show three hypostases and its singular ones one nature, against both Sabellians and Arians.
  • Letter 3.58Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Heb 1:3 shows that the Son's generation is without passion, eternal, and that he subsists as a distinct hypostasis.
  • Letter 3.63Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Against the Arians and Eunomians: eternity is proper to God, so the Son cannot be later than the Father.
  • Letter 3.112Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Singular expressions in Scripture show the one divine essence and plural ones the three hypostases, refuting both Arians and Jews.
  • Letter 3.140Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · A bishop should help the poor without contempt; (3.141) against the Sabellians, the Son is called Word yet subsists in himself; (3.142) Matt 5:16 and 6:1 agree, since good works should glorify God, not ourselves.
  • Letter 3.149Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Eternity belongs to God alone, and the Trinity is three in properties, one in essence; and (Letter 3.150) a newly ordained priest should honour God's choice by ordering his soul.
  • Letter 3.165Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Gal 1:8 guards the gospel against demons posing as angels; and (Letter 3.166) Christ's coming in the Father's own glory shows they share one essence.
  • Letter 3.334Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Against the Eunomians Isidore explains John 4:22 and John 14:28: Christ spoke as a Jew to the Samaritan woman and called the Father "greater" to comfort the apostles, while the Son is equal in essence.
  • Letter 3.335Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore shows from many Scriptural examples that "cannot" often means "it is not fitting", so John 5:19 declares the Son's perfect unity of will and essence with the Father, not weakness.
  • Letter 3.355Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Against the Arians, Heb 1:3 shows the Son eternal and subsistent; and (another letter) Dan 6:3 compares Daniel with all the officials because kings often promote the unworthy.
  • Letter 3.386Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · If Daniel fell before an angel, the Arians are reckless to measure the divine nature with arguments.
  • Letter 4.22Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Christ's self-emptying is an example of humility only because he is equal with God by nature; a true son can stoop without risk to his rank, as an adopted slave could not.
  • Letter 4.99Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Against the many errors about God, Christ, and the Spirit, one should follow the Council of Nicaea, which taught the truth by divine inspiration.
  • Letter 4.139Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Ten letters: rebuke sin with love and bear abuse; Scripture serves salvation, not glory; the law's exclusions of the unclean restrain incontinence and figure sinners; John 1:1 teaches the Son's consubstantial and eternal begetting; rulers must govern in piety and justice; an untitled protest against a peace sworn with pagan oaths; the pastor's art of varied remedies; Christ freed us from fear of death by teaching judgment and resurrection; Hebrews' rest is heavenly; flattery of the wicked shares their guilt.
  • Letter 5.28Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore consoles Didymus on his brother's death, attacks the buyers of church office, warns of the devil's hidden snares, argues from Scripture that the Son is not a creature, sums up ethics in the Golden Rule, and condemns those who worship creation; a second letter rebukes three clerics for luxury and lechery.
  • Against Jovinianus 2.19Jerome · 393 · Jerome continues Jovinian's argument: the parable of the sower, Christ's indwelling, the one temple, and the one Church show that all the saved are equal.
  • Poem 6, lines 1–32 (VI. LAVS SANCTI IOHANNIB)Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus invokes Father, Son and Spirit to help him put the gospel story of John the Baptist into verse, as David set earlier words to the lyre, and introduces Zechariah and Elizabeth.
  • Poem 19, lines 129–163Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Isis cannot be a goddess, for the one God is Father, Son and Spirit; Paulinus then lists saints of Africa and the West, Cyprian, the martyrs of Utica, Ambrose, Vincent, Martin and Delphinus, who drive out the ancient dragon.
  • Poem 19, lines 608–636Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus describes the stolen cross: the cross is depicted either as a T-shape like a ship's mast or as a monogram combining the letters of Christ's name, signifying the Trinity and the incarnation.
  • Poem 21, lines 679–710Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Christ, the rock that gave water in the desert, gave water to Felix's shrine; Paulinus prays for the living water and the Spirit's light, and turns to praise the town of Abella.
  • Poem 27, lines 69–102Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · As one musician draws many notes from one instrument, the one God, Father, Son and Spirit, spoke through many tongues at Pentecost, when the ascended Christ poured out the Spirit.
  • Poem 27, lines 257–287Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The three rods signify baptism in the threefold name, by which the church conceives children; allegorically the plane is the Spirit overshadowing Mary, the storax the virgin of David's line, the nut Christ, bitter in the cross and food within.
  • Poem 27, lines 445–476Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The saints' power works even through fragments of relics; guests in the upper cells can come down to pray at any hour; the three entrances signify the Trinity; cisterns collect rainwater for the fountains of the court.
  • Poem 27, lines 477–510Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Even a dry fountain may adorn the court, like Solomon's bronze sea; the new basilica opens on a garden court, and its growth reflects the spreading glory of Christ; Paulinus asks Niceta to pray for him at the liturgy.
  • Poem 32, lines 161–190Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The speaker confesses one God, Father and Son of one substance and power; Christ the Word made the world from chaos, ordering sky, earth, sea and air, above which, beyond seven heavens, God dwells in inaccessible light.
  • Poem 32, lines 191–220Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The world, cosmos or mundus, was made by the Word; believing in one God is not enough without honouring his Word, who is as invisible as the Father, created all things with him, and saves the world.
  • Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Against the Manichaean claim that Genesis 1 conflicts with John 1:10, Augustine argues that the Son, the Word through whom God said “Let it be,” is present in the creation account.
  • Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Augustine answers the contrast between Isaiah's vision of God and Paul's “invisible King” by distinguishing bodily, spiritual (imaginative), and intellectual vision, and notes that Adimantus cut both texts short.
  • Letters 5.19Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus comforts Sulpicius for the sadness of leaving home and closes with blessings and greetings from Therasia and their companions.
  • Letters 16.9Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Iovius only to give himself and his talents to God, saying that knowing God brings self-knowledge, while idolaters lose both.
  • Letters 21.3Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus praises John’s Gospel as the last written but the highest, beginning from the eternal Word, and sets out the Son’s and the Spirit’s equality with the Father.
  • Letters 21.4Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus shows how the prologue of John refutes Arius, Sabellius, Photinus, Marcion, the Manichees and the Gnostics, and how the Word became flesh without ceasing to be God.
  • Letters 23.27Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus reads the goats of the Song of Songs as Christ’s flock and the breasts “better than wine” as the grace of the gospel, sweeter than the strictness of the law.
  • Letters 23.30Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus extends the image of the firs into an allegory of the Christian soul as a ship, with the cross as its yard and Christ as its mast, sailing past the Sirens to the harbor of salvation.
  • Letters 32.10Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus describes his new basilica at Nola, added to Felix’s four, with relics under the altar and an apse mosaic of the Trinity, the cross, and the four evangelists as rivers.
  • Letters 32.13Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · The new basilica faces Felix’s tomb rather than east, and opens into the old basilica through three arches, symbolizing faith in the Trinity.
  • Letters 32.15Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus quotes the inscriptions on the arches joining the old and new basilicas, which liken their union to Christ’s breaking down the dividing wall.
  • Letters 36.4Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · True peace is Christ’s, who joins God and man in himself and, where body and soul agree, dwells with the Father and Spirit in the heart.
  • Letters 37.5Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus affirms that Victricius teaches the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity: one divinity in three distinct, equal persons.
  • On the Faith against the Manichaeans 1Evodius of Uzalis · ca. 400-424 · Evodius opens with a confession of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, creator of all.
  • On the Faith against the Manichaeans 46Evodius of Uzalis · ca. 400-424 · Evodius sets out the catholic faith in the one, unchangeable triune God who creates by will and in mercy restores fallen humanity.
  • Hymn 1, lines 31–60Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 395-413 · The hymn turns to God, the unbegotten Monad beyond being, whose unity unfolds ineffably into a threefold power, and then checks itself from revealing the mysteries to the uninitiated.
  • Hymn 3, lines 181–210Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 395-413 · God is praised in Neoplatonic terms as the One before the One, Monad and number, mind and intelligible, begetter and begotten.
  • Hymn 3, lines 211–240Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 395-413 · The Father pours himself forth to beget the Son, Wisdom and Craftsman; God is hymned as Monad that is Triad and Triad that is Monad, with no 'second' or 'third' ranked below the first.
  • Hymn 3, lines 241–270Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 395-413 · The Spirit proceeds as a mean from the Father; the eternal begetting is beyond time; God upholds holy minds against the darkness of matter and is hymned by all the orders of being.
  • Hymn 4, lines 31–60Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 395-413 · God the Father is praised as source of all, and with him the Son and the Holy Spirit, 'the middle principle'.
  • Hymn 4, lines 61–90Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 395-413 · The Spirit is the outpouring through which the Son, God from God, is brought forth; God is Monad and Triad, the Son the one Word begotten by the Father's mind.
  • Hymn 5, lines 61–75Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 395-413 · The hymn ends with alternating greetings to Father and Son and to the Holy Spirit, 'centre of the Son and the Father', and prays for the Spirit's gifts.
  • Hymn 6, lines 1–30Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 395-413 · Hymn 6 crowns the Son, 'alone from the alone', Wisdom and principle of creation, who governs heaven, angels, and nature and frees mortals from death; it prays for calm, health, and freedom from passion.
  • On the Christian Struggle 15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · The church's brief creed teaches faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God and an eternal Trinity of one substance.
  • On the Christian Struggle 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Augustine rejects those who say the Father alone exists and is merely called Son or Spirit.
  • On the Christian Struggle 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Augustine rejects those who resent the refusal to worship three gods, because they picture God's substance like three separate bodies.
  • On the Christian Struggle 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Augustine rejects the teaching that the Son was made from nothing and the Spirit after him, with three different substances, because it pictures divine generation by earthly images.
  • Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Mani calls himself apostle of Jesus Christ rather than of the Paraclete because he wanted to be taken for the Paraclete himself, as the man Christ was taken up by the Son of God.
  • Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental 37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Only the Son, begotten of the Father, is supremely good; creatures made from nothing are lesser goods, and the rational soul should accept its place below God, while earthly things that now trouble it are a just punishment and a call to return.
  • On Christian Doctrine 1.5Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · The proper object of enjoyment is the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each God and together one God, distinct yet equal.
  • On Christian Doctrine 3.2Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Ambiguities of punctuation are resolved by the rule of faith, then by the context, and where neither decides, the reader may choose, as examples from John 1:1, Phil 1:22–24, and 2 Cor 7:1–2 show.
  • On Christian Doctrine 4.19Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Great matters are spoken in the subdued style when teaching, the temperate when praising or blaming, and the grand when moving the unwilling, as with teaching the Trinity, praising God, and condemning idolatry.
  • On Christian Doctrine 4.21Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Augustine illustrates the three styles from Cyprian and Ambrose: the subdued in Cyprian on the eucharistic cup and Ambrose on the Holy Spirit, the temperate in their praises of virginity, and the grand in their attacks on cosmetics.
  • Confessions 10.68Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Christ is the true Mediator, mortal with men and just with God; as man he mediates, as Word he is equal to God.
  • Confessions 11.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · God's Word is eternal and speaks all things at once, yet the things made by it are not eternal.
  • Confessions 11.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · God made heaven and earth in the Beginning, his Word and Wisdom, which shines on Augustine's heart.
  • Confessions 11.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · God precedes all times not in time but in eternity, an ever-present today.
  • Confessions 12.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · God, the Trinity, made heaven and earth from nothing, not from himself, in his Wisdom, the Son.
  • Confessions 12.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The heaven of heaven, an intellectual creation cleaving to God, and formless matter are both outside the days and times.
  • Confessions 13.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · In Genesis 1:1-2 Augustine finds the Trinity: God the Father, the Beginning (the Son), and the Spirit over the waters.
  • Confessions 13.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Why is the Spirit named only after the waters? Because he had to be described as "borne over" something.
  • Confessions 13.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The Spirit borne over the waters is love, which lifts us up as desire weighs us down.
  • Confessions 13.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The Spirit is God's gift, in whom we rest; "my weight is my love," carrying us upward to God.
  • Confessions 13.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Being, knowing, and willing in the human mind offer a distant analogy for the Trinity, which surpasses all understanding.
  • Confessions 13.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine reads Genesis 1 of the church: the call to repentance is the "let there be light" of the new creation in baptism.
  • Confessions 13.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · God alone knows himself as he is; the soul, like dry earth, cannot enlighten or satisfy itself.
  • Confessions 13.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Man is made in God's image, not "according to kind"; the renewed mind learns directly from God and sees the Trinity.
  • Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine reads the dates and numbers of the flood (27, 7, 15, 150) as figures of the Trinity in the soul, of the saints’ rest and resurrection, and of baptism.
  • Against Faustus the Manichaean 15.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine contrasts the Trinity with the Manichaeans' many gods, explains that biblical images of delight are figures, and mocks the Manichaean claim that Mani spoke plainly while they believe in fantastic deities.
  • Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that Christ's appeal to the law's two witnesses itself points to Moses' prophecy of the Father and the Son, and that the Jews' silence proves nothing.
  • Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus sets out the Manichaean creed: one deity, the Father in the highest light, the Son’s power in the sun and wisdom in the moon, the Spirit in the air, and the suffering Jesus hanging from every tree.
  • Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine ridicules the Manichaean teaching that the sun is a ship shining through a triangular window and denounces their myth of beautiful figures displayed to arouse the princes of darkness.
  • Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that the Manichaeans can only imagine bodily light, distinguishes the light of the mind from physical light and both from God, and objects that they divide the Trinity among four places.
  • Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that Faustus’s profession of one deity under three names cannot stand, since the Manichaeans have many distinct gods with different works.
  • Against Faustus the Manichaean 32.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine denies the parallel between Christ’s use of the Old Testament and the Manichaean Paraclete’s use of the New, since the true Paraclete was sent at Pentecost, as Acts records.
  • Canon 20Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Bishops may not let presbyters make the chrism; the subscriptions follow, then the heading and creed of the later Rule of Faith against the Priscillianists.
  • Canon 21.2Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Anathema on those who identify the Father with the Son or the Spirit.
  • Canon 21.3Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Anathema on those who identify the Son with the Father or the Spirit.
  • Canon 21.4Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Anathema on those who identify the Spirit with the Father or the Son.
  • Canon 21.14Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Anathema on those who say something divine exists beyond the Trinity.
  • Tractates 7Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · Against Marcion and Mani, who called the God of the Law evil, Gaudentius defends the law of unleavened bread as a memorial of the Exodus and reads the leaven as corrupting teaching and the bitter herbs as the self-denial of the Christian life.
  • Tractates 9Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · Continuing on Cana: Mary, called 'woman' by sex, remained a virgin in giving birth as Christ entered through closed doors; the six stone jars are the dead senses of the Gentiles filled by baptism, the steward of the feast is Moses, and the Spirit's gifts show the equal power of the Trinity.
  • Tractates 14Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · On John 14:25–26: the sending of the Paraclete shows both the distinction of the persons and the one omnipresent divinity of the Trinity, as Psalm 139 confesses; the incarnation is to be received in faith, not probed by curiosity.
  • Tractates 19Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · A letter to the deacon Paul on John 14:28 ('the Father is greater than I'): against the Arians, Gaudentius distinguishes Christ's two substances, divine and human, showing from the Gospels the works of God and the weaknesses of man in him, and reads the saying of the assumed manhood before its glorification (Phil 2:6–11).
  • Homily 2.1 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom urges reverence in speaking of God and explains how Heb 1:2–3 (“radiance”, “imprint”, “upholding all things”) excludes both Sabellian and Arian errors.
  • Homily 2.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom shows how “through whom,” “heir,” “radiance” and “imprint” together refute Paul of Samosata, Arius, Sabellius, Marcellus, Photinus and Marcion, and observes that no name can express God’s essence.
  • Homily 2.3 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 1:3–5, Chrysostom explains Christ’s upholding of creation, his session at the Father’s right hand, and his sonship, then warns against pride and praises the freedom of poverty over wealth.
  • Homily 2.4 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · The waters above the heavens keep the heaven from burning and turn the light downward; the human head and senses mirror the elements and the mind is God's image; Severian then reports a heretic who wanted “Lord Sabaoth” removed from the Sanctus.
  • Homily 2.5 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · Severian explains Isaiah's vision as God's reconciliation with a prophet who had kept silent when Uzziah usurped the priesthood, and reads the Seraphim's covered head and feet and their threefold “Holy” as lessons about God's incomprehensibility and the one Lord.
  • Homily 4.4 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · Against the objection that one begotten cannot always have existed, Severian argues that human fatherhood comes by stages bound to bodies and time, whereas the bodiless Father is always Father and the Son co-eternal, begotten without passion in a manner beyond knowing.
  • Homily 4.5 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · God prepared food and dwelling before bringing in man, as the Scriptures went before Christ; he left the prophets with the Jews so that the Christian proof from them would be above suspicion; and “Let us make man” points to the Son, not to the angels.
  • Homily 4.6 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · God, who made countless angels without counsel, would not need angels to advise him in making man; “Let us make” shows the plurality of the divine persons and “according to our image” their one substance, against Jews and heretics alike.
  • Homily 5.2 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · The Holy Spirit shares with the Father and the Son in the counsel “Let us make,” as one will and substance; the Spirit's part in baptism and resurrection proves its part in creation.
  • On Catechizing the Uninstructed 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · The model address ends with the resurrection of the body, eternal punishment and the eternal vision of the Trinity, and warnings against temptations from pagans, heretics, Jews, and especially bad Christians within the Church, urging the candidate to join the good and hope in God alone.
  • On Catechizing the Uninstructed 27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · The short model address recounts the fulfilment of prophecy from the flood and Abraham to Christ, the Church, its persecutions and heresies, then the coming judgment and resurrection, and urges the candidate to love God freely, join the good, bear with the bad, and hope in God alone.
  • Against Secundinus the Manichaean 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Augustine distinguishes Christ as only-begotten Son by nature from Christ as firstborn among brothers who are sons of God by adoption, against a Manichaean reading of “firstborn” as eldest of consubstantial lights.
  • Against Secundinus the Manichaean 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · From Romans 1:25 Augustine argues that Creator and creature are of different substances, while the Son, being of one substance with the Father, is not a creature, and explains “only-begotten” and “firstborn” accordingly.
  • Against Secundinus the Manichaean 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Augustine argues that creation, being changeable, was made from nothing by the Trinity, and uses Secundinus's own account of the soul choosing between the spirits of virtue and vice to show that the soul is changeable and so not of God's substance.
  • On the Nature of the Good 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Augustine confirms from Scripture that God is unchangeable, that the Son begotten of him is what he is, and that the Son, through whom all things were made, was not made.
  • On the Trinity 1.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine states his plan: first to show from Scripture that the Trinity is the one true God of one substance, then to offer reasoning for those who demand it.
  • On the Trinity 1.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine sums up the catholic teaching: Father, Son and Spirit are one God of one substance and work inseparably, yet only the Son was born and crucified, only the Spirit came as a dove and as tongues of fire, and only the Father's voice spoke from heaven.
  • On the Trinity 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine sets out the questions that trouble people: how three are one God, how the Trinity can work inseparably when only the Son became flesh, and how the Spirit is in the Trinity though not begotten.
  • On the Trinity 1.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine proves from Scripture that the Son is true God of the same substance as the Father, that texts such as 'who alone has immortality' refer to the whole Trinity, and that the Holy Spirit is not a creature, since he receives the service due to God alone.
  • On the Trinity 1.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine gives his rule for reading Scripture about Christ: in the form of God the Son is equal to the Father, in the form of a servant he is less, as Philippians 2 teaches, without either nature being changed into the other.
  • On the Trinity 1.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that the Son's being 'subjected' to the Father and 'handing over the kingdom' (1 Cor 15) mean that Christ will bring believers to the contemplation of God, in which Father, Son and Spirit are seen together, since none of them can be shown or enjoyed apart from the others.
  • On the Trinity 1.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that Christ's going away was needed so that the disciples would stop seeing only his servant form, and that whenever one person of the Trinity is said to be shown or to dwell in believers, the others are included.
  • On the Trinity 1.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that when Christ hands over the kingdom, believers will pass from faith to the contemplation of the whole Trinity, prefigured by Mary of Bethany, and Christ as priest will no longer need to intercede for them.
  • On the Trinity 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine applies his rule to a series of texts: according to the form of God the Son is equal to the Father, according to the form of a servant he is less than the Father, than himself, and even than the Holy Spirit.
  • On the Trinity 1.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains, by his rule of the two forms, sayings in which Christ seems to deny knowledge of the last day, the power to give places of glory, his own judgment, his own teaching, and faith in himself.
  • On the Trinity 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine argues that at the judgment Christ will appear to good and wicked alike in the form of the Son of Man, while the vision of his divine form, the highest good and eternal life, is reserved for the pure in heart; this explains 'the Father judges no one' and 'no one is good but God alone.'
  • On the Trinity 2.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine adds a third rule for reading Scripture about the Son: some texts show neither inequality nor equality but only that the Son is from the Father, so that they express his birth, not his inferiority.
  • On the Trinity 2.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine says that ambiguous texts such as 'My teaching is not mine' can safely be read either of the servant form or of the Son's being from the Father, since the Son himself is the teaching.
  • On the Trinity 2.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine shows that the Spirit's not speaking 'of himself' refers to his procession from the Father, not to inferiority, and postpones the question why the Spirit is not called a son.
  • On the Trinity 2.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine answers the argument that the Father is greater because he glorifies the Son: the Spirit also glorifies the Son, and the Son glorifies the Father, so mutual glorifying implies equality.
  • On the Trinity 2.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine argues that being sent does not make the Son or the Spirit less: both are sent to where they already were, and 'sending' means their visible appearance in a creature, which the invisible Father and Son brought about together.
  • On the Trinity 2.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains why the Spirit is never called less than the Father: the dove and the fire were not united to the Spirit as Christ's humanity was united to the Word, but were passing signs, like the burning bush and the pillar of cloud.
  • On the Trinity 2.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine raises the question of the Old Testament theophanies: was it the Father, the Son, the Spirit, or the whole Trinity that appeared to the fathers, did God appear through a creature formed for the purpose or through angels, and were the Son and Spirit 'sent' before the incarnation?
  • On the Trinity 2.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine dismisses those who think the Son, as Word and Wisdom, is changeable and visible, noting that even the created soul is invisible and that texts on the 'invisible, only God' refer to the whole Trinity.
  • On the Trinity 2.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine reports the view that the Son was visible and changeable, and so 'mortal', even before the incarnation, rejects it, and sets the question whether the theophanies were of God without distinction, of one person, or of each person in turn.
  • On the Trinity 2.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine examines the appearances of God to Adam and to Abraham and finds that Scripture does not make clear whether the Father, the Son, the Spirit, or the Trinity spoke, noting that the three men at Mamre are addressed both as three and as one Lord.
  • On the Trinity 2.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine suggests that the three equal men at Mamre visibly intimate the equality of the Trinity, one substance in three persons, rather than the Son alone with two angels.
  • On the Trinity 2.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine notes that Lot addresses the two angels both as 'lords' and as 'Lord,' and suggests that they may signify the Son and the Holy Spirit, since they said they were sent.
  • On the Trinity 2.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine discusses the burning bush, where the 'angel of the Lord' speaks as God, and leaves open whether an angel bore the person of the Son, the Spirit, the Father, or the Trinity, or whether a creature was formed for the occasion.
  • On the Trinity 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine says that God plainly appeared through a creature in the pillar of cloud and fire, but that Scripture does not show which person, or whether the Trinity, appeared.
  • On the Trinity 2.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine argues that the fire, cloud and voices at Sinai were creatures serving the Creator, not God's substance, and tentatively suggests that the Holy Spirit is signified there, since the Law was written by the 'finger of God' and given fifty days after the Passover, as the Spirit came fifty days after Easter.
  • On the Trinity 2.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine notes that although the Lord spoke with Moses 'face to face,' Moses still asked to see God himself, showing that what he saw bodily was not God's substance, which cannot be seen with bodily eyes.
  • On the Trinity 2.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine interprets God's 'back parts' shown to Moses as Christ's flesh, seen by faith in his resurrection from the 'rock' of the catholic Church, and his 'face' as the form of God that no one can see in this life; he concludes that the Father too may have appeared through creatures, since the visions signified God without showing his substance.
  • On the Trinity 2.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine points to Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man as evidence that the Father too appeared in bodily form, and concludes that one should not rashly say which person appeared in a theophany unless the context gives probable indications, since God's essence itself cannot be seen.
  • On the Trinity 3.0Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · In the prologue to Book 3 Augustine explains why he writes on the Trinity, asks readers not to treat his books like Scripture and correctors to correct him from Scripture and sound reason, and recapitulates the questions about the sendings and the theophanies left from Book 2.
  • On the Trinity 3.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine turns to the second question, whether theophanies were made through creatures formed for the purpose or through angels, leaving aside how angels assume or transform bodies, and affirms that God's will reaches through spiritual creatures to all visible effects.
  • On the Trinity 3.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine concludes from Hebrews, Acts and Galatians that the Old Testament theophanies and even the giving of the Law were done through angels speaking or acting in the person of God, never through God's own substance, and leaves for the next book the difference between these and the sendings of the Son and the Spirit.
  • On the Trinity 4.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine introduces Christ's prayer in John 17 that believers may be one as the Father and the Son are one.
  • On the Trinity 4.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that Christ asks that believers be one in him, as the Father and the Son are one in substance and will, through a common nature and a common will united by love.
  • On the Trinity 4.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine defines the Son's sending as everything done in time to produce cleansing faith; all creation bore witness to him; he was sent as made of a woman, lesser insofar as made, yet equal to the Father who sends; and before and even after the incarnation his divinity was not seen.
  • On the Trinity 4.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that the Son is sent not because he is less but because he is from the Father, as Wisdom is the 'brightness of eternal light' equal to its source; sending means being made known in time, by the incarnation or in the mind; the Father is never sent, since he is from no one; and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and also from the Son, the Father being the principle of the whole deity.
  • On the Trinity 4.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that the inseparable Trinity is shown separably through visible creatures, as memory, understanding and will together produce each of their names; he restates that pre-incarnation theophanies were done through angels, that the Word became man with a human body and rational soul, and that being sent implies no inequality, closing Book 4.
  • On the Trinity 5.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine begins his reply to the Arians by asking God's help and the reader's patience, and teaches that God must be thought of without the categories of bodily things.
  • On the Trinity 5.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · God is substance or essence in the truest sense, because he alone is unchangeable being, as his name “I am who I am” shows.
  • On the Trinity 5.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine states the Arian argument that “unbegotten” and “begotten” name different substances, and answers it from John 10:30 and Phil 2:6.
  • On the Trinity 5.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · An accident is something that can be lost or changed; since nothing in God can be lost, increased, or decreased, there is no accident in God.
  • On the Trinity 5.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · In God nothing is said by accident, but not everything is said by substance: “Father” and “Son” are said relatively, and this eternal relation is not an accident.
  • On the Trinity 5.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine answers the objection that “unbegotten” is said absolutely: the Son is equal to the Father only by what is said of him in himself, so they share one substance, and “unbegotten” only denies a relation.
  • On the Trinity 5.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Adding a negative does not change a term's category, so “unbegotten” (“not begotten,” “not son”) remains a term of relation and does not show a different substance.
  • On the Trinity 5.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · What is said of God absolutely is said of each person and of the Trinity in the singular (one God, one great, one good, one Almighty); Augustine notes that the Greeks say “one ousia, three hypostases.”
  • On the Trinity 5.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Latin usage says “one essence or substance, three persons,” not “three substances”; “persons” is said not to express the mystery but so as not to be silent.
  • On the Trinity 5.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · God is not great by sharing in greatness but is his own greatness, so we speak of one greatness and one great one, and likewise for goodness, eternity, and omnipotence.
  • On the Trinity 5.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Names proper to each person are relative; the Holy Spirit is so called relatively as the gift of the Father and the Son, a kind of unspeakable communion of both.
  • On the Trinity 5.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · That there is no matching term (“Father of the Spirit”) does not stop the Spirit's name being relative; the correspondence is “gift of the giver” and “giver of the gift.”
  • On the Trinity 5.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each called “beginning” in relation to creation, yet together they are one beginning, as one Creator and one God.
  • On the Trinity 5.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Father begets the Son; the Spirit goes forth not as born but as given, and so the Father and the Son are one beginning of the Holy Spirit.
  • On the Trinity 5.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Holy Spirit proceeds eternally as one who can be given, and so is eternally a gift, though he is “given” only in time.
  • On the Trinity 5.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Names said of God from a point in time, such as Lord, refuge, or Father of the adopted, are relative and imply change only in creatures, never in God's unchangeable substance.
  • On the Trinity 6.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine examines an anti-Arian argument from 1 Cor 1:24 that seems to imply the Father is wise only by the wisdom he begot.
  • On the Trinity 6.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine tests where the argument leads: if the Father were wise only with the Son, then neither would be God without the other, and he examines John 1:1 and “God from God” on that view.
  • On the Trinity 6.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Scripture calls things “one” without qualification only when they share one nature; the Father and the Son are one in substance, and equality in any one attribute means equality in all.
  • On the Trinity 6.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · As the virtues in a mind cannot be unequal one by one, so in the simple divine substance the Son, equal in one thing, is equal in all and of one substance with the Father.
  • On the Trinity 6.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Holy Spirit, the common love or communion of the Father and the Son, is equal and consubstantial with them: lover, beloved, and love itself.
  • On the Trinity 6.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · God's many attributes are one in him, and the Trinity is not “threefold”; the Father is “alone” Father only in that both are not Father together.
  • On the Trinity 6.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Each person is as great as the three together, because perfection cannot grow by joining; God is therefore a Trinity, not threefold.
  • On the Trinity 6.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine asks how John 17:3 (“you, the one true God”) and 1 Cor 11:3 (“the head of Christ is God”) fit with the one God being the whole Trinity, and defers a full answer.
  • On the Trinity 6.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine interprets Hilary's formula “eternity in the Father, form in the Image, use in the Gift,” finding in it the Spirit as the delight of Father and Son, and a trace of the Trinity in the unity, form, and order of creatures.
  • On the Trinity 7.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine shows that if the Father were wise only by the wisdom he begot, he would not even exist in himself; so the Father is himself wisdom, and the Son is wisdom from wisdom, one wisdom and one essence.
  • On the Trinity 7.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Father and the Son are together one essence and one wisdom, but not one Word or one Son, since “Word” and “Son” are relative terms; the Word is “born wisdom.”
  • On the Trinity 7.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Scripture speaks of wisdom chiefly as the Son because he is the Image we are to imitate; yet the Father and the Holy Spirit are also wisdom and light, and the three are one wisdom, one essence, one God.
  • On the Trinity 7.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that “person” (Latin) and “hypostasis/substance” (Greek) are words found by necessity to answer “three what?”, though no specific or general name properly fits the three.
  • On the Trinity 7.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Strictly, “substance” fits changeable things that underlie accidents; God is called substance only loosely and is properly essence, so “three persons” may be more fitting than “three substances.”
  • On the Trinity 7.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Neither genus–species nor common matter (three statues from one gold) explains “three persons, one essence”; Augustine shows how Scripture's plurals signify relations and how man is made “to the image” of the Trinity, and urges faith where understanding fails.
  • On the Trinity 8.0Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine sums up the earlier books: relative names belong to each person, what is said absolutely is said of the one God, and no person is less than the Trinity; he will now treat the same truths more inwardly, holding by faith what is not yet understood.
  • On the Trinity 8.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · In God greatness is truth, and no person is more truly than another, so two or three persons together are not greater than one.
  • On the Trinity 8.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · We believe Christ's virgin birth and resurrection through our general knowledge of such things, but we have no such knowledge of any other trinity or God, so Augustine asks how we can love the Trinity we do not yet know.
  • On the Trinity 8.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Whoever loves his brother knows love, and God is love; so in brotherly love God is known, and the two commandments cannot be separated.
  • On the Trinity 8.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Love involves three, the lover, the beloved, and love; Augustine pauses here as at the place where the search for the Trinity must begin.
  • On the Trinity 9.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine insists that we are still seeking: holding firmly by faith that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God, we seek to understand without rash affirmation.
  • On the Trinity 9.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Turning to man as an unequal image of God, Augustine finds that when the mind loves itself there seem to be only two, mind and love, which are relatively two but one spirit.
  • On the Trinity 9.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Mind, its love, and its knowledge are three and one, and when perfect, equal; love and knowledge exist substantially, not as accidents, and are neither parts of the mind nor mixed together.
  • On the Trinity 9.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · In mind, knowledge, and love each is in itself, each in the others, and all in all, inseparable yet each a substance, and all together one substance.
  • On the Trinity 9.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Knowledge is like what it knows; our knowledge of God is an unequal likeness, but the mind's knowledge of itself is its perfectly equal word and image.
  • On the Trinity 9.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Love is not called begotten like knowledge because it proceeds as the desire that seeks and then embraces knowledge; so mind, knowledge (its word), and love are an image of the Trinity, three and one substance.
  • On the Trinity 10.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Memory, understanding, and will are three by their mutual relations but one life, one mind, one essence, each containing the others wholly, and so equal.
  • On the Trinity 10.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Before ascending to God, Augustine proposes to show memory, understanding, and will more distinctly in the mind's knowledge of outward things acquired in time, in the next book.
  • On the Trinity 11.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine proposes to look for a trace of the Trinity even in the outer man, starting with the sense of sight.
  • On the Trinity 11.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · In bodily sight three distinct things, the visible body, the vision formed in the sense, and the will that joins them, come together into a kind of unity.
  • On the Trinity 11.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · When the body is absent, a second trinity arises within: the image held in memory, the inner vision of thought, and the will that joins them.
  • On the Trinity 11.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The inner trinity of memory, inner vision, and will parallels the outer one, but its three members are of one substance, since all of it is one mind.
  • On the Trinity 11.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The outer trinity is not the image of God, though like every good thing it bears some likeness to God, and in it the will faintly suggests the person of the Spirit.
  • On the Trinity 11.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · In the inner trinity the image in memory and the image in thought are only figuratively parent and offspring, and the will, which presupposes some memory of what it seeks, is neither.
  • On the Trinity 11.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Four appearances arise in sequence from the body to thought, and the will joins each pair, but only two of these joinings form trinities properly so called.
  • On the Trinity 11.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Measure belongs to memory, number to vision, and weight to will; Augustine now turns to seek the image of God in the inner man.
  • On the Trinity 12.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The trinity must be sought in the whole mind, but the image of God is found only in the part that contemplates eternal things.
  • On the Trinity 12.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine rejects the view that man, woman, and child form the image of the Trinity, though he grants that the woman, coming from the man without being his daughter, shows that not every procession is a begetting.
  • On the Trinity 12.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · From Gen 1:26–27 Augustine shows that man was made in the image of the whole Trinity, the one God, and that Scripture does not place that image in father, mother, and child.
  • On the Trinity 12.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Interpreting 1 Cor 11:7 with Gen 1:27, Augustine holds that woman as well as man is the image of God in the rational mind, where there is no sex, and reads the veil as a figure of reason directed to temporal things.
  • On the Trinity 13.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine raises the question how we are justified by Christ's blood if the Father already loved us before the world was made, and affirms that Father, Son, and Spirit act together.
  • On the Trinity 13.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine sums up: happiness requires faith in Christ, and the faith held in memory, recalled, and loved forms a trinity in the inner man, though not yet the image of God.
  • On the Trinity 14.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The trinity formed by remembering, contemplating, and loving our faith is not yet the image of God, because faith will pass away when we see face to face.
  • On the Trinity 14.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The image of God must lie in something as lasting as the immortal soul; the later memory of our faith would form a different trinity, as the memory of a vanished body differs from seeing it.
  • On the Trinity 14.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The image of God is in the rational soul, which can know God; it always remains, though it may be deformed, and the mind always knows itself.
  • On the Trinity 14.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The mind is in its own sight only when it thinks of itself, yet it always knows itself as a kind of memory of itself; from this Augustine sets out the trinity of memory, understanding, and will.
  • On the Trinity 14.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The mind knows many things it is not thinking of; in its inner memory, understanding, and will of itself, joined through the inner word of thought, lies the image of the Trinity, which Books 11–13 prepared for.
  • On the Trinity 14.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The mind remembering, understanding, and loving itself is the image of God, not a trinity formed from adventitious things that enter the mind in time, such as learned facts or faith.
  • On the Trinity 14.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Unlike knowledge of temporal things, which follows its objects in time, the mind has always remembered, understood, and loved itself; when it thinks of itself a trinity with an inner word arises, and there the image is to be recognized.
  • On the Trinity 14.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The mind's trinity is the image of God because it can remember, understand, and love its Maker; doing so is wisdom, while not to be with God, in whom we exist, is great misery.
  • On the Trinity 14.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Rightly loving itself, the mind loves God; though weak and erring it never loses memory, understanding, and love of itself, and when it clings to God it will be one spirit with him and unchangeable.
  • On the Trinity 14.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The image of the Trinity will be perfected by the sight of God after the judgment, which is eternal life; Cicero's praise of contemplative philosophy falls short without faith in the Mediator.
  • On the Trinity 15.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Having reached the mind as God's image, Augustine turns to what is above it, God, and proposes to show by reason as well as Scripture that God is a Trinity.
  • On the Trinity 15.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · God, though incomprehensible, is to be sought always, faith seeking and understanding finding; and it was right to seek traces of the Trinity in creatures first, as Wisdom 13 shows.
  • On the Trinity 15.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine summarizes the argument of the previous fourteen books of On the Trinity.
  • On the Trinity 15.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Since everything said of God applies to the whole Trinity and to each person, and in God's simple nature all attributes are his substance, Augustine reduces the many attributes to three: eternal, wise, and happy.
  • On the Trinity 15.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine asks how God, who is simply wisdom, can be understood as a Trinity, recalls the course of the earlier books, and proposes wisdom, its self-knowledge, and its self-love as a trinity like that in the human mind.
  • On the Trinity 15.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The trinity in the human mind is something a man has, not what he is, and its three operate only through one another, whereas each divine person is himself memory, understanding, and love; God's timeless knowledge surpasses all comprehension.
  • On the Trinity 15.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · God learns nothing through senses or messengers but knows all things eternally, and creatures exist because he knows them; so our knowledge and word are far unlike his knowledge and the Word born of the Father's essence.
  • On the Trinity 15.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Word, wholly what the Father is but not the Father, knows all things from the Father as he is from him, and Father and Son see all things at once.
  • On the Trinity 15.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Our word, unlike the divine Word, can be false, is not our essence, and depends on passing thought, so only God has a Word eternal and coeternal with himself.
  • On the Trinity 15.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Though each person is love, as each is wisdom, the Holy Spirit is properly called love, the common love of Father and Son, proceeding principally from the Father and also from the Son; 1 John 4 shows this.
  • On the Trinity 15.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Love is the greatest gift of God, without which no other gift profits, and the love that is from God and is God is properly the Holy Spirit, rightly called the Gift of God.
  • On the Trinity 15.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Scripture calls the Holy Spirit the Gift of God (John 4 and 7, Eph 4, Acts); he is given yet gives himself as God, and he is properly called love as the Spirit common to Father and Son, though not the only love in the Trinity.
  • On the Trinity 15.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine refutes Eunomius's claim that the Son is a son of God's will rather than of his nature, and sums up: the human mind's memory, understanding, and will are an image, though a very unlike one, of the Trinity.
  • On the Trinity 15.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine recalls how memory and understanding suggested the Father and the Son, and will or love the Holy Spirit, while noting that each of the three in the mind contains the others.
  • On the Trinity 15.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · In man memory, understanding, and love belong to one person who has them, whereas the one God is three persons.
  • On the Trinity 15.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The trinity of one human person is only an unequal image of the three-personed God, whose persons are more inseparable than the mind's three powers; we see the Trinity now through the image, later face to face.
  • On the Trinity 15.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Those who belong to Christ, freed by his blood from the devil's power, rest in peace until the resurrection and will then see clearly why the Holy Spirit is not a Son, a question Augustine admits he could not illustrate adequately.
  • On the Trinity 15.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Spirit of both Father and Son proceeds from both without time, principally from the Father, who gave the Son in begetting him that the Spirit proceed from him too; Christ gave the Spirit twice, as God, and received him as man from his conception.
  • On the Trinity 15.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Quoting his own sermon, Augustine explains why the Spirit proceeds from both and is not a son; those who cannot see this should believe Scripture and seek understanding, and his soul, still wounded, cannot yet fix its gaze on the light.
  • On the Trinity 15.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine ends the work with a prayer to the triune God, confessing the faith he has sought to understand and asking pardon for his many words.
  • On Baptism, against the Donatists 3.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · The integrity of the sacrament does not depend on the faith of the recipient: Catholics baptized with defective beliefs, like the carnal Corinthians or a catechumen misled by a heretical book, are corrected, not rebaptized.
  • On Baptism, against the Donatists 3.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · If Marcion baptized in the name of the Trinity, the sacrament was entire though his faith was not; the same holds for all with defective beliefs. Jeremiah’s “lying water” means a faithless people, not heretical baptism.
  • On Baptism, against the Donatists 4.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Neither the heretic nor the greedy Catholic becomes a temple of God, since greed is idolatry; yet neither is unbaptized, for the sacrament consecrated by the gospel words remains holy.
  • On Baptism, against the Donatists 4.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Against Cyprian’s argument that blasphemers of the Father cannot baptize in Christ, Augustine notes that many baptized within, including those baptized as infants, held false ideas of God; error is corrected, but the true sacrament is not repeated.
  • On Baptism, against the Donatists 6.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · The opinion of Monnulus of Girba: heretics have neither Father, Son, nor Spirit, and so must be born again in the church’s baptism.
  • On Baptism, against the Donatists 6.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Against Monnulus: all baptized with the gospel words have the Trinity in the sacrament, but not in heart and life, which even the wicked within lack.
  • On Baptism, against the Donatists 6.69Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · The opinion of Eucratius of Thenae: heretics’ baptism, blaspheming the Trinity, must be refuted, and they must be baptized in the church.
  • On Baptism, against the Donatists 6.70Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Baptism without the Trinitarian name is to be rejected; where the name is present, the gospel words are to be distinguished from heretical error and approved.
  • The Harmony of the Gospels 1.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · John, unlike the other three, sets out above all Christ's divinity, equal with the Father, as one who drank it from the Lord's breast.
  • The Harmony of the Gospels 1.53Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Christ, the wisdom of God, became man so that by faith in temporal things we might be cleansed and reach eternal truth; he is the mediator between God and humanity.
  • The Harmony of the Gospels 2.85Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The Beelzebul controversy agrees in all three; Luke's 'finger of God' for Matthew's 'Spirit of God' shows what the finger of God means in Scripture.
  • The Harmony of the Gospels 3.79Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The angel's words in Matthew and Mark suggest the disciples would see Christ first in Galilee, yet Mark records appearances in Jerusalem and Matthew only the one in Galilee.
  • The Harmony of the Gospels 4.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · In John Christ says he will raise the temple of his body himself, showing that he raised himself as one God with the Father.
  • The Harmony of the Gospels 4.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · At the healing of the man ill thirty-eight years, Christ's words 'My Father is working, and I am working' show his equality with the Father.
  • The Harmony of the Gospels 4.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · In John Christ answers his brothers about his time, and at the feast speaks of being known by origin in the flesh but unknown in divinity, and of giving the Spirit.
  • The Harmony of the Gospels 4.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · John's blind man, Good Shepherd discourse, Dedication feast, and raising of Lazarus show Christ's divinity; at Bethany he rejoins the others.
  • The Harmony of the Gospels 4.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · John rises highest in Christ's discourses, especially at the Last Supper, and walks with the others only rarely, presenting Christ's divinity and the Spirit as also the Son's.
  • Against the Letters of Petilian 2.72Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Petilian divides baptism into three stages, John's water, Christ's Spirit, and the Paraclete's fire, and denies the Catholics all three.
  • Against the Letters of Petilian 2.75Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · John assigns water to himself and both Spirit and fire to Christ; and Paul's rebaptism of John's disciples shows John's water was not part of Christ's baptism.
  • Against the Letters of Petilian 2.76Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · The Spirit breathed by Christ and the Spirit given at Pentecost are one Spirit, given by the same Christ; Acts 1:5 refutes Petilian's three stages.
  • Against the Letters of Petilian 2.77Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Petilian argues that Catholics cannot baptize in the name of the Trinity because they lack peace, imitation of the Son, and the Spirit.
  • Against the Letters of Petilian 2.78Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · By Petilian's rule, Optatus could not baptize in the Trinity's name; but baptism is God's and stays holy even in wicked men.
  • Against the Letters of Petilian 3.48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Augustine summarizes the rest of Petilian's letter: attacks on monasticism, on Augustine's statement that Christ baptizes, magicians' names, and the case of Optatus.
  • Against the Letters of Petilian 3.58Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · If God or an angel cleanses when the minister is secretly bad, those so baptized are better off; the only escape is to deny that the minister cleanses at all.
  • Homily 2, section 6Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · The Spirit borne over the waters is the Holy Spirit, who, as a Syrian teacher explained, brooded over them like a hen to give them life.
  • Homily 3, section 2Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · God does not speak with a voice as humans do; Scripture shows God 'speaking' to point to the Word, the Only-begotten, who worked with him in creation.
  • Homily 6, section 2Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · The sun and moon were made only on the fourth day so that no one would worship them; 'God said' and 'God made' show two persons, and the lights are vehicles for the light created first.
  • Homily 9, section 6Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · Faith overcomes harmful creatures; turning to man, 'Let us make man in our image' shows the Son as the Father's co-worker and single image, against Jewish readings (angels) and those who call the Son unlike the Father.
  • Opusculum 2.110Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · The Spirit is unchanging and given fully in baptism; we are enlightened as we remove the passions.
  • Opusculum 4.0Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Baptism is perfect and frees from Adam's sin; sin after baptism comes from neglect of the commandments, which reveal the grace hidden in the baptized.
  • Opusculum 6.21Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Beyond Scripture's verbal veils one must seek the Word himself, not his garments.
  • Opusculum 10.11Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · No prophet, apostle, martyr, or father called Melchizedek God; the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ alone.
  • Preface, lines 1–30Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The opening hymn confesses one God in three, the Son begotten from the Father’s heart as Wisdom and the eternal Spirit, with their distinct works; the preface asks Christ whether the faith held is right, for the narrow way of salvation is beset by the winding paths of heresy.
  • Poem, lines 1–30Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Against the Patripassians, who make the Father suffer and die: the Father has never been seen; whoever in Scripture saw God (Abraham, Jacob, Moses) saw the Son, who shows the Father in forms men can grasp.
  • Poem, lines 61–90Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Only the Son, the image of God, is seen; the Father, the fountain of the godhead, is invisible; the divine nature of the Word is impassible and eternal, and the scourging, spitting and nails fell on the flesh of the man he assumed.
  • Poem, lines 91–120Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Christ’s flesh, born of the Virgin, hungered, suffered and feared death; the Patripassians wrongly make the Father incarnate; Scripture says the Word, not the Father, became flesh; the Father is present everywhere through the Word and is seen in the Son.
  • Poem, lines 151–180Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The Word took human flesh so that man might become spiritual and immortal; the Son of man alone sees the Father; the Father did not come down into flesh, but the flesh went up to the Father; Sabellius, who denies the Son, also destroys the Father.
  • Poem, lines 211–240Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Christians, who have touched the wounds of the risen Jesus and seen the prophecies fulfilled, confess the Father who begot a king, Christ, God and man, who descended to death and rose to carry humanity to the Father; they confess Father, Son and Spirit, three yet one God, the Father not being the Son.
  • Poem, lines 241–270Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The Father is not his own Son; the Son is begotten of the Father and equal to him, as shown by their identical works; the manner of the eternal generation is beyond human search, but it is known that the unbegotten Father begot the Son, whole of whole, co-eternal, without division or diminution.
  • Poem, lines 271–300Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · God loses nothing by begetting, but is light from light; the Father was always Father, and Christ is co-eternal with him; whoever doubts this is no catholic; Moses, taught by God himself, shows that the Father created man together with Christ.
  • Poem, lines 301–330Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · In creation God worked with God, for man was made in the image of Christ, the Father’s image; ‘the Lord rained fire from the Lord’ on Sodom shows the Son acting with the Father; Israel, having made the golden calf, could not see Christ veiled in the Law, but Christians see him with unveiled face.
  • Poem, lines 781–810Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The soul is not God but a creature, the greatest of creatures, made in God’s likeness as a shadow resembles a body; only the Son, begotten not made, is true God co-eternal with the Father; God is boundless, the soul limited.
  • Hymn 3, lines 1–32Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Before the meal the poet invokes Christ, the cross-bearer and Word, begotten of the Father before creation and born of a virgin, to bless food and drink, so that all the table’s talk and actions are governed by the Trinity; his Muse is to wear the garland of God’s praise instead of ivy.
  • Hymn 4, lines 1–32Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · After the meal the tongue praises the Father, eternal Lord of the Cherubim and Seraphim, and the Spirit sent by Christ and the Father, who dwells in chaste hearts as a temple but flees from vice and gluttony.
  • Hymn 5, lines 129–152Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The faithful keep the night vigil with prayers and offerings by the light of hanging lamps, offering to God the light he gave, and end with a doxology to the Father through Christ in threefold power.
  • Hymn 6, lines 1–32Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Before sleep the poet invokes the Trinity, Father, Word and Spirit, one power and one light, and describes sleep as God’s healing gift, during which the mind roams free and sees hidden things.
  • Poem, lines 1–30Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Against Cain’s heir Marcion, the poet argues that the world’s mixture of good and evil does not imply two gods, since a divided supreme power cannot be supreme; the faith confesses one full God, in whom Christ is.
  • Poem, lines 31–60Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · God the Father is the one source of all things and of number itself; the Son, begotten one from one before all time and not adopted, is the true form of the Father, so that the Godhead is one, which Marcion’s two lords deny.
  • Poem, lines 61–90Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · God has set the one sun before human eyes as a sign: though it has three powers, light, heat and motion, it is one substance, so no one should believe in two gods; seeing double is a disease of the eye and of the mind.
  • Poem, lines 151–180Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Those who call the author of evil God are as mad as the worshippers of Fever; evil was invented not by God, who alone is uncreated, but by a created angel who in pride persuaded himself that he was self-begotten.
  • Poem, lines 331–360Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The world was created good, as Moses testifies, by the one Creator, Father and Son being one in nature and will; created things such as iron or horses are not evil in themselves, but their misuse is.
  • Poem, lines 901–930Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · John in his vision saw the end of the world while still in the body; much more will the soul, freed from the body, see; the damned and the righteous see each other across the gulf, as did Lazarus and the rich man; the poet’s closing prayer to God begins.
  • Hymn 10, lines 289–320Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The idols are made from melted pots; the ignorant may be forgiven, but not the learned; Romanus then confesses the eternal, incomprehensible God, the true light, from whom the Son was born as radiance from light, one power and one nature, creator of all.
  • Hymn 10, lines 321–352Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · God created all things by his command through the Word; his temple is the human mind, where Faith guards the door and the sacrifices offered to Christ and the Father are modesty, innocence, peace, chastity, the fear of God, fasting, hope and generosity.
  • Hymn 10, lines 577–608Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Romanus confesses that the eternal King begot an eternal King, the Son equal to the Father and outside time, who as man met death and overcame it; he answers the charge of novelty by pointing to Rome’s own recent founding, and says the Cross was foreshown from the beginning.
  • Hymn 10, lines 641–672Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · A small child is brought and asked whether to worship one Christ, and the Father in Christ, or many gods; the child answers that God must be one and that Christ is true God, taught by his mother; the prefect sends for the mother.
  • Preface, lines 31–71Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · After Abraham rescued Lot, Melchizedek fed him and the three angels visited him, and Sarah bore Isaac; so the soul must free every captive part by an inner war, and then Christ, the true Priest, will enter it and the Spirit will make it fruitful.
  • Poem, lines 1–30Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The poet asks Christ, one God with the Father, to tell how the virtues fight the vices in the soul; Faith enters the field unarmed and strikes down the Worship of the Old Gods.
  • Poem, lines 691–720Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Concord is only grazed; the Virtues seize the culprit, who names herself Discord, surnamed Heresy, whose god is now lesser, now greater, now double, now single, now a phantom; Faith silences her by piercing her tongue.
  • Poem, lines 781–810Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Peace forgives before sunset and is the offering most pleasing to Christ; but the Virtues must also detect the wolves in sheep’s clothing, Photinus and Arius; Faith comforts them and announces that, as Solomon built the temple after David’s wars, they must now build a temple.
  • Poem, lines 841–870Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The four sides of the temple with three gates each signify the fourfold human ages entering by the threefold name; the walls are set with twelve precious stones, and the inner house rests on seven crystal columns.
  • Exposition of the Right Faith 1Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · The author introduces his exposition of the right faith in the Trinity, following his refutations of Jews and Greeks.
  • Exposition of the Right Faith 2Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · The Scriptures and the fathers teach one God, the single cause of all, known in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who share one substance and one Godhead.
  • Exposition of the Right Faith 3Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · “Unbegotten”, “begotten” and “proceeding” name modes of existence, not the substance, as Adam's creation illustrates; they mark off the three hypostases without dividing the one substance.
  • Exposition of the Right Faith 4Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · Dividing all beings into uncreated and created, the author shows from David and Paul that the Son and the Spirit are never numbered among creatures.
  • Exposition of the Right Faith 5Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · From the baptismal command and Paul's letters the author shows that the Son and the Spirit are ranked with the Father in the divine nature and dwell together in the faithful.
  • Exposition of the Right Faith 6Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · The Son and the Spirit share the Father's work of creation and his authority, as the Psalms and Paul show.
  • Exposition of the Right Faith 7Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · Since the Son and the Spirit are separated from creation and joined to the Father, they belong to the uncreated substance: one God, Monad in Trinity.
  • Exposition of the Right Faith 8Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · The author confesses that the manner of the Trinity is beyond human knowledge, citing Paul's partial knowledge and David's wonder.
  • Exposition of the Right Faith 9Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · The Son is begotten as light from light and the Spirit proceeds as light from light, co-eternal and of the same substance; the author turns to the economy of the incarnation.
  • Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 16Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Human offspring share their parents' essence but come later, because parents exist before they beget; God begets as he exists, so the Son is not later than the Father.
  • Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 17Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · God is one in the indivisible essence and three persons in the distinct hypostases; the names of the Trinity belong to the hypostases, not to the essence.
  • Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 18–19Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · “Son of God” and “Son of the Father” mean the same, since what belongs to the person belongs to its essence; and twitching or palpitations are bodily motions, not omens, and Christians should not read the future from them.
  • Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 43–45Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Three questions: the animals entered the ark in pairs and sevens of each sex; Isaiah's vision shows Christ and the cleansing power of his flesh in the Eucharist, while Ezekiel's living creatures foretold Nebuchadnezzar's fate and the end of Israel's captivity; and Ezekiel is called “son of man” because his vision of dry bones prefigures the resurrection by the Son of man.
  • Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 129Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Using the letters iota and pi (one stroke and three strokes of the same line), the answer argues that God is one in essence and three in hypostases without composition, since he is eternal and uncreated, unlike a letter made of parts.
  • Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 139Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Father, Son, and Spirit are one God because they share one essence and differ only in their modes of existence (unbegotten, begotten), as Adam, Eve, and Seth share one human nature though they came into being in different ways.
  • Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 144Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · God is not composite though he has a hypostasis, a will, and a Son, because, unlike creatures, his being and his having are not parts: he is whole in each.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 1.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine explains that “in the beginning” names the Son as Beginning of still-formless creation, while “God said” names him as the Word who forms it by turning it to himself.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 1.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine finds the Trinity in the opening of Genesis: the Father in “God,” the Son in “Beginning” and “said,” and the Holy Spirit in the Spirit borne over the waters and in God’s seeing that it was good.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 2.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine rejects a reading that splits “God said” and “God made” between Father and Son and explains each formula as referring to the eternal Word, the creature’s bounds, and the Spirit’s goodness.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 3.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine reads “Let us make man in our image” as showing the plurality of persons and “in the image of God” as showing the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 7.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine rejects the view that the soul is part of God's substance, since God is unchangeable and the soul changes.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 8.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine introduces the twofold work of providence by affirming that the one God, the Trinity, is contained by no place and changed by no time.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 8.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The unchangeable Trinity orders all natures and wills: natures without will are subject to those with will, in an order of subordination, and evil wills are punished by their own wickedness.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · However God said that man should have a helper, he did not speak through his own substance; what matters is what was said, which is contained in eternal Truth.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Only God, the Trinity, creates natures; angels may have served in Adam's sleep and the removal of the rib, as farmers and physicians serve nature, but the woman herself was made by God alone.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · No Scripture says souls come from angels or elements; Ezekiel's spirit from the four winds is a figure of resurrection, as Christ's breath signified the Holy Spirit without being his substance.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · God's voice “walking” in paradise was produced visibly through a creature, not by the invisible divine substance moving in place; the couple hid as people troubled when God turns away his face.
  • Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The garments of skin were a real deed with a meaning; “one of us” refers to the Trinity, and the words turn the serpent's promise back on proud Adam as a warning.
  • Letter 17, chapter 5Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent argues that receiving Bonosus’s clergy in their orders was a temporary concession, that the Nicene canon on the Novatianists applies to them alone, and that those who went over to Bonosus after his condemnation cannot be clerics.
  • Apology against Rufinus 1.6Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome explains that Pammachius's letters made him translate On First Principles literally, since Rufinus had softened only the passages on the Trinity and kept Origen's other errors.
  • Apology against Rufinus 2.4Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome says Rufinus answers about the Trinity, which no one questioned, and demands his view on the origin of Christ's human soul.
  • Apology against Rufinus 2.11Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome argues that by claiming to cut out only heretical interpolations, Rufinus made himself answerable for every error he left in On First Principles, such as the passage on the Son not seeing the Father.
  • Apology against Rufinus 2.12Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome lists the doctrines in Origen's works that he holds heretical and challenges Rufinus to show where Origen contradicts them.
  • Apology against Rufinus 2.15Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome quotes Rufinus's preface and his treatise on the falsification of Origen's books, and lists blasphemies he finds even in Rufinus's edited version of the Apology for Origen.
  • Apology against Rufinus 2.17Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome rejects Rufinus's argument from falsified writings (the Recognitions, Clement of Alexandria, Dionysius) as one that would make every author's errors someone else's.
  • Apology against Rufinus 2.19Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome explains that Origen alleged falsification only about his dialogue with Candidus, and ridicules Rufinus's stories of Hilary's falsified book and Cyprian's On the Trinity, which is Novatian's.
  • Apology against Rufinus 3.27Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome argues that praising a man in one respect and blaming him in another is consistent, unlike Rufinus's praising and then condemning the same qualities in Jerome.
  • Apology against Jerome 1.4Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus recalls his baptism at Aquileia about thirty years earlier and sets out his faith in the Trinity, the incarnation, and the resurrection of this same flesh.
  • Apology against Jerome 1.9Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus sums up his statement of faith, especially on the resurrection, as complete and unambiguous.
  • Apology against Jerome 1.13Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus quotes his preface to Pamphilus's Apology, with its confession of the Trinity and of the resurrection of this flesh, as taught by Bishop John of Jerusalem.
  • Apology against Jerome 1.15Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus continues quoting his preface to On First Principles: he left out or adjusted only what contradicted Origen's own orthodox statements, adding nothing of his own.
  • Apology against Jerome 1.17Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus introduces the passage of On First Principles about the invisibility of God that his accusers had falsified.
  • Apology against Jerome 1.18Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus explains Origen's preference for "knowing" over "seeing" in the Godhead as a defence against Valentinians and Anthropomorphites, and says it implies no inequality in the Trinity.
  • Apology against Jerome 1.19Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus charges Eusebius of Cremona with interpolating into his translation the claim that the Son does not see the Father nor the Spirit the Son, and anathematizes that claim.
  • Apology against Jerome 1.20Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus argues that the four books he translated consistently teach an undivided Trinity, and that an honest critic in Rome would simply have asked him about the passage.
  • Apology against Jerome 2.27Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus argues that Jerome's own translations of Origen's homilies omitted or softened passages on the Son, the soul, and the Trinity, which is exactly what Rufinus did.
  • Apology against Jerome 2.41Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus begins his summary: his faith, Jerome's errors on the resurrection, the reasons for his translation, and the forged passage.
  • Apology against Jerome 2.46Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus replies that he praised Jerome for the same corrective method he himself used, citing Jerome's softening of Origen's seraphim passage on Isaiah.
  • Book 2, lines 211–240Prudentius · ca. 402-403 · God continues: one God made soul and body and gives every good of life, crops, wine, oil and childbirth; the union of the sexes for offspring is his law, which the pagans defile under the name of Venus; he needs no lesser gods, being simple and indivisible.
  • Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 4Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · On 'God the Father': God is beyond understanding, and the Father's begetting of the Son is to be believed, not pried into, as even created analogies show.
  • Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 5Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · 'One God' means one without any other; 'almighty' applies also to the Son; 'invisible and impassible' were added at Aquileia against the Patripassians.
  • Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 6Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The names Jesus (Saviour) and Christ (Anointed) are explained, and why he is called the only Son and our Lord.
  • Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 7Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The Son's generation is not fleshly; analogies are imperfect, but he is truly and uniquely Son and Lord, unlike sons by adoption.
  • Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 9Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Christ's birth from the Virgin by the Holy Spirit, foretold by Isaiah and figured in Ezekiel's shut gate, shows the Trinity working together.
  • Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 35Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · With the Holy Spirit the Trinity is complete; the three persons are distinguished by their relations, and the same 'in' is used for each to show one Godhead.
  • Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 36Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The Creed says 'in' only of the three persons, not of the church, forgiveness, and resurrection; the Spirit inspired the Scriptures, whose books are now listed.
  • Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 39Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The one holy church keeps the whole faith; Rufinus warns against the 'councils of vanity' of Marcion, Ebion, Mani, Paul of Samosata, Arius and others.
  • Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 48Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Rufinus sums up the Creed's teaching and closes with a prayer to keep the faith and rise to eternal life.
  • Letter to the Catholics on the Sect of the Donatists (On the Unity of the Church) 69Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405 · No Scripture says those baptized in the Trinity among heretics must be rebaptized, nor names the Donatist party; figurative texts about 'noon' could equally be claimed by a northern or western sect.
  • Against Cresconius 3.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405–406 · Augustine explains that the “council of Serdica” letter addressed to Donatus came from the Arian party opposed to Athanasius, and so proves nothing for the Donatists.
  • Against Cresconius 4.52Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405–406 · Augustine repeats that the Serdica letter came from Arians and turns Cresconius's charge of inconstancy against the Donatists' treatment of the Maximianists.
  • 1 Corinthians 1:9Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · “Through whom” is said of the Father too, which refutes the Arian argument from “through him.”
  • 1 Corinthians 8:6Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Against the Arians: as the Father is not excluded from lordship, the Son is not excluded from Godhead.
  • 1 Corinthians 12:6Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Spirit, called God and Lord here, is one though his gifts are divided; the reversed order answers the Arians.
  • 1 Corinthians 12:11Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Spirit gives as he wills, which shows him to be God; envy over gifts is wrong.
  • 1 Corinthians 15:24Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Handing over the kingdom does not make the Son lesser; the hostile powers are overcome when sin is removed.
  • 1 Corinthians 15:28Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Son's subjection is an act of love, not inferiority; various explanations are offered.
  • 1 Thessalonians 1:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, who preached to them, greet the church that is in the Father through faith in the Son.
  • 1 Timothy 1:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul asserts his apostolic authority, given by the one command of Father and Son.
  • 1 Timothy 2:6Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The one God is three persons in one nature; Christ, God and man, is the one mediator who gave himself for all who will be redeemed.
  • 1 Timothy 6:14Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Timothy must keep the command until Christ's coming; God alone has immortality, against the Manichaeans, and is seen by each according to his purity.
  • 2 Corinthians 13:13Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The blessing names the Son first, against the Arian argument from order.
  • 2 Thessalonians 2:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Naming the Son before the Father here refutes Arius; God loved us before we deserved it.
  • Ephesians 1:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Grace avails for those who do not credit their salvation to their merits; Father and Son act as one.
  • Ephesians 4:11Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The same ministries are given by the Father and by Christ, against the Arians; pastors are priests, teachers any who can instruct.
  • Galatians 1:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul's apostleship came from Christ and the Father, not from men, unlike the unworthy ordained by popular favor.
  • Galatians 3:20Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ is mediator yet not divided from the one divine nature.
  • Romans 11:36Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · All things are from, through, and in God; against the Arians, the apostle says of the Father what John says of the Son.
  • Romans 12:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul forbids curiosity beyond the law; the Spirit, called God, distributes gifts by measure of faith.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 5.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Returning to the promised question, Augustine argues that John, being truthful, was sent by the Truth, Christ, together with the Father, so he must in some sense have known the one who sent him.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The dove's groaning signifies the Spirit, who makes us groan with longing for our heavenly homeland; the Church, like Noah's ark, holds both ravens, who seek their own, and doves, who seek Christ's.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · At Christ's baptism the Trinity appeared plainly, the Father in the voice, the Son in the man, the Spirit in the dove; the Donatists, like the raven that did not return, shut their eyes to it.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The apostles were sent to baptize all nations in the one name of Father, Son, and Spirit; as Paul reads 'seed' in the singular of Christ, so the singular 'name' shows that the Trinity is one God.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The jars holding 'two or three measures' signify the Trinity: naming the Father and the Son implies the Spirit, who is the Spirit of both, and 'three' states the Trinity openly.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Holy Spirit is the mutual love of the Father and the Son, so 'two measures' implies the Spirit and 'three' expresses the Trinity; without this love, poured out by the Spirit, the soul is dead.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 10.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's flesh came from Adam, and both the Father and the Son raised it, for the Son is equal to the Father and they are one.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 14.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son speaks what he hears from the Father, yet he is himself the Father's Word, begotten without time as a word is conceived in the heart before any language.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 14.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Father and Son are one God, not two gods, since the love that made the first believers one heart and soul is infinitely surpassed by the love within the Trinity.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 14.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father loves the Son as his only Son and has given all things into his hand, making him equal to himself; in sending the Son he sent his other self.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 14.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Philip asked to see the Father because he saw only Christ's flesh; Christ, equal to the Father, became visible man so that believers might be healed to see his hidden divinity.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 17.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Jews rightly understood that Jesus made himself equal to God, which the Arians deny; the Son did not seize equality like the devil, but was begotten equal and emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 18.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Jews saw only Christ's flesh; as Word he is equal to the Father, and as flesh less than the Father: this is the Catholic rule by which all must be understood.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 18.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Arians take Christ's saying that the Son can do nothing of himself as proof that the Son is less than the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 18.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · To speak of a greater and a lesser God is pagan; the equal Father and Son are not two gods but one God, united in a love far greater than that which made the first believers one soul.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 18.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · If the Son only imitated what he saw the Father do, like an apprentice, not all things would be made through the Word, contrary to John 1:3; the Father does nothing except through the Son.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 18.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father does all his works through the Son, not separately; we cannot yet understand how the Son sees the Father, let alone how he acts, and must not picture God like a human craftsman.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 18.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son does the very same works as the Father and in the same way, unlike the hand that writes the same letters as the heart but in another manner; therefore the Son is equal to the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 18.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Word, who made eye and ear, both sees and hears, but not with separate members: in him seeing and hearing are one.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine recalls the unfinished question of how the Son “sees” the Father working and warns against picturing Father and Son as two men.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son's doing only what he sees the Father do must be held together with the truth that the Father makes all things through the Son.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · If all things are made through the Son, the Father must “show” them to the Son before they are made, not after.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The promise of “greater works” raises the question how the eternal Father can show anything in time to the coeternal Son.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Father and Son give life to the same people with one power and will, which raises the question how the Father “judges no one.”
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · To honor the Father is to honor him as Father of the Son, so honoring the Son as lesser dishonors the Father too.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Hearing the Son's word and believing the Father agree, because the Son is himself the Father's Word.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Unlike the soul, whose life changes and is borrowed from God, the Father and the Son have life in themselves, the Son receiving it from the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The soul is alive enough to animate the body, but it is truly alive, wise, and just only when it comes to God, who is its life and light.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “He gave the Son to have life in himself” means that he begot the Son as life itself, coeternal and equal, not as one who shares in life.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ will judge in the form of a servant, visible to just and unjust alike, which is why “the Father judges no one.”
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Catholic faith holds that, as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are inseparable, so their works are inseparable: what the Father makes, the Son and Spirit also make.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “The Son can do nothing of himself” means that the Son, whose being and power are one, has both from the Father who begot him equal.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Against heretics who infer that the Son is lesser, Augustine asks when the Son saw the Father walk on the sea.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's walking on the sea, in which the flesh walked and the divinity governed, was an inseparable work of the Father abiding in the Son.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · There is no second light, firmament, or world made by the Son; the one world was made by the Father through the Son.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “Can do nothing of himself” means the Son is from the Father, begotten equal and coeternal, as light is coeval with the flame.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “These same things likewise” excludes the picture of a master and pupil making two chests: Father, Son, and Spirit made one world.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Unlike mind and tongue, which make the same word in unlike ways, the Son makes the same things as the Father and makes them likewise.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · No separation is found in Father and Son by one who rises above body and mind; as the psalmist poured out his soul above himself, God is reached only by passing beyond oneself.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · John rose above all creation to see the Word with God; as radiance cannot be separated from its source, the Word cannot be separated from the Father, and the Trinity's works are one.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father does not show the Son works done outside him, as a smith shows his son, but shows them in the Son, his Wisdom and Power, through whom he makes all things.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · We may call Christ's Father “our Father,” but Christ always distinguished “my Father” from “your Father,” since he is Son by nature and we by adoption.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Unlike us, who sometimes see and sometimes do not, the Son's seeing the Father is his very being as Son; he is the Word in whom the Father says all he makes.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Since the Son's knowledge is eternal and is the Son himself, the future “he will show” raises the question how anything could be shown to him in time.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The raising of Lazarus was the work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together; “to whom he will” shows that the Son has equal power and one will with the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The dead whom Father and Son give life are not those raised as miracles, but all who will rise to eternal life at the final judgment.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “The Father judges no one” seems to contradict texts where the Father judges; Augustine presses the difficulty and asks for understanding.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · After the judgment the Son will appear equal to the Father, so that all honor the Son as the Father; whoever despises the Son dishonors the Father who sent him.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Being sent does not make the Son less: sending implies no separation, as a ray from the sun, and the Father who sent him remained with him.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Believers have life in Christ, not in themselves; the Son has life “in himself” as the Father does, because he is life itself.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As a flame has light in itself while the eye only receives it, Christ is light and life in himself, given by being begotten, while believers are light only “in the Lord.”
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ “hears” the Father because he is the Father's one Word; “as I hear, I judge” means “as I am from the Father,” equal yet from him.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son, equal to the Father, does not seek his own will, while proud men seek theirs; the Trinity has one will, yet the Son is from the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father does not show the Son finished works to copy; by showing he makes through the Son, and the creature so made is beneath both.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · A father who shows his son a plan in words uses a sound that is neither of them; the Father does not speak to his Word through other words.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Unlike signs between father and son, the Father's showing begets the Son; if we cannot grasp what God is, we can learn what he is not: not body, not changeable spirit.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine turns the hearer inward to the mind, made in God's image, to find a likeness of the Father's showing and the Son's seeing.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As memory shows Carthage to thought without words, so in a far higher way the Father's showing begets the Son's seeing, within and not in time.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The resurrection of souls is the joint work of the Father and the Son in their one substance; the resurrection of bodies is the Son's work as man, in whom he is honored but not “as” the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Believers live from the Father by believing him who sent the Son, and from the Son by obeying his voice, because both have life in themselves.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father raises souls through the Son's divine substance, but raises bodies and judges through the son of man, who judges “as he hears,” seeking the Father's will.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father draws to the Son those who believe him equal to the Father, unlike Arius and Photinus; Peter's confession shows that revelation is itself the drawing, as a branch draws a sheep.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father teaches through his Word, the uncreated Son, whom men in the flesh can hear because the Word became flesh.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · No one has seen the Father except the Son; to be drawn and taught by the Father is to hear his Word, who remains with the speaker and draws the hearer.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son lives because of the Father, as one sent and emptied in the form of a servant, while we live because of the Son by participation in his body and blood; this shows the grace of the mediator, not equality between us and him.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son of man is said to have been in heaven before because Christ, God and man, is one person, not two, lest the Trinity become a quaternity.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 29.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “My teaching is not mine” is solved by John 1:1: Christ is himself the teaching, the Word, which is his own and yet the Father's.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 29.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “My teaching is not mine” means “I am not from myself”: the Son, equal to the Father, is God from God, Light from Light, one Light with him.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 29.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “My teaching is not mine” refutes the Sabellians, who held that Father and Son are one thing with two names.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 31.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “I am from him” means the Son is God from God and Light from Light; “he sent me” refers to the incarnation and implies the Father's authority as begetter, not a different nature.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 32.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit promised is the Holy Spirit, who knows the things of God; we have received him as a pledge whose fullness will be given later.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 32.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit, though at work in the saints before, was not yet given in the new manner, with the tongues of all nations, until Christ was glorified in his resurrection.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 32.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · We have the Holy Spirit as much as we love the Church; in its unity each member's gift serves all, and love, poured out by the Spirit, surpasses every gift.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 36.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's judgment is true because the Father, who sent him, is with him; his being sent is his incarnation, which is believed before it is understood.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 36.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Against the Patripassians, the Father did not become incarnate, yet he did not withdraw from the incarnate Son, for God is everywhere.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 36.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's words both distinguish the persons of Father and Son against the Sabellians and, with “I and the Father are one,” affirm one substance against the Arians.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 36.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The law of two or three witnesses is a mystery of the Trinity, the true and stable witness, as Susanna's case shows.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 36.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son alone will appear in the judgment, in the human form in which he suffered, though the Father is with him; the vision of God himself is the reward of the just.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 37.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · To Philip, a believer, Christ said without any “perhaps” that whoever has seen him has seen the Father; the “perhaps” to the Jews marks their unbelief.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 37.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Between the Sabellians, who make Father and Son one person, and the Arians, who make the Son different in substance, the Catholic faith holds “I and the Father are one.”
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 37.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “If you knew me, you would know my Father” shows the Son's likeness to the Father, as one recognizes a man from someone very like him; against the Arians, Father and Son are one.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 39.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · If the Son, who is from the Father, is called the Beginning, the Father, who is from no one, must be the Beginning too.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 39.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Father and Son are each the Beginning yet not two beginnings, as each person is God yet there are not three gods.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 39.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Each person is God, yet there are not three gods but one; what they are in themselves is God, what they are toward one another is Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 39.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Father, Son, and Spirit are three only in their relations; in what each is in himself they are one God, one almighty, one Beginning, beyond number.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 39.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As love made the thousands of the first Church one heart and one soul in God, much more are Father, Son, and Spirit, the fountain of love, one God and one Beginning.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 39.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Though qualities like piety exceed those who share them, the Father is not lesser than the Son, the Truth, for he is true by begetting the whole Truth, not by sharing in it.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 39.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The changeable soul becomes good, chaste, and true by participating in God's goodness and truth, while God the Father is true not by participating but by begetting the Truth.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 40.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “Then you will know that I am” is guarded against the Sabellians by “I do nothing of myself,” which shows that the Son is God from God, not from himself.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 40.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father's teaching of the Son must not be pictured in human form; human form belongs to Christ's servant form from Mary, while the Word, like wisdom and justice, has no bodily shape.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 40.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As God speaks to our hearts without sound, giving understanding, the Father “taught” the Son by begetting him knowing, since for the simple nature of truth to be and to know are the same.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 40.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father sent the Son without leaving him, since the sending is the incarnation of the Son alone and both are everywhere; the Son always does what pleases the Father, in equality without beginning.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 42.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's coming from the Father is his incarnation; his proceeding from God is eternal, for God was never without the Word; his humanity is our way to his divinity.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine raises the question how the Father both “judges” and “judges no one.”
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ refers his glory to the Father; against the Arians, Father and Son glorify each other, which shows equality.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Against the Manichees and Marcionites, Christ shows that the God of the Jews is his Father, whom he knows and whose word he keeps, being himself that Word.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 45.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Heretics such as Sabellius, Arius, and Photinus do not enter by the door, for they preach a Christ of their own making; the fold is the Catholic Church, and the door is entered only by humility.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 46.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ may be taken as the doorkeeper too, since by likeness he is door, shepherd, sheep, lion and rock, whereas properly he is the eternal Word, equal to the Father, who became man.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 46.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ, who opens himself by explaining himself, may be the doorkeeper; or the doorkeeper may be the Holy Spirit, who teaches all truth.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 47.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son's receiving a commandment from the Father shows his generation, not inferiority; the Jews were divided over his words.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 48.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's sheep, the predestined, cannot be snatched from him; what the Father gave the Son by begetting him, coeternal and equal, is greater than all.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 48.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The one hand of Father and Son is best understood as their one power, though the Son can also be called the Father's arm.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 48.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · When Jesus said “I and the Father are one,” the Jews tried to stone him, understanding, as the Arians do not, that he claimed equality with the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 48.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The mutual indwelling of Father and Son is one of equality, unlike believers' being in God by grace.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 51.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "In the name of the Lord" means in the Father's name, for Christ, equal to the Father in divinity, teaches humility in the form he shares with us.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 53.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Isaiah's "arm of the Lord" is the Son, the Word through whom God made all things, not a bodily member of the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 53.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Calling the Son the Father's arm is a figure of speech and gives no support to those who deny that the Son is a distinct person.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 53.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Isaiah saw Christ's glory only in a figure; the Son is invisible in the form of God and became visible in the form of a servant; the pure in heart will see God as he is.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 54.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · To believe in Christ is to believe in the Father who has a Son equal and co-eternal with him, not merely in the man who was seen.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 54.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · No apostle could say "he who believes in me"; Christ could, because he is equal to the Father, so that whoever sees him sees the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 54.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father's command to the Son is not a word spoken in time but is given in the eternal begetting of the Son, who is the Father's Word, Wisdom and life.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 54.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son himself is the Father's command and the truth begotten by the truthful Father, who speaks inwardly to understanding minds, beyond the passing sounds of words.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 59.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The words "he who receives me receives him who sent me" give no support to the Arian ranking of the Son below the Father, which cannot even place the Holy Spirit consistently.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 59.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The saying commends the authority of the sender in the one sent: Christ is received in the apostle and the Father in the Son.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 70.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ is the eternal life in which we shall be; he is life in himself, while we only share in that life by abiding in him.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 70.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Some disciples knew the Son and so, through his perfect likeness, knew the Father; Philip did not. Father and Son are two, yet so alike that to know one is to know both.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 70.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Philip was rebuked because he sought the Father as if he were better than the Son, not knowing that they are inseparable and alike.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 71.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "I do not speak from myself" means that the Son, equal to the Father, is from the Father: God from God, light from light.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 71.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Against both Arians, who make the Son unequal, and Sabellians, who make him the Father, Augustine holds that the Son is other than the Father yet equal to him, from him and inseparable from him.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 73.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Some rightly asked things are deferred, not denied; and the Son grants prayers together with the Father, for they are one.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 74.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Since no one can love Christ or keep his commandments without the Holy Spirit, the apostles who loved him already had the Spirit whom they were promised.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 76.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ manifests himself to those who love him, in whom the Father and the Son make their dwelling; the ungodly see him only in the flesh, for judgment.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 76.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The whole Trinity dwells in the saints; the world sees only the Son, in the form of a man, for judgment.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 76.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "The word is not mine" refers to the Son himself, the Word, who is equal to the Father yet from him, and so attributes his works to the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 77.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's bodily dwelling with the disciples, which ends, is distinguished from the spiritual dwelling of the Trinity in the saints, which is eternal.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 77.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The whole Trinity both speaks and teaches; the persons are named one by one only because human weakness could not otherwise grasp that God is a Trinity.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 78.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ goes to the Father as man, by which the Father is greater, while as God he remains everywhere and is one with the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 80.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As man Christ is the vine; as God, one with the Father, he is also the vinedresser who cleanses the branches and gives the increase.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 91.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · They saw Christ's healing works and hated him without cause; and since the one God works every miracle, no one else did Christ's works.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 94.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · After Christ's bodily departure the whole Trinity was present to the disciples, since where any one of the persons is, the one God, the Trinity, is.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 95.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit convicts the world through the disciples sent to all nations, giving them the love that casts out fear; Christ convicts in them too, for the works of the Trinity are inseparable.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 97.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The things the disciples could not bear are the common truths of faith as angels know them; the Spirit makes the mind grow in understanding of them, by God's gift.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 97.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Only profane novelties of words are condemned; new terms such as "Christian" and homoousion express old truths, unlike the heretics' promise of secret knowledge.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son's "I cannot do anything of myself" is said as man; but the Holy Spirit took no creature into unity of person, so "he will not speak from himself" needs another explanation.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The dove and the tongues of fire were passing signs made from creatures, not assumed into the Spirit's person; nor does God speak to his Word in passing syllables.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · God has no bodily senses in different places; seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching are in him one and the same knowing.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · In God, who is simple, knowing is being; so the Spirit "hears" from him from whom he proceeds, because he is not from himself, while remaining equal to the one from whom he is.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Verbs of any tense may be used of the eternal God; the Spirit's hearing is eternal knowing, from him from whom he proceeds.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The one Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son, as Scripture calls him the Spirit of each.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit is called Spirit properly as the communion of Father and Son; Christ's breathing on the disciples and the "power" going out from him show that the Spirit proceeds from the Son too.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ says the Spirit proceeds from the Father because he refers to the Father what is his own; the Son has from the Father that the Spirit proceeds from him too.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit is said to proceed, not to be born, since he would otherwise be the Son of two; he proceeds from both at once, the Father having given this to the Son.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 100.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "He will receive of mine" does not make the Spirit less than the Son; since all the Father's is the Son's, the Spirit receives from the Father as the Son does.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 102.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The promised plain speech is the spiritual understanding of God as incorporeal; the spiritual know that Christ as man intercedes for us and as God hears us with the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 102.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · God's love comes first: our love for God is his gift, poured out by the Spirit of Father and Son.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 104.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's whole discourse aimed at the disciples' peace in him, the end of all Christian life; the Spirit would make his proverbs plain to them.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 105.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Eternal life is knowing the one true God, the Trinity; the Son glorifies the Father by making him known, and God's highest glorification will be the full knowledge of him in eternal life.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 106.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "They were yours, and you gave them to me" is said of Christ as man; as God he chose them with the Father, for Father and Son are equally almighty and have all things together.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 106.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As eternal Son, Christ received the Father's words not in time but by being begotten, for the Father speaks all things in his Word.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 107.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The saints belong equally to the Father and the Son, showing that the Son is equal to the Father, unlike the elder son of the parable, to whom only lower creation belonged.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 107.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ prays as man for his disciples, but "that they may be one as we are" shows that as God he is one in nature with the Father.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 107.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Father and Son do not keep the disciples by turns; the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, keeps them together, though Scripture distinguishes the persons.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 110.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ asks that believers be one as he and the Father are one, but believers are one in their own nature, not of one substance with God; God dwells in them as in his temple.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 110.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The glory given to the disciples is immortality, which Christ gives together with the Father, for the works of the Trinity are inseparable.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 111.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's prayer that those given him by the Father may be with him is a sure promise, for the will of Father, Son and Spirit is one.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 111.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Seeing Christ's glory is the reward of faith reserved for the pure in heart; we shall be with Christ in the Father, a 'place' to be thought of without bodily images.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 121.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · 'Do not touch me' teaches Mary to believe in Christ as equal to the Father; God is his Father by nature and ours by grace.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 121.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The risen Christ comes through closed doors, shows his wounds, breathes the Holy Spirit on the disciples, and gives the power to forgive and retain sins, which Augustine relates to the Church's love.
  • Tractates on the Gospel of John 122.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The number 153 is the sum of the numbers from one to seventeen, and seventeen is ten (the law) plus seven (the Spirit), so the fish signify all who belong to the grace of the Spirit.
  • Homilies on the First Epistle of John 2.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The 'fathers' are those who know the eternal Christ, who existed before his mother, Abraham, and all creation, and who in his divinity simply 'is'.
  • Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · God's commandment is to believe in Christ and love one another; the love in us is the sign that God's Spirit abides in us.
  • Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The Holy Spirit is signified by living water, distinct from the visible water of baptism; heretics and those cut off by iniquity do not have him, so we must not drink from strange springs.
  • Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Love is 'from God' and 'is God' because the Holy Spirit, God from God, is poured out as love; the wicked may have the sacraments but cannot have love, which is the Spirit's own gift.
  • Homilies on the First Epistle of John 8.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · If we love one another, God dwells in us; the love in our hearts shows that he has given us his Spirit.
  • Homilies on the First Epistle of John 10.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Faith joined to love is Christian faith; faith without love is the demons'; whoever loves the Father who begot loves the Son who is begotten.
  • Homilies on the First Epistle of John 10.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Christ, who is love, is the 'end' of all things in the sense of perfection, not consumption; money, health, honour, and praise are to be passed by on the way to cleaving to God.
  • On the One Baptism, against Petilian 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 410–411 · As a Jew converting keeps his true beliefs while his errors are corrected, so a heretic’s true baptism, given by the Gospel rule, is kept while his error is corrected.
  • On the One Baptism, against Petilian 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 410–411 · Christ’s sacraments are never sacrilegious even if given by sinners, just as his name remains his name when used by them.
  • On the Spirit and the Letter 5Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Augustine's position: beyond free will and teaching, the Holy Spirit gives delight in and love of God, without which the will cannot do good.
  • On the Spirit and the Letter 28Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The Holy Spirit, the “finger of God,” who wrote the law on stone, came at Pentecost fifty days after Christ's Passover, as the law came fifty days after the first Passover.
  • On the Spirit and the Letter 29Augustine of Hippo · 412 · At Sinai the law was written on stone and frightened sinners; at Pentecost the Spirit wrote charity on hearts, which fulfills the whole law.
  • On the Spirit and the Letter 36Augustine of Hippo · 412 · God's laws written on hearts are the presence of the Holy Spirit, who pours out love; the new covenant promises not earthly goods but the good of the heart and mind.
  • On the Spirit and the Letter 37Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The reward of the new covenant is God himself, known and seen in eternal life, when believers will be like him; this likeness now begins to be restored.
  • On the Spirit and the Letter 59Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Augustine reads Ps 103:2–5 as the order of grace: forgiveness in baptism, healing in this life, resurrection, merciful judgment, and final satisfaction in the vision of God.
  • Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 4, part 8Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril reads the seraphim's six wings as a sign that God has neither beginning nor end, their threefold 'Holy' as the one Godhead in three hypostases, and the earth full of glory as the incarnation and the calling of the nations.
  • Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 5, part 6Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · On Isa 8:1–2 Cyril reads the new, large volume as the new covenant revealing the mystery of Christ, and the 'man's pen' as human words fit to tell the incarnation, while the eternal begetting of the Son needs a pen beyond man.
  • Commentary on Isaiah 2, Tome 1, part 5Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril says the Spirit was in Christ not as a partial grace but as the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in his ensouled flesh, explains the one Spirit's many operations, and begins Isa 11:3–5 as a portrait of the Word made man.
  • Commentary on Isaiah 2, Tome 1, part 13Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril reads Zerubbabel and Jeshua as types of Christ the king and high priest who, by the cross, gathers all nations into one, and begins Isa 11:14 as the apostles' sea voyages to the nations.
  • Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 3, part 25Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The land's saved children in Isa 34:15–17 are the believing remnant of Israel; the deer are the apostles, snake-killers who drink from spiritual springs, gathered by the Spirit and sent by lot to the nations, Peter to the circumcision, Barnabas and Saul to the Gentiles.
  • Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 4, part 20Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The levelling of the road (Isa 40:4) is the work of the incarnate Christ, who abolished sin in the flesh and overthrew the hostile powers, making the way of godliness easy; the glory seen is that of the only-begotten Word, equal to the Father, shown in his works, and the salvation offered to all flesh is God's purpose, even if some refuse it (Isa 40:5).
  • Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 5, part 8Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The righteousness raised from the east (Isa 41:2) is Christ, the sun of righteousness, who walks in the Father's footsteps, doing his works and his will as one equal to him in power; Isa 41:2–4 describes his victory over the powers that enslaved the nations, whom he justified and enlightened by the Spirit.
  • Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 5, part 21Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Christ, born of Israel according to the flesh, gave the new covenant and became a light to the nations, showing himself God by nature; he preached to the spirits in Hades and freed the imprisoned (Isa 42:6–7); God gives his glory to no creature, yet gives it to the Son, consubstantial with him, one nature in three hypostases (Isa 42:8); his promises of the life to come will be fulfilled as the old ones were (Isa 42:9). Doxology.
  • Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 2, part 12Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The Creator who alone stretched out the heavens, not to the exclusion of the Word but of the false gods, promises in Isa 44:24–26 to scatter the oracles of the demons, which Christ, the true light, did.
  • Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 2, part 25Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The converted nations, bound by love of Christ, confess that God is in him and there is no God besides him (Isa 45:14–16); Cyril explains this of the Son's oneness with the Father and of the one incarnate Son, not divided into two.
  • Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 3, part 17Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · God has not cut off Israel's hope: a remnant is saved and Israel will be called in the last times; the 'spirits' God makes are creatures, not begotten like the Son nor proceeding from his essence like the Holy Spirit; Israel was struck for killing Christ but will receive the true comfort of grace.
  • Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 4, part 15Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Isaiah's “Be enlightened, Jerusalem” announces Christ, the glory of the Lord who shone first on Israel and showed himself God and Son of God by nature through his miracles, while the gentiles still sat in darkness (Isa 60:1–3).
  • Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 5, part 20Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The prophet laments that Israel forgot the God who brought up the shepherd of the sheep, a hint of Christ's coming as man, put his Spirit among them, and by Moses' hand made the sea solid and led them through it like cattle on a plain (Isa 63:11–14).
  • Commentary on Luke 2:7 (part 1)Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ is Only-begotten by nature as God and firstborn by the economy, as brother and firstfruits of those adopted; “firstborn” does not make him one of many sons or one of the creatures, against Eunomius.
  • Commentary on Luke 3:17Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ will separate wheat from chaff; he was baptized not from need but to sanctify the waters and give us a pattern, the Spirit being his own though proceeding from the Father; heaven was opened and the Father’s voice declared him Son so that sonship might pass to us.
  • Commentary on Luke 10:21Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ’s thanksgiving to the Father does not make him less, since he rules with the Lord of heaven and earth; the Father revealed the mystery of the incarnation, hidden before the ages, to the guileless believers, but hid it from the worldly wise and from the scribes who rejected the Word.
  • Commentary on Luke 10:22Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · “All things have been delivered to me” is said by the economy of the incarnate Son, who is Lord of all; that only the Father knows the Son and only the Son the Father shows their equality, for the Trinity alone knows itself and reveals itself through the Spirit.
  • Commentary on Luke 11:20Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The finger of God is the Holy Spirit, joined to the Son as the finger to the hand by consubstantiality though proceeding from the Father; one working shows one nature, against the Pneumatomachi; in Christ human nature received the kingdom by defeating Satan.
  • Commentary on Luke 12:8Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · To confess Christ rightly is to confess the Word as Lord by nature, equal to the Father, and his resurrection as man; such confessors he will acknowledge at his coming, while apostates and heretics he will deny; words spoken against the Son of Man in ignorance of his divinity can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit, the whole Godhead, cannot.
  • Commentary on Luke 18:18Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The ruler addresses Christ as “good” to test him; Christ replies that goodness belongs to God by nature, so the ruler should recognize him as God; against the Arians Cyril argues that the Son, consubstantial with the Father, is good as God, the good fruit and image of the good Father.
  • Commentary on Luke 21:27Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · At his second coming Christ will come on the clouds in the great power and glory of the Godhead, as God always appears, to raise the dead and clothe them in incorruption; the judgement given by the Father to the Son is his by nature, as God from God, inseparable from the Father as light from the sun.
  • Commentary on Luke 22:19Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ’s thanksgiving is a pattern for the church’s eucharistic prayer; since death came through the devil, the Word, life by nature, made our flesh his own and life-giving, as fire fills iron; eating his flesh and drinking his blood we have life in us; his indwelling in us by participation differs from his becoming flesh; God transforms the bread and wine on the holy tables into the life-giving energy of his flesh, so we must believe his words, “This is my body.”
  • Letter 15 (Acacius of Beroea to Cyril)Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Acacius of Beroea, replying for himself and John of Antioch, urges Cyril to calm the dispute over Nestorius's words rather than inflame it, warning by the example of Apollinarius against probing mysteries.
  • Letter 17 (Cyril and the synod of Alexandria to Nestorius (third letter, with the twelve anathemas))Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Cyril and the Egyptian synod give Nestorius a final warning, set out at length the faith in the one incarnate Word, the Eucharist, and Mary as Mother of God, and append twelve anathemas he must accept.
  • Letter 39 (Cyril to John of Antioch (the Formula of Reunion))Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Cyril welcomes the reunion with John of Antioch, quotes the agreed Formula of Reunion, denies that he teaches a heavenly body of Christ or a mixing of natures, and insists the Nicene Creed must not be altered.
  • Letter 55 (Cyril to Anastasius, Alexander and others (explanation of the Creed))Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Cyril explains the Nicene Creed clause by clause to a group of monks, insisting that the one only-begotten Word himself became man, suffered in his own flesh, and is the one Lord into whose death Christians are baptized, against the followers of Nestorius and Theodore.
  • Book 1, chapter 5Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Lev 5, Hesychius explains the sacrifices for sharing in others' sins, rash oaths and offences against holy things as different ways of repentance suited to different persons, including the weak and those who have often relapsed, and teaches that no repentance gains forgiveness without the sacrifice of Christ, the ram.
  • Book 2, chapter 6 (second part)Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · Opening Book 2 with Lev 6:8–30, Hesychius reads the perpetual fire as the Spirit kept alive by meditation on Scripture, the grain offering eaten by Aaron's sons as theology kept within what Christ revealed and practised in the church, the priest's offering as Christ's passion, and the sin offering as repentance, whose 'blood' is baptism.
  • Book 4, chapter 14Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · Hesychius reads the cleansing of the leper in Leviticus 14 as Christ's work: the two sparrows are his humanity and divinity, the rites figure baptism, repentance and the Trinity, the poor man's offering is meditation on the law, and the leprous house is a church infected by false doctrine.
  • Book 5, chapter 16Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Leviticus 16 Hesychius reads the Day of Atonement as the sacrifice of Christ: the veil is his flesh, the calf and the slain goat his humanity offered for Israel and all mankind, the scapegoat his impassible divinity, and the prohibition of entering at all times a warning against prying into God's substance.
  • Book 7, chapter 24Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Lev 24, Hesychius reads the lamp oil as almsgiving and the lamp as the Holy Spirit on Christ the lampstand; the twelve loaves of presence as the eucharistic table and its memorial; the blasphemer born of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father as one who mixes Scripture with pagan learning and blasphemes Christ by calling the Son less than the Father; and the laws of retaliation as the judgment awaiting those who lead others into impiety.
  • City of God 5.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine affirms that the triune God, whose providence orders even the smallest creatures, also governs human kingdoms.
  • City of God 9.15Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine presents Christ, mortal for a time yet ever happy, as the one true mediator who brings men to happy immortality, against the immortal and wretched demons who separate them from God.
  • City of God 10.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine notes that Porphyry, citing an oracle, held that only the “principles” purify, and compares his Father, paternal Mind, and intermediate principle with the Christian Trinity.
  • City of God 10.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine confesses one God in three persons against Sabellianism and teaches that Christ, the Word made flesh, is the one Principle who purifies human nature, which Porphyry's pride would not accept.
  • City of God 10.25Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine teaches that the righteous of old were justified by faith in the mystery of Christ, and expounds Psalm 73 to show that man's good is to cleave to God and hope in him with the angels.
  • City of God 10.29Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine urges the Platonists, who glimpse the Trinity and even confess grace, to accept the incarnation, virgin birth, and bodily resurrection of Christ, rejected only out of pride.
  • City of God 11.10Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · God, the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is simple because he is what he has; creatures, even incorruptible ones, differ from their qualities.
  • City of God 11.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine states the faith in the Trinity and suggests that the Father, the Word, and the Spirit as goodness are signified in every work of creation and in the holy city's being, wisdom, and joy.
  • City of God 11.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The human mind bears an image of the Trinity in being, knowing, and loving, of which it is certain even against the skeptics: if I am deceived, I am.
  • City of God 11.29Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The holy angels know God and all creatures in the Word as in a “day” knowledge, more clearly than in the creatures themselves, their “evening” knowledge.
  • City of God 11.32Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · If some place the angels' creation before heaven and earth, Augustine will not dispute it, gladly noting the Trinity in Genesis 1:1–2, provided the angels' secure happiness is held.
  • City of God 13.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · God's breath at Adam's creation gave him his soul, not the Holy Spirit, as the Greek pnoē shows; Christ's breathing on the disciples signified the Spirit of both Father and Son; the question how the unfallen would have procreated is deferred to Book 14.
  • City of God 16.6Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · God speaks to angels not with sound but by his unchangeable reason; 'Let us make man' refers to the Trinity, and Gen 11:6 is a threatening question.
  • On Faith and Works 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Error often comes from following one set of texts and ignoring the balancing ones, as in errors about the Trinity, marriage, and food.
  • On Faith and Works 36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · The right order is faith in the Trinity, repentance from dead works, and forgiveness in baptism, which forgives sin but does not permit it.
  • Commentary on Jeremiah 2.64Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jerusalem cries because the Lord, her King, has left her; Lord and King may be Father and Son.
  • Commentary on Jeremiah 2.89Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God, Creator through his Son, his power and wisdom, stands against idols and heresies that will perish; Jerusalem must gather its goods for the siege, for God will hurl out its people.
  • Commentary on Jeremiah 4.55Jerome · ca. 414-419 · No false prophet has stood in the Lord's counsel to know his secrets; Jerome notes the Greek versions' renderings of sod (Jer 23:18).
  • Commentary on Jeremiah 4.63Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Because the people kept saying 'the burden of the Lord,' God will lift them up and cast them off into lasting disgrace, fulfilled fully after Christ's passion; Jerome sees the Trinity in 'the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God' (Jer 23:36–40).
  • Reminder concerning the Error of the Priscillianists and Origenists 2Orosius · 414 · Orosius summarizes Priscillian's teaching on the soul's descent, astrology, the apocryphal Memoir of the Apostles, and a Trinity without distinction.
  • On Nature and Grace 84Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine concludes that righteousness grows with love, which at every stage is poured into our hearts not by nature or will but by the Holy Spirit, the grace of God through Christ.
  • Apologetic Book 8.3Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Orosius does not challenge the bishop.
  • Apologetic Book 10.5Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Father, Son and Spirit all aid man.
  • Apologetic Book 11.1Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The Pelagian boast rebuked.
  • Apologetic Book 17.9Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The fullness dwells in Christ.
  • Apologetic Book 23.2Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Spotless faith in the Trinity.
  • Apologetic Book 25.5Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Christ the mediator and the Word.
  • Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.28.25Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The Council of Nicaea condemns Arius.
  • Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.29.3Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Constantius is drawn into Arianism.
  • On the Proceedings of Pelagius 43Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Pelagius disowns the propositions, rejects them according to the church's judgment, and professes the Trinity of one substance.
  • Sermon to the People of the Church of Caesarea 2Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Converts are received not as heretics but as changed men; their baptism and ordination bear God’s mark, not Donatus’s, like the emperor’s brand on a deserter, and so are not repeated.
  • On Adulterous Marriages 1.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul's counsel is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and so is from the Lord in a real sense, though it is not a command.
  • On the Soul and Its Origin 2.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Augustine distinguishes what is from God by begetting or procession (the Son and the Spirit, of one nature with the Father) from creatures made by God from nothing or from other creatures.
  • On the Soul and Its Origin 2.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor avoids Tertullian’s corporeal God but makes the incorporeal God breathe out a corporeal soul from himself, unlike the Son who is begotten of the same nature.
  • On the Soul and Its Origin 3.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · The soul must be made by God, not from God; a particle of God’s breath would be of God’s nature, as a flame lit from a lamp is of the same nature.
  • On the Soul and Its Origin 4.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · The soul knows less of its own body and workings than of God; it is no shame that it cannot recall its own origin.
  • On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · As the Arians call catholics Sabellians, so the Pelagians call them Manichees; but catholics call marriage good and hold only that an evil passed from the first couple to all.
  • Questions on Exodus 71 (on Exod 21:10-11)Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Augustine discusses how to divide the Ten Commandments, the difference between adultery and coveting a neighbour's wife, and whether the commandment against adultery also forbids all sexual immorality, citing Matt 5:32.
  • The Institutes 2.8John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Unlike the Gallic custom, in the East the Gloria Patri is not sung after each psalm but only after the antiphon.
  • Canon 10Anonymous · 419 · The Latin text of the Nicene creed as held in Africa.
  • Canon 13Anonymous · 419 · The Nicene creed in the new Latin translation made from the Greek copies sent from Constantinople, as forwarded to Boniface of Rome.
  • Carmina 3.1–30Orientius of Auch · 5th-6th century(?) · A hymn of praise to Christ, the eternal Word, one with the Father in substance, with the Spirit completing the equal Trinity, followed by a long series of his titles.
  • Commonitorium 2.391–418Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Orientius confesses that he should have taught by his life, promises heaven to those who keep his counsels and believe in the Trinity, and asks every reader to pray for him.
  • Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · A Christian need not know natural science, but must believe that the goodness of the one God, the Trinity, is the cause of all created things.
  • Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The supremely good Trinity created all things good, and together very good.
  • Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Christ's human birth from the Holy Spirit, the gift equal to the giver, shows grace, as the annunciations to Mary and Joseph declare.
  • Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Christ born of the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit's son; the whole Trinity made his humanity, and he was born of the Spirit not as of a father but of Mary as of a mother.
  • Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 56Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · In the Creed the Church follows the Trinity as temple follows God; the Church includes the holy angels, and since the Spirit has a temple, he is God, not a creature.
  • Discourse 2.56Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Pagans object that Christians worship a Trinity, which the Jews reject.
  • Discourse 2.57Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Theodoret laments that the Jews, taught Scripture from birth, miss the Trinity.
  • Discourse 2.58Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · God taught the Trinity only obscurely to Israel lest they fall into polytheism.
  • Discourse 2.59Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Deut 6:4 hints at the Trinity by naming God three times while affirming oneness.
  • Discourse 2.60Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The angels' threefold 'holy' and single 'Lord' show the Trinity's three properties and one lordship.
  • Discourse 2.61Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Moses speaks more clearly of the Trinity in 'Let us make man'.
  • Discourse 2.62Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Gen 1:26–27 names God as both maker and model, though the Trinity's nature is one.
  • Discourse 2.63Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Genesis 9 again speaks of God making man in God's image.
  • Discourse 2.64Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Gen 9:6 and the tower of Babel again show distinct persons.
  • Discourse 2.65Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · 'Let us go down' at Babel shows the equality of Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • Discourse 2.66Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · As at creation, God works with the Son and Spirit at Babel.
  • Discourse 2.67Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The destruction of Sodom shows two who are called Lord.
  • Discourse 2.68Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · David's psalms also speak of the Word, the Spirit, and the Son.
  • Discourse 2.69Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The other prophets teach the same, but more proofs are needless for those not yet believing.
  • Discourse 2.73Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's distinction of cause and Father reflects truth; his 'gods' reflect error or pretense.
  • Discourse 2.76Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Scripture gives the name 'god' to judges and saints only by courtesy; Plato knows the Father and the cause.
  • Discourse 2.78Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's second letter speaks in riddles of a first, second, and third.
  • Discourse 2.82Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plotinus wrote of three principal hypostases.
  • Discourse 2.83Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plotinus says Mind is the image of the One, separated only by otherness.
  • Discourse 2.85Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plotinus and Numenius find three eternal principles in Plato, paralleling the Trinity.
  • Discourse 2.86Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The triad was taken from David's psalm on the Word and Spirit.
  • Discourse 2.98Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Christians worship only the Father, Word, and Spirit, honoring saints as human beings.
  • Discourse 2.103Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The names Son, Word, and Radiance express the Son's eternal birth.
  • Discourse 2.104Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · If Plato makes matter and ideas from God and with God, the Word and Spirit can be so too.
  • Discourse 2.105Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Christian teaching is more reasonable, for Son and Spirit share God's one being.
  • Discourse 2.106Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The mode of the Son's and Spirit's existence is no harder than that of the unbegotten Father.
  • Discourse 2.107Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Belief in an uncaused God makes belief in the Word's begetting and the Spirit's procession reasonable.
  • Discourse 2.109Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · From the unbegotten God the Word is begotten and the Spirit proceeds.
  • Discourse 2.110Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The Word and Spirit are not breath or speech, but subsistent, united in nature and distinct in properties.
  • Discourse 3.105Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The Holy Spirit sanctifies angels and the godly; demons rule only those who choose them.
  • Discourse 5.68Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Even laborers and servants know Christian doctrine.
  • Discourse 6.87Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The spread of the church, martyr shrines, and monasteries prove the gospel's power.
  • Discourse 9.29Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Monks now inhabit the mountains, praising the Trinity.
  • Discourse 10.87Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · In Zechariah the Son speaks of being sent by the Father.
  • Discourse 10.93Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The blessing promised to the patriarchs is fulfilled in the mission to all nations.
  • Prayer, lines 1–24Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · The opening prayer addresses the one God in three, beyond all limit and comprehension, who is mind, reason, power, life and light, and from whom all things came out of nothing.
  • Prayer, lines 117–126Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · The poet asks forgiveness for his sins and for any faults of meter or expression, so that the faith may suffer no harm, and ends his prayer through Christ who reigns with the Father and the Spirit.
  • Book 1, lines 1–27Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · Before creation the one God, Father, Word and Spirit, reigned in himself, foreseeing all; he made all things from nothing and set them in order, so that the world arose neither by chance nor from eternity.
  • Book 1, lines 134–159Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · On the sixth day God makes the land animals; the world, made by the Father through the Son and approved by the Spirit, still lacks a beholder and possessor, so God proposes to make man.
  • Book 3, lines 636–662Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · Three shining figures appear to Abraham at Mamre; he adores one Lord though he sees three, entertains them, and in this appearance of God in human form the poet sees a sign of the incarnation of Christ.
  • Sermon 23Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On Luke 12:32–33, Chrysologus praises the ‘little flock’ that conquered the nations by suffering like the Lamb, defends the Son's equality with the Father against those who misuse his humility, and urges almsgiving as transferring wealth to heaven.
  • Sermon 57Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · In a sermon handing over the Creed to candidates for baptism, Chrysologus begins from Isaiah's unclean lips cleansed by the coal and then explains each article: the one God and Father, the eternal Son, Christ's names, the virgin birth, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, judgment, the Spirit, the Church, forgiveness, resurrection of the flesh, and eternal life, urging that the Creed be kept in memory, not on paper.
  • Sermon 58Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · In another sermon handing over the Creed, Chrysologus urges candidates to receive the faith by faith and to write it on their hearts, not on paper, and briefly explains each article, stressing the Son's coeternity, the virgin birth, the reality of Christ's death and resurrection, the Spirit's consubstantiality, and the resurrection of the flesh.
  • Sermon 59Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Handing over the Creed, Chrysologus calls the candidates to purity like Israel before Sinai, explains each article (one God and eternal Son, the anointed Savior, the virgin birth, the cross and the three days, the Son's equality at the Father's right hand, judgment, the Spirit, the Church, forgiveness, bodily resurrection), and bids them keep the Creed in memory.
  • Sermon 60Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Handing over the Creed at the end of Lent, Chrysologus encourages late candidates by the examples of the Canaanite woman, the eunuch, Cornelius, and the thief, contrasts Moses' song with the grace he brings, refutes heretics who make the Son later than the Father, and explains each article of the Creed, ending with the charge to keep it in memory.
  • Sermon 61Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Handing over the Creed to candidates for baptism, Chrysologus explains each article briefly and forbids them to write it down.
  • Sermon 62Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus, speaking as a nurse to infants, explains the Creed as a contract of faith with God and comments on each article, warning against inquiring how the Son is begotten.
  • Sermon 65Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On the raising of Lazarus, Chrysologus explains Christ's groaning and his thanksgiving to the Father, and imagines Tartarus protesting to heaven until the Son pleads for the dead and Lazarus is released.
  • Sermon 71Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus tells the candidates that the threefold confession of the Trinity has made them God's sons, explains each petition, and urges patient hope, since they have received the promise and not yet the reality.
  • Sermon 80Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains why the women, not the apostles, first meet the risen Christ, contrasts the women's holy fear with the bribery of the guards, and reads the Great Commission as Christ's giving to his humanity what his divinity always had.
  • Sermon 83Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains that the eleven “reclining” when Christ appeared were not feasting but prostrate in grief, and expounds the commission to preach, the faith required for baptism, and the signs that follow believers.
  • Sermon 88Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus argues that Zacharias prayed not for a son but for the salvation of all, and that the angel's promise of John answered that prayer; he then turns Baruch 3:36–38 against the heretics as a witness to Christ's deity.
  • Sermon 99Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains the parable of the leaven as a pair with the mustard seed: man and woman, Adam and Eve, are restored through Christ and Mary; the woman is the church, the leaven heavenly teaching, and the three measures the Law, Prophets and Gospels.
  • Sermon 109Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On Rom 12:1 Chrysologus explains that body and soul together are to be offered as a reasonable sacrifice, contrasting unreasoning worship from Cain to Arius and Photinus; the passage also contains Sermon 110, on justification by faith and Christ's death for the ungodly (Rom 4:23–5:8).
  • Sermon 131Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Showing that God, though invisible, often appeared in human form, Chrysologus expounds John 8:51–59, explaining that “he will not see death forever” promises resurrection, that Christ is greater than Abraham, and that the Father's “let us make man” is spoken to the Son.
  • Sermon 144Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Continuing the Annunciation (Luke 1:30–33), Chrysologus insists that Christ's conception and body were real, explains the name Jesus as Savior, answers heretics who use “the Lord God will give him” to make the Son lesser, and urges his hearers to seek the everlasting offices of Christ's kingdom.
  • Sermon 160Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On the Epiphany, Chrysologus describes the magi abandoning astrology to worship the infant God with gifts, Christ's baptism with the Father's voice and the Spirit's descent, and the miracle at Cana as a figure of his blood, three testimonies to his Godhead.
  • Sermon 170Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Expounding Mark 6:6–9, Chrysologus describes the many forms in which Christ comes in search of humanity (fire, pillar, eagle, hen, shepherd), interprets the twelve apostles as a chariot of the Trinity and their sending two by two as a figure of the call of Jews and gentiles, and urges trust in God's provision instead of riches.
  • 1.4Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius blames a presbyter nicknamed Baucalis for starting the dispute between Bishop Alexander and Arius.
  • 1.7Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius claims Alexander of Alexandria and Hosius agreed on the homoousion and the condemnation of Arius before Nicaea.
  • 1.9Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius says all at Nicaea signed except Secundus and Theon, and that Eusebius of Nicomedia and his party signed deceitfully at Constantia's advice.
  • 2.1Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius claims Constantine turned against the Nicene term, that Alexander briefly subscribed, then returned to his own view.
  • 2.3Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius faults Arius for teaching that God is unknowable even to the Son, and names the few Arians who did not hold it.
  • 2.15Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius on which of Lucian's disciples kept his doctrine and which, like Theognis and Asterius, departed from it.
  • 3.12Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius's account of Athanasius's restoration through Constans's threat of war, and of the bishops who came over to him.
  • 3.13Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius claims Flavian of Antioch first introduced the doxology “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.”
  • 3.16Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Aetius defeats Basil of Ancyra and Eustathius of Sebaste in debate and earns their hatred.
  • 4.3Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius claims Liberius and Hosius signed against the homoousion and Athanasius at Sirmium, after which Liberius returned to Rome and Felix withdrew.
  • 4.8Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Basil of Ancyra has Aetius, Eudoxius and Theophilus exiled and promotes the formula “like in all things”; Eunomius is also banished.
  • 4.9Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Basil's party promotes the homoiousion and wins over Macedonius and many bishops.
  • 4.10Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Constantius summons councils at Ariminum and Nicomedia; an earthquake destroys the bishops gathering at Nicomedia, and Ariminum adopts “like according to the Scriptures.”
  • 4.11Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · The council of Seleucia splits: Basil's party affirms “like in essence” and deposes its opponents, who circulate a tome for the heteroousion.
  • 4.12Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · At the council of Constantinople (360) Aetius defeats Basil in debate but is expelled and deposed, and all sign the Western formula “like according to the Scriptures.”
  • 5.1Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · After the council of Constantinople Acacius deposes Basil, Macedonius and Aetius, and fills the vacant sees, Meletius at Antioch among them.
  • 6.1Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Accused of teaching that the Son is unlike the Father, Eunomius defends himself at Constantinople and wins the clergy and people.
  • 6.2Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Photius condemns Eunomius's Theophany sermon, which taught that Joseph lived with Mary as husband after Christ's birth and that the Son serves the Father and the Spirit the Son.
  • 8.17Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius lists the leaders of the homoiousian party.
  • 10.2Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius criticizes Arius's teaching that God is only partially knowable, and the councils that declared the Son's generation unknowable.
  • 10.3Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius on the divisions among the Arians over the Son's likeness to the Father, which he says all lead to the homoousion, and on their simony and vices.
  • Book 1, lines 17–42Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Since pagan poets sing lies and crimes, Sedulius, a singer of the Psalms, will sing the miracles of Christ, who shares one power and glory with the Father, and he urges readers to leave pagan philosophy for the law of life.
  • Book 1, lines 288–311Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Christ is the rejected cornerstone; having told the Father's miracles in the Old Testament, Sedulius will tell the Son's in the New, all works of the one triune God, and he condemns Arius, who made the Son less than the Father as among men.
  • Book 1, lines 312–336Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Christ is the Father's Word and Wisdom, light from light, begotten not made, equal to the Father; against Arius, the Father and Son are one, and against Sabellius they are two, both heresies being as foolish as the quarrelling sects of philosophers.
  • Book 2, lines 97–122Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · The three gifts confess the triune God; the magi return home by another way, as believers must not go back to the evil one; Herod, deceived, massacres the infants like a lion robbed of its prey.
  • Book 2, lines 150–174Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Christ takes away sin as light dispels darkness; by his baptism he sanctifies the waters, and the Father's voice, the Son and the Spirit as a dove reveal the one triune God.
  • Book 4, lines 297–309Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Christ enters Jerusalem humbly on a donkey, while the people spread their garments and greet him with palms and hymns, a glory given to no other king; Book 4 ends with praise of the Trinity.
  • Hymn 1 (108 lines)Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · In a hymn of repeating couplets Sedulius traces sacred history from the devil's fall and Adam's sin through the figures of the Old Testament (Abel, the flood, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, the Exodus, the conquest, Gideon, Jephthah, David) to their fulfillment in Christ's birth, death, resurrection and coming judgment, ending with a doxology to the Trinity.
  • Book 1, section 1Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Since pagan poets celebrate lies and crimes, Sedulius, a singer of the Psalms, will tell the saving miracles of Christ, who is equal to the Father in power and glory, and he calls the Greeks from pagan philosophy and idolatry to the waters of baptism.
  • Book 1, section 28Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Christ is the rejected cornerstone; having told the Father's works in the Old Testament, Sedulius will tell the Son's works in the New, all the works of the one God in three persons.
  • Book 1, section 29Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Arius, who made the Son less than the Father as among men, died a shameful death; Christ is begotten not made, equal to the Father, one with him, against Arius, and distinct from him, against Sabellius; both heresies are as foolish as the quarrels of philosophers.
  • Book 2, section 8Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · The magi follow the star to Christ and adore him as true worshippers; they represent the Gentiles called into the one fold; their three gifts proclaim Christ king, God and mortal man, and their number the triune God, who is eternal, as Christ's 'before Abraham was, I am' shows.
  • Book 2, section 13Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · At Christ's baptism the heavens opened, showing that heaven is opened to the baptized; the dove signifies gentleness; and the Father's voice, the Son and the Spirit together reveal the one God in three persons.
  • Book 5, section 1Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Book 5 begins as the Passover nears: Christ, troubled as man, prays to the Father, who answers from heaven; many say it thundered, fulfilling Isaiah's word about blindness, but the voice revealed the Father in the Son.
  • Book 5, section 37Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Christ commands the apostles to teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • Retractations 2.15Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine tells how his books On the Trinity were taken before they were finished, how he completed and published them, and corrects remarks in Books 11 and 12.
  • Retractations 2.52Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine notes his point-by-point reply to an anonymous Arian sermon.
  • The Conferences 7.13John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Only the Trinity can penetrate a soul, for only God is incorporeal; angels and souls have subtle bodies of their own, and God alone sees the heart.
  • The Conferences 8.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Serenus offers his answer on the origin of the demons as a provisional opinion, not touching faith in the Trinity, though grounded on Scripture.
  • The Conferences 9.34John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac lists many grounds on which prayer is heard, above all persevering importunity, which anyone can offer; delays should not discourage, but confidence applies to what accords with God’s will, so every prayer should end, as Christ’s did, “not as I will, but as you will.”
  • The Conferences 10.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Perfection is the fulfilment of Christ’s prayer in John 17, when all a person’s love, thought, and life become God and the whole of life becomes one continual prayer, a foretaste of heaven.
  • The Conferences 16.13John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Love is so divine that John calls it God, and Paul says it is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who prays within us.
  • On the Predestination of the Saints 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Coming to Christ is believing, and is given by the Father's inward teaching; God teaches all who come, out of mercy, and those he does not teach are not taught by judgment; faith, begun and completed, is God's gift, given to some and not others by his just and hidden judgment.
  • Instructions 1.2Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 428-434 · The water, blood and Spirit of 1 John 5:8 are read either as baptism, martyrdom and the soul, or as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • Instructions 2.15Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 428-434 · Church terms of Greek origin explained (God, homoousion, bishop, presbyter, deacon, catholic, eucharist, creed), and the conclusion of the work.
  • On the Gift of Perseverance 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Augustine concludes that both the beginning of faith and perseverance are God's gifts, urges prayer rather than dispute, and presents Christ, whose humanity was united to the Word without prior merit, as the supreme example of predestination; he invites correction.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 1.2John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Cassian lists earlier heresies, from Ebion to Apollinaris, and a recent one from Gaul that taught that Christ was born a mere man and earned his Godhead, a forerunner of the present heresy.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 1.5John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Cassian quotes Leporius’ retraction: Christ is one person, one and the same God and man, the two substances neither divided into two Christs nor blended into one.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 2.2John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Against Nestorius’ refusal of the title Theotokos, Cassian argues from Luke 2:11 and 1:35 that the one born of Mary is Lord, Savior and Son of God, and that his conception required the coming of the whole Trinity.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 3.4John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Gal 1:1, where Paul says he was sent not through man but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, shows Christ to be God, one in power with the Father though distinct in person.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 3.7John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · The Christ who spoke in Paul must be God; and since Scripture speaks interchangeably of the judgment seat of Christ and of God, and of the Spirit of God and of Christ, Christ is God.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 3.13John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Christ’s blessing of Peter shows that his confession was revealed by the Father’s Spirit, so it carries the authority of the whole Trinity; denial comes from a demonic spirit.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 3.16John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · As the sign from heaven Nestorius might demand, Cassian points to Christ’s baptism: the opened heavens, the descending Spirit and the Father’s voice all declare that the one baptized is the Son of God.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 4.1John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Having shown Christ to be God in the flesh, Cassian now shows that he was God before the incarnation, beginning with Gal 4:4: God sent his Son, who therefore existed before.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 4.9John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · The prophets also proclaim the incarnation: “This is our God … he was seen on earth” (Bar 3:36–38, cited as Jeremiah) can only mean the Son, and Isa 45:14–15, “You are our God, and we did not know it,” is the church’s answer.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 5.4John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Christ differs from the saints as the dweller from the dwelling: they are sons by adoption, he Son by nature, eternally begotten, in whom the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells from the beginning and who himself dwells in the saints.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 6.3John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Cassian now refutes Nestorius from the baptismal creed of Antioch in which he was baptized, quoting it and explaining that the creed (symbolum) gathers the whole of Scripture into a short word.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 6.16John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · One conceived of the Holy Spirit cannot be a mere man; if he is other than the eternal Son, Nestorius makes two Sons to be worshiped and adds a fourth person to the Trinity.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 7.17John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Nestorius says the Spirit created, justified, empowered, consecrated and raised Christ, as if he had nothing of his own; Cassian answers that Wisdom built her own house, the Spirit cooperating, since the works of the Trinity are inseparable.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 7.19John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · The apostles cast out demons and healed in Christ’s name, never their own; Christ healed and raised by his own word and authority, so his power was his own, not lent by the Spirit.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 7.21John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · The Spirit’s descent at the baptism pointed out Christ’s dignity without making the Spirit greater; the three persons share equal honor; Nestorius’ view echoes the Pelagian claim that Christ became Christ at his baptism.
  • On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 7.23John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Christ did not receive glory as a gift: Ps 24 calls him the King of glory entering heaven, and he speaks of coming in his own glory, which he shares with the Father and the Spirit.
  • Cyril, Twelve Anathemas, Anathema IXAnonymous · 430–433 · Ninth anathema: the Spirit by whom Christ worked miracles is his own, not a foreign power lent to him.
  • Sermon on the Life of Honoratus 38Hilary of Arles · ca. 430 · Honoratus delighted in prayer and psalms even in sleep, longed for martyrdom, and taught the Trinity with great clarity.
  • Carmen de Christo 1–30Flavius Merobaudes · ca. 430-450 · A short hymn to Christ: the eternal Son, born of the Virgin, recognized by the Magi, who raised the dead, descended to the realm of death, rose and ascended, and is one with the Father in a threefold light.
  • Oration 1.8Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · The Redeemer is neither a mere man, against the Jews, nor God without a body, against the Manichees; to divide Christ into two would make the Trinity a quaternity, and the Psalms name the one who appeared as God and Lord.
  • Oration 2.1Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · Proclus praises the healing power of psalmody and David's witness to the Trinity, and turns Psalm 104's “How magnified are your works” against Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, and Nestorius.
  • Oration 3.3Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · The wonder of the Nativity, celebrated the day before, is the unconfused union of Godhead and manhood in one Son, born of the Virgin without change, who is God from the Father and man from us.
  • Oration 7.5Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · John protests that creation would rise against him for baptizing the sinless Lord; Proclus proclaims what Christ's appearing has brought, and the Father's voice and the Spirit as a dove identify the one baptized as the beloved Son.
  • Oration 8.3Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · The Father's voice from the cloud answers Peter: the one he would house in a tent is the Son who created all things with the Father and took the Virgin's womb as his tent, one and the same Son in whom the Father is well pleased.
  • Oration 8.4Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · The Father's voice, heard at the Jordan and on Tabor, fulfils the psalm “Tabor and Hermon will rejoice in your name”; Christ must not stay on the mountain, for he came down to suffer and redeem, and he is to be heard in faith.
  • Oration 13.2Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · In Christ all things are new: heaven, earth, sea, life, humanity cleansed by baptism, and worship, which now glorifies the three hypostases in one being.
  • Oration 15.1Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · John the Theologian alone spoke of the eternal birth of the Word; the five phrases of John 1:1–3, like David's five stones, defend the church against Greeks, Jews, Manichees, and heretics and confess the consubstantial Trinity.
  • Oration 15.2Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · The Son's eternal birth from the Father had no witness, for before it there was no time, angel, heaven, sun, moon, or earth, all of which the Son himself made.
  • Oration 15.4Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · By faith John, a mere man, rose to see the Word begotten of the Father and the Trinity worshipped in unity, and spoke of God more boldly than the seraphim who veil their faces.
  • Oration 16.1Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · At Pentecost the Spirit made fearful fishermen bold, as Peter's change shows; against those who deny the Spirit's Godhead, Proclus argues from the third hour, the fire, the sound from heaven, and Paul's use of Isaiah 6 that the Spirit is Lord and God.
  • Oration 16.2Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · The Spirit who appeared at Christ's baptism sat on the apostles as fire, punished Ananias, distributes gifts, overshadowed Mary, and in baptism burns away sins and enlightens the newly baptized.
  • Oration 19.5Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · The Messiah Andrew found is the one seen by the patriarchs and Moses, begotten without beginning; many were called anointed, but all died, while the one Christ is God by nature and man by compassion.
  • Confession of FaithAcacius of Beroea · ca. 431-437 · Acacius of Beroea confesses one God in three persons and one Son of God from two natures, passible in the flesh and impassible in the divinity.
  • Letters 2Capreolus of Carthage · 431-433 · Capreolus answers Vitalis and Constantius against the Nestorian heresy: the Son of God and son of man are one inseparable person, as many Scriptures show, so that God was born, suffered and descended to the dead in the man he took.
  • Part 5Eutherius of Tyana · ca. 431-440 · The author denies that confessing the flesh as a nature adds a fourth to the Trinity, since the flesh is not of the divine substance, comparing it to the garment whose hem healed the woman.
  • Mercator 17Marius Mercator · after 431 (ca. 431-450) · Mercator anathematizes the creed he ascribes to Theodore, arguing from Scripture and from the union of soul and body that Christ is one Son and one person, the Word made flesh, not a man joined to the Word by grace.
  • Chapter 8Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · Theodotus quotes the Nicene Creed of the 318 Fathers as a rule of faith that speaks of one Son and is to be believed, not argued over.
  • Chapter 9Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · The Nicene Fathers, facing Arius as the church now faces Nestorius, began the creed with the one Father so that the Son too would be confessed as one.
  • Chapter 24Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · The Nicene Fathers, by placing faith in the Holy Spirit beside faith in the Father and Son, showed the Spirit's equal Godhead; Theodotus ends by dedicating the work to his addressee.
  • Section 12Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · Christ sent out unarmed apostles who won the world by persuasion; converts left pagan myth and Jewish unbelief to confess the Trinity and Christ, complete in Godhead and perfect in manhood, worshipped by angels, by Simeon and Anna, by the Magi, and by all the adopted sons.
  • Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 72.5Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · Theodotus prepares an example from human speech, explaining that Scripture calls the Son 'Word', 'Son', and 'radiance' to guard against blasphemous understanding.
  • Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 72.6Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · 'Son' shows sameness of essence, 'Word' the impassibility of the generation, and 'radiance' the Son's eternal coexistence with the Father.
  • Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 72.8Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · Applying the image: the Father is like the mind, the Son like its word, and the virgin like the hand that makes the word visible; God loathes nothing he made.
  • Homily 1, on the Nativity (Alexandria, 432)Paul of Emesa · Dec 432-433 · On Christmas at Alexandria, Paul proclaims Mary Theotokos and one Christ in two perfect natures, rejects “two sons”, and is acclaimed by the people as orthodox; he ends by inviting Cyril to preach.
  • Homily 3, on Peace (Alexandria, 432)Paul of Emesa · Dec 432-433 · The opening of a third homily, giving thanks for the peace Christ gave the world through the Spirit.
  • Psalm 109Prosper of Aquitaine · after 432, before 455 · Psalm 110 (109) is read of Christ as David's Lord and son, seated at the Father's right hand, one beginning with the Father, born before all ages and of the Virgin, and priest for ever after Melchizedek.
  • Psalm 135Prosper of Aquitaine · after 432, before 455 · Psalm 136 (135) is read as praise of God's eternal mercy in creation and in redemption, with the exodus figuring baptism, the Eucharist, and victory over the devil.
  • Commonitory 12Vincent of Lérins · 434 · Vincent summarizes the errors of Photinus on the Trinity, of Apollinaris on Christ's soul and flesh, and of Nestorius on two persons in Christ.
  • Commonitory 13Vincent of Lérins · 434 · Against these errors Vincent sets out the catholic faith: in God one substance and three persons, in Christ two substances and one person.
  • Commonitory 16Vincent of Lérins · 434 · Vincent recapitulates, anathematizing Photinus, Apollinaris and Nestorius and blessing the church's faith in the Trinity and the one person of Christ.
  • Tome to the Armenians 8Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 435-437 · Love moved God the Word to become flesh; he became incarnate without change of nature and without adding a fourth to the Trinity.
  • Tome to the Armenians 16Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 435-437 · There is one Son, eternally begotten, who without leaving the Father became man through a virgin birth beyond nature.
  • Tome to the Armenians 19Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 435-437 · Proclus confesses one hypostasis of God the Word made flesh: the same Son works miracles and suffers.
  • Tome to the Armenians 20Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 435-437 · Proclus states the opponents' syllogism that, since the Trinity is impassible, the one crucified must be someone other than God the Word, and calls it a spider's web.
  • Tome to the Armenians 21Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 435-437 · The Trinity is impassible in its Godhead; the one of the Trinity became flesh so that in his flesh he might abolish the passions and death while his Godhead remained impassible.
  • Tome to the Armenians 27Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 435-437 · The one Son made the world, gave the law, and became flesh; Proclus condemns Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, and the new teaching, which he says outdoes Judaism in blasphemy.
  • Epigram 3: De vera æternitateProsper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · Only the triune God is truly eternal and unchangeable; creatures, even those given everlasting life, are subject to change and so are not eternal in the same sense.
  • Epigram 55: De essentia DeitatisProsper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · Whatever is not God is a creature, so there can be no inequality within the Trinity: the Son and the Spirit are fully God with the Father.
  • Epigram 65: De Incarnatione Verbi Dei (Migne also numbers it LXIV)Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · The Word, equal to the Father, shared our mortality so that we might share his divinity; the triune God redeemed humanity through Christ's innocent death, the Word united to flesh without confusion or division.
  • Epigram 101: De fine sanctorum (Migne also numbers it XCVIII)Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · Three verse epigrams without their prose sentences: the narrow path to Christ's glory, the mind's rule over the flesh in hope of the kingdom whose firstfruits are in Christ, and the one God and one faith that raises hope and love to heaven.
  • Epigram 104: De confitendo uno Deo (Migne also numbers it CI)Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · The Father and the Son act inseparably, and with the Spirit are one God, as Christ says, "I and the Father are one."
  • Epigram 105: De eodem (Migne also numbers it CII)Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · The Son has life in himself by birth from the Father, sharing one Godhead with the Father and the Spirit; and (Epigram 106) no believer should ever say "it is enough," but keep seeking God to the end.
  • Psalm 28:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 29:1–2: the psalm fits Hezekiah's victory over the Assyrians as a type, and in truth Christ's sending of the apostles to bring the nations to God.
  • Psalm 32:5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 33:5–6: we should imitate God's mercy and judgment; the Word and Spirit by whom the heavens were made are, in true theology, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who together made heaven and the invisible powers.
  • Psalm 35:10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 36:9: the spring of life with the Father is the Son, and the light in which we see light is the Spirit; the verse reveals the Trinity.
  • Psalm 44:8Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 45:7: Christ was anointed with the Spirit as man, not as God, with whom the Spirit is consubstantial; his partners are the believers.
  • Psalm 49:14–15Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 50:14–17: the sacrifice of praise belongs to the new covenant, and the threefold naming hints at the Trinity; God rebukes those who teach the law but break it.
  • Psalm 49:23Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 50:23: praise must go with an ordered life; the shift between "me" and "God" again hints at two persons.
  • Psalm 54:17Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 55:16: the psalmist cried to God and was heard; an added note sees prayer to both Father and Son.
  • Psalm 55:11Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 56:10–11: the psalmist adorns every word with God's name and fears no human plot.
  • Psalm 57:5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 58:4–5: Saul, unmoved by David's appeals, is like the asp that stops its ears to the charmer; an added passage applies the verse to the Arian, Eunomian, and Macedonian heretics and their baptism and doxologies.
  • Psalm 61:8Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 62:7: the repeated names of God are taken (in a bracketed addition) to point to the three hypostases of the Trinity; the faithful call God their helper against impiety.
  • Psalm 67:36Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 68:35: God is glorified through his saints; as he strengthened Jacob he will strengthen his new people; an addition explains the divine names as belonging to the undivided Trinity.
  • Psalm 73:19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 74:19: the prayer is for those who confess God (an addition: the Crucified as consubstantial God) against the beasts, and for the poor in spirit.
  • Psalm 78:5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 79:5: the people ask how long God's jealousy, as the law describes it, will burn; an addition explains "one God" as the essence of Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • Psalm 80:11Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 81:10: echoing the first commandment, God forbids a new or foreign god, which Theodoret turns against Arius and Eunomius, who make the Son not consubstantial and not eternal.
  • Psalm 92:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 93:2: Christ's kingdom is eternal, not newly given, as Psalms 45 and 102 show, applied to him in Hebrews.
  • Psalm 101:28Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 102:27: Hebrews applies these words to the Son; since Father and Son act alike, they share one nature and the Trinity has one operation.
  • Psalm 109:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 110:1: as Christ and Peter show, David calls his descendant 'Lord,' proving Christ's divinity and shared substance with the Father; he sits at the right hand as man, having eternal power as God; 'until' does not set a limit to his reign.
  • Psalm 109:3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 110:3: Christ's power will be shown at his second coming when the saints shine; 'from the womb before the morning star' teaches his eternal begetting and consubstantiality with the Father.
  • Psalm 138:7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 139:7: no one can flee God; since God and the Holy Spirit have one operation, they have one power and one nature.
  • Psalm 142:10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 143:10: David asks to do God's will; the 'good Spirit' who guides, called good as God is good, shows the Spirit's divine dignity.
  • Psalm 148:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 148:1: all creation is summoned to praise, inanimate things by giving rational beings cause; the two heavens of Genesis hold angelic choirs; since the Son and Spirit are never among those who praise but are praised, they are not creatures.
  • Consolatory Letter to Arcadius 1Antoninus Honoratus · ca. 437-440 · Antoninus encourages the exiled confessor Arcadius to persevere to martyrdom rather than yield to Arianism, and explains by analogies how the one triune God works together while the Son alone took flesh.
  • Chapter 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · God the almighty Father has a Son equal to himself, God from God, day from day, light from light, yet one God, one day, one light.
  • Chapter 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The Son is light from light with the Father, one light, against the Manichaeans and the Arians; if David and Sirach could not comprehend even the soul or the creation, no one can search out God’s Wisdom.
  • Chapter 7Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The Arian who cannot count the raindrops or his own hairs presumes to dispute about God’s Wisdom and calls the Son less, though even a wise man rejoices to leave a son like himself.
  • Chapter 8Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · Christ’s words “The Father is greater than I” refer to his human nature, in which he was less even than the angels, while in the form of God he is equal to the Father.
  • Chapter 18Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The Jews’ malice served salvation, and their dispersion with the prophetic books witnesses to Christ against the pagans; then (chapter 19) the Holy Spirit is confessed equal to Father and Son against the Arians, who rebaptize.
  • Against Five Heresies 1Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The preacher, paying a promised debt, sets out the five enemies of the faith: pagans, Jews, Manichaeans, Sabellians, and Arians, each with its objection.
  • Against Five Heresies 3Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · Against the pagan objection that a divine Son requires a divine marriage, the preacher cites Hermes Trismegistus and the Sibyl on the Son of God, the Word of wisdom born of God alone.
  • Against Five Heresies 4Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · Against the Jews (and the Sabellians and Arians) the preacher reads the angel-theophanies of Exodus 23, Genesis 19, Exodus 3, and Joshua 5 as appearances of the Son, and Isaiah’s words on God’s begetting and the word that goes out from his mouth.
  • Against Five Heresies 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The Arian who confesses the Creed but denies the Son’s eternity is asked how he can divide the inheritance of peace, like the false mother before Solomon; Scripture and the likeness of fire and its brightness show Father and Son distinct yet one, eternal God.
  • Against Five Heresies 7Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · Against Sabellians and Arians the preacher argues from Isaiah 45, Christ’s prayer, and the Transfiguration that the Father and Son are two and equal, and protests against Arian rebaptism and bribery of Catholics.
  • Against Five Heresies 8Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The sermon closes by confessing the Holy Spirit equal and one with the Father and the Son, the one God who is love.
  • Sermon on the Barbarian Time 3Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The good suffer with the wicked because none is perfectly good but God; their trials are a refining, while parents who love their children more than Christ and tolerate blasphemy and the shows share the blame.
  • On the Governance of God 5.9Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · The Arian barbarians are heretics unknowingly, sincerely believing they honor God.
  • Church History 1.5Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, suspecting his bishop Alexander of Sabellianism, argues that the begotten Son had a beginning and came from nothing.
  • Church History 1.6Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Arianism spreads, supported by Eusebius of Nicomedia; Alexander deposes Arius and sends out a circular letter refuting his teaching; the Melitians join the Arians.
  • Church History 1.8Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Constantine convenes the synod of Nicaea; Socrates quotes Eusebius on the assembly, the Nicene Creed, the five who objected to homoousios, and Eusebius of Caesarea’s letter to his church explaining his assent.
  • Church History 1.23Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis, restored, work against Athanasius and for Arius’s return; meanwhile bishops quarrel over homoousios, Eustathius of Antioch and Eusebius of Caesarea accusing each other.
  • Church History 1.26Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Arius and Euzoius submit to Constantine a brief creed, without homoousios, and ask to be reunited with the church.
  • Church History 2.10Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · The Eusebians appoint Gregory to Alexandria and issue the creeds of the dedication synod of Antioch (341), professing not to follow Arius; Franks invade Gaul and earthquakes strike Antioch.
  • Church History 2.18Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Eastern envoys present Constans with a new creed instead of explaining the depositions of Athanasius and Paul; Photinus of Sirmium teaches that the Son was a mere man.
  • Church History 2.19Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Three years later the eastern bishops send to Italy the long creed (Ekthesis makrostichos, 344), with explanations condemning both Arian phrases and the teaching of Marcellus, Photinus, and the Sabellians.
  • Church History 2.20Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · The westerners reject the long creed; the synod of Sardica (343) meets, the easterners withdraw to Philippopolis, and the westerners confirm Nicaea and restore Athanasius, Paul, and Marcellus.
  • Church History 2.21Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Socrates defends Eusebius of Caesarea against the charge of Arianism, quoting his assent at Nicaea and his works against Marcellus on Prov 8:22 (“created” as “appointed”).
  • Church History 2.30Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Socrates gives the first creed of Sirmium (351) with its anathemas, and a Latin formula that forbids the terms ousia, homoousios, and homoiousios and calls the Father greater; Photinus is defeated in debate by Basil of Ancyra.
  • Church History 2.37Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · The synod of Ariminum (359) rejects the dated creed of Sirmium (“like in all things”, banning “essence”), confirms Nicaea, and deposes Valens, Ursacius, and others; Socrates quotes Athanasius’s ridicule of the dated creed, the synod’s letter, and Constantius’s replies; Liberius is exiled and Felix installed; the Arians publish the creed at Nice in Thrace.
  • Church History 2.39Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · The eastern synod, moved from Nicomedia after an earthquake, meets at Seleucia (359); it splits between Acacius’s party, which rejects Nicaea, and the majority, who accept all of Nicaea but the word homoousios and sign the creed of the Antioch dedication.
  • Church History 2.40Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · At Seleucia Acacius’s party presents a creed rejecting homoousios and homoiousios and confessing the Son “like” the Father; the majority depose Acacius, Eudoxius, and others, appoint Anianus to Antioch, and go to Constantinople to report to the emperor.
  • Church History 2.41Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Acacius’s party at Constantinople (360) reissues the creed of Ariminum, adding that neither “essence” nor “hypostasis” be used of God; Socrates counts the creeds since Nicaea; Ulfilas of the Goths accepts it.
  • Church History 2.44Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Meletius, made bishop of Antioch, preaches the homoousios and is exiled; Euzoius replaces him, and the Nicene party at Antioch splits between Meletians and the older Nicene congregation.
  • Church History 2.45Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Macedonius allies with the Seleucia majority, whose homoiousian party (Macedonians, Marathonians) denies the Spirit’s divinity; at Antioch the Anomoeans openly declare the Son unlike the Father and from nothing, defending “from God” by 1 Cor 11:12.
  • Church History 3.7Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · The synod of Alexandria (362) affirms the Spirit’s divinity and Christ’s human soul, and rules on the terms essence and hypostasis; Socrates adds his own remarks on the word hypostasis and quotes Evagrius.
  • Church History 3.10Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Hilary of Poitiers defends the homoousios in Latin books; the Macedonians, through Sophronius, claim a middle way, “like in hypostasis”, between homoousios and Aetius’s “unlike”.
  • Church History 3.25Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Jovian refuses the Macedonians’ petition and urges concord; Acacius’s party, with Meletius at Antioch (363), accepts the Nicene faith, explaining homoousios as “like in essence”; Themistius praises Jovian’s toleration.
  • Church History 4.7Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Eudoxius makes Eunomius bishop of Cyzicus; Socrates describes Eunomius's sophistry and quotes his claim that God knows his own essence no better than we do.
  • Church History 4.12Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · The Macedonians send envoys to Liberius of Rome, who receives them into communion after they sign the Nicene creed; their confession and Liberius's reply are quoted, and a planned synod at Tarsus is blocked by Eudoxius.
  • Church History 4.25Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Didymus the Blind, learned despite blindness from childhood, defends the Nicene faith at Alexandria; Antony had told him to rejoice in the eyes that angels have.
  • Church History 5.4Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · The Macedonians separate again from the Nicene party at a synod at Antioch, but most of their people leave them.
  • Church History 5.8Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Theodosius convenes the synod of Constantinople (381): the Macedonians walk out, Nectarius is ordained bishop, Constantinople is given precedence after Rome, and the dioceses are assigned to leading bishops.
  • Church History 5.10Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Theodosius holds a conference of all sects; on Sisinnius's advice he asks whether they accept the pre-Nicene teachers, and then, reading each creed, accepts only the Nicene one and favours the Novatians.
  • Church History 5.23Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · The Arians of Constantinople split over whether God was Father before the Son existed, into Dorotheans and Psathyrians, and are reunited only in 419.
  • Church History 5.24Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · The Eunomians split into Theophronians and Eutychians, who baptize into Christ's death rather than the Trinity; Socrates refers readers to Epiphanius's Ancoratus for the list of heresies.
  • Church History 6.8Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · John organizes Nicene night processions with hymns to counter the Arians' antiphonal songs, leading to a riot; Socrates traces antiphonal singing to a vision of Ignatius of Antioch.
  • Church History 6.13Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Socrates defends Origen: his critics Methodius, Eustathius, Apollinaris and Theophilus never accused him of error about the Trinity, and Athanasius cited him as a witness to Nicene faith.
  • Church History 7.6Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Under the Arian bishop Barbas the presbyters George, a Platonist, and Timothy, a follower of Origen, soften Arian teaching; Socrates, who knew Timothy, wonders that such men stayed Arian.
  • Church History 1.15Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The Arian controversy begins: Arius's earlier career, his teaching that the Son was made from nothing, his excommunication by Alexander, and the support he wins from Eusebius of Nicomedia and bishops in Bithynia and Palestine.
  • Church History 1.20Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The council votes that the Son is of the same essence as the Father; Constantine threatens exile for opponents; Sozomen withholds the text of the creed out of reverence for the discipline of secrecy.
  • Church History 1.21Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The council declares the Son of the same essence as the Father, anathematizes Arius's formulas and his Thalia; Constantine exiles Arius, orders his writings burned, and deposes Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis.
  • Church History 2.16Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Arius is recalled from exile, and Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicaea recover their sees after sending the bishops a letter accepting the Nicene faith while explaining that they had refused only to condemn Arius personally.
  • Church History 2.18Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Eusebius of Nicomedia presses Athanasius to receive Arius's party, and Eusebius of Caesarea and Eustathius of Antioch accuse each other of departing from Nicaea and of Sabellianism.
  • Church History 2.21Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · In Egypt the Melitians, under John, make common cause with the Arians; elsewhere Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis erase their signatures to Nicaea and oppose “of the same essence,” angering Constantine.
  • Church History 2.27Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Through a presbyter favoured by Constantia, Constantine recalls Arius, who submits a creed in scriptural terms; the bishops gathered at Jerusalem receive Arius and Euzoius into communion.
  • Church History 3.5Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · At the dedication synod of Antioch (341) ninety-seven bishops appoint Gregory to Alexandria in place of Athanasius and issue creeds avoiding “of the same essence,” one said to be Lucian the martyr's.
  • Church History 3.11Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The Eastern bishops send the Long Exposition west; the council called to Sardica splits, and the Easterners, meeting apart, depose Julius of Rome, Hosius and others and issue their own creed.
  • Church History 3.12Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The Western bishops at Sardica, led by Hosius, acquit Athanasius, Marcellus, Asclepas and Lucius, depose leading Eastern bishops, and issue an expanded statement of the Nicene faith.
  • Church History 3.13Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · After Sardica East and West break communion; the West holds firmly to Nicaea under Rome's lead, while in the East many who agree in substance resist the word homoousios, and Paul, Athanasius and the monks hold openly to Nicaea.
  • Church History 3.18Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Constans keeps the Nicene faith; Constantius is persuaded to replace “of the same essence” with “of like essence” (homoiousios), which its proponents defended as more fitting for incorporeal beings.
  • Church History 3.19Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Sozomen rejects the Arian story that Constantine, persuaded by his sister, wished to undo Nicaea and charged Constantius to hold the council of Ariminum; the councils of Ariminum and Seleucia arose rather from Aetius's teaching.
  • Church History 3.20Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Under pressure from Constans, Constantius recalls Athanasius, who refuses communion with Leontius at Antioch and asks a church for the Eustathians; the rival doxologies at Antioch and Leontius's saying about the melting snow.
  • Church History 4.6Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · A synod at Sirmium (351) deposes Photinus, who taught that Christ began from Mary, and issues three creeds avoiding the language of essence; Hosius is forced to sign; Basil of Ancyra defeats Photinus in debate.
  • Church History 4.12Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Aetius openly teaches that the Son is unlike the Father; Eudoxius seizes the see of Antioch with court support and, with Acacius and Uranius, rejects both homoousios and homoiousios, appealing to the Western creed signed by Hosius at Sirmium.
  • Church History 4.13Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Opponents of Eudoxius bring George of Laodicea's letter to a synod at Ancyra, which sends Basil, Eustathius and Eleusius to Constantius; the emperor withdraws his support from Eudoxius.
  • Church History 4.14Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Constantius's letter to the church of Antioch disowns Eudoxius and denounces Aetius and his followers, affirming that the Son is like the Father in essence.
  • Church History 4.15Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · At Sirmium Liberius, under pressure from Basil and the Eastern bishops, signs a composite creed and anathematizes those who deny the Son is like the Father in essence; he returns to Rome, where Felix soon dies.
  • Church History 4.16Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · A planned synod at Nicomedia is cancelled when an earthquake destroys the city, foreseen by the confessor Arsacius, who dies praying; after much correspondence the Arian leaders arrange for separate councils at Ariminum and Seleucia.
  • Church History 4.17Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · At the council of Ariminum (359) over four hundred Western bishops reject the Dated Creed of Sirmium offered by Valens and Ursacius, reaffirm Nicaea, and depose its proponents, who appeal to the emperor.
  • Church History 4.18Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The synodal letter of the council of Ariminum to Constantius defends the Nicene faith, reports the deposition of Ursacius, Valens, Germinius, Auxentius and Gaius, and asks that the exiled bishops be allowed home.
  • Church History 4.19Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Constantius ignores the envoys of Ariminum; the bishops return home; Sozomen gives two accounts of how the council was later brought to sign the creed of Valens and Ursacius, published at Nice in Thrace to be confused with Nicaea.
  • Church History 4.22Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · At the council of Seleucia (359) the majority, led by George of Laodicea, Eleusius and Sophronius, uphold the Dedication Creed of Antioch against Acacius's party, which proposes a creed saying only that the Son is like the Father; the majority depose Acacius, Eudoxius, George of Alexandria and others.
  • Church History 4.23Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · At Constantinople Acacius's party wins over the court; Aetius is condemned, and Constantius, persuaded that “like” means the same as homoousios, presses the envoys of Seleucia to sign the creed of Ariminum.
  • Church History 4.27Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Macedonius, after his deposition, teaches that the Son is like the Father in essence but that the Holy Spirit is a ministering servant; his followers, sustained by the ascetic Marathonius, become known as Macedonians or Marathonians.
  • Church History 4.28Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Meletius, transferred to Antioch by Eudoxius's party, declares the Son of the same essence as the Father and, when the archdeacon covers his mouth, signs the Trinity with his fingers; he is exiled, Euzoius replaces him, and his followers form a separate congregation.
  • Church History 4.29Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The Acacian bishops at Antioch drop even “like” and teach that the Son is unlike the Father and from nothing, defending “God from God” by Paul's “all things are from God.”
  • Church History 5.12Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Lucifer and Eusebius return from exile; Lucifer ordains Paulinus at Antioch, while the synod of Alexandria (362) under Athanasius confirms Nicaea, confesses the Spirit consubstantial, and rules on ousia and hypostasis.
  • Church History 5.14Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The Macedonians, now a separate party, hold synods condemning the Acacians and the creed of Ariminum and claim a middle way between homoousios and the Anomoean doctrine.
  • Church History 6.4Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · After Julian’s death doctrinal disputes revive: the homoiousian bishops petition Jovian, and a synod at Antioch under Meletius and Acacius writes to him accepting the Nicene creed and explaining homoousios.
  • Church History 6.7Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The homoiousian bishops, permitted by Valentinian to meet, hold the synod of Lampsacus, annul the acts of Constantinople and uphold “like in essence”; Valens, won over by Eudoxius, exiles their envoys and persecutes Meletius’s party at Antioch.
  • Church History 6.10Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Amid earthquakes Valens and Eudoxius persecute the Macedonians, who send Eustathius, Silvanus and Theophilus to the West; at Rome they accept the homoousios before Liberius and are received into communion.
  • Church History 6.11Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The Macedonian envoys’ letter of confession to Liberius, accepting the Nicene faith and the homoousios and condemning Arius, the creed of Ariminum and other heresies.
  • Church History 6.16Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Basil, now bishop of Caesarea, defies Valens’s prefect, who threatens him with death; Valens honours him at Epiphany but plans his exile, until his son falls ill and Basil is called to pray for him.
  • Church History 6.22Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The dispute over whether the Holy Spirit is consubstantial with Father and Son grows; Anomoeans and homoiousians deny it, the Nicene leaders affirm it, and the bishop of Rome’s letter for a consubstantial Trinity quiets the question.
  • Church History 6.23Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Damasus succeeds Liberius at Rome despite the violent rival claim of Ursicinus; a Roman synod condemns Auxentius of Milan, and Sozomen quotes Damasus’s letter to the bishops of Illyricum upholding Nicaea and the consubstantial Spirit against the creed of Ariminum.
  • Church History 7.4Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Theodosius, baptized by Ascholius at Thessalonica during an illness, issues from there his law requiring all subjects to hold the faith taught by Peter and kept by Damasus and Peter of Alexandria, naming its adherents catholic and others heretics.
  • Church History 7.5Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · At Constantinople Gregory leads the Nicene minority in the Anastasia church, scene of healings and a woman restored to life; Theodosius orders the Arian bishop Demophilus to accept Nicaea or leave, and the Nicene party receives the churches (380).
  • Church History 7.6Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The Arians and Eunomius seek to win Theodosius, but the empress Placilla keeps him from meeting Eunomius; an old bishop who greets the young Arcadius without honour teaches the emperor that the Father is offended when the Son is not equally honoured.
  • Church History 7.7Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Theodosius summons the council of Constantinople (381): 150 Nicene bishops and 36 Macedonians, who refuse the homoousios and leave; Gregory of Nazianzus, chosen for the see, resigns in the face of opposition.
  • Church History 7.9Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The council of Constantinople confirms Nicaea, limits bishops to their own provinces, gives Constantinople second rank after Rome as “new Rome,” and annuls the ordination of Maximus the Cynic; Theodosius’s law names the bishops whose communion marks orthodoxy.
  • Church History 7.12Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Theodosius convenes the heads of the sects (383); on the Novatian Sisinnius’s advice they are asked to accept the pre-schism Fathers as authorities, and when they disagree each submits a creed, of which only the Nicene and Novatian are approved; laws against heretics follow.
  • Church History 7.17Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Theodosius exiles Eunomius; the Eunomians split over whether the Son knows the last hour (Eutychius), and the Arians of Constantinople over whether God was Father before the Son existed (Dorotheus against Marinus and the “Psathyrians”).
  • Poem on Genesis 1–30Hilary of Arles · ca. 440-449 · The poem opens with thanks to God the Father, eternal and uncreated, who before the creation was at work within the formless chaos.
  • Poem on Genesis 91–120Hilary of Arles · ca. 440-449 · God adorns the earth with plants, beasts, and birds, and then, speaking with his Son, makes man in his image and woman from his rib.
  • Church History 1.3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Alexander of Alexandria's letter to his namesake denounces Arius and Achillas, refutes their claim that the Son came from nothing and is changeable, sets out his own creed, and asks that the excommunicated men not be received; Theodoret then notes Alexander's other letters and introduces Arius's reply.
  • Church History 1.4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Arius writes to Eusebius of Nicomedia complaining that Bishop Alexander persecutes him for teaching that the Son has a beginning and is out of nothing; Theodoret identifies the bishops Arius names and introduces Eusebius's letter to Paulinus.
  • Church History 1.5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Eusebius of Nicomedia urges Paulinus of Tyre to write in support of the view that the Son is not from the Father's essence but was created by his will; Theodoret describes the strife the controversy caused in every city.
  • Church History 1.7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Theodoret shows that the Arian sympathizers signed at Nicaea insincerely, quoting Eustathius of Antioch on the tearing up of Eusebius's document and Athanasius's account of why the council chose the phrases “from the essence” and “of the same essence”; Theonas and Secundus are excommunicated and twenty canons are written.
  • Church History 1.11Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · To refute the Arians who claimed Eusebius of Caesarea as their own, Theodoret quotes Eusebius's letter to his church explaining how he presented his own creed at Nicaea, why he accepted the council's creed with “from the essence” and “of the same essence” as explained there, and why he accepted its anathemas.
  • Church History 2.5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Macedonius succeeds Paul at Constantinople but is later expelled by the Arians for refusing to call the Son a creature; he founds his own party, holding the Son like the Father in all things and the Spirit a creature.
  • Church History 2.6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Theodoret quotes the encyclical letter of the Western bishops at Sardica, which recounts the flight of the Eastern bishops, clears Athanasius, Marcellus, and Asclepas, deposes their opponents, and ends with a statement of faith confessing one hypostasis of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Constans then presses Constantius by letter to restore Athanasius.
  • Church History 2.15Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · At the council of Ariminum the Western bishops reject the Arian proposal to drop “essence” and “of the same essence,” excommunicate Ursacius, Valens, and their allies, and write to Constantius asking that the Nicene faith stand and that they be sent home; when their envoys are kept waiting, they write a second letter asking leave to return before winter.
  • Church History 2.16Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · The bishops of Ariminum are taken to Nike in Thrace and pressured into signing a creed that drops “essence” and “of the same essence” and calls the Son simply “like” the Father; Theodoret quotes it to show that even this rejects the later “unlike” teaching.
  • Church History 2.17Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Theodoret quotes the letter of Damasus of Rome and a Roman synod to the bishops of Illyricum, which condemns Auxentius of Milan, upholds the Nicene faith in one essence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and declares the council of Ariminum without force.
  • Church History 2.19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Leontius, a self-made eunuch, becomes bishop of Antioch, hides his Arian views by muttering the doxology, promotes Arians such as Aetius, and is opposed by the ascetics Flavian and Diodore, who introduce antiphonal psalm singing and night vigils at the martyrs' shrines.
  • Church History 2.23Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · At Constantinople Acacius turns Constantius against the bishops from Seleucia, slandering Cyril of Jerusalem; when Eustathius produces an Anomoean statement, Aetius admits authorship and is banished, Eudoxius is forced to disown it, Silvanus argues that rejecting “out of nothing” implies “of the same essence,” and the protesting bishops are expelled while Eudoxius takes Constantinople and Eunomius Cyzicus.
  • Church History 2.27Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · After the Persian war Constantius holds a synod at Antioch; Meletius, believed by the Arians to share their views, is chosen bishop by both parties, but when he expounds Prov 8:22 in an orthodox sense and sums up the faith by showing three fingers and then one, he is exiled and replaced by Euzoius, and the orthodox separate and meet in the Old Town.
  • Church History 4.3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Theodoret quotes Athanasius's letter to Jovian, which presents the creed of Nicaea as the faith of nearly all the churches, rejects both the Arians and those who reinterpret “of the same essence” or call the Holy Spirit a creature, and affirms one divinity of the Trinity.
  • Church History 4.7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Valentinian has a synod held in Illyricum, which upholds the Nicene faith, and sends its decrees with an imperial letter (in the names of Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian) to the bishops of Asia and Phrygia, urging them to stop persecuting the orthodox; the synod's summary confesses one essence of Father, Son, and Spirit in three hypostases.
  • Church History 4.8Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Theodoret quotes the synodal letter of the bishops of Illyricum to the bishops of Asia and Phrygia, sending the presbyter Elpidius, condemning those who separate the Holy Spirit from the Father and Son, prescribing that clergy be chosen from the clergy, and naming deposed Arians.
  • Church History 5.3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · At Antioch, when Sapor arrives, Paulinus and Apolinarius both claim communion with Damasus; Theodoret describes Apolinarius's teaching that Christ had no human mind, Flavian exposes both claimants, Meletius proposes that he and Paulinus share the flock with the Gospel on the throne between them, and Sapor gives the churches to Meletius.
  • Church History 5.9Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Theodoret quotes the letter of the bishops at Constantinople (382) to Damasus and the western bishops, declining to come to Rome, recounting their sufferings, professing one essence in three perfect hypostases and Christ's complete humanity, and defending the elections of Nectarius, Flavian, and Cyril.
  • Church History 5.11Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Theodoret gives the anathemas of the Roman synod under Damasus (the “Tome of Damasus”) against Sabellians, Arians, Macedonians, Photinians, Apolinarians, and others, affirming the full divinity and equality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Christ's complete human soul, and baptism into the one God, Father, Son, and Spirit.
  • Part 1, section 14Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 445-455 · The Chronicle covers Pertinax, Severus, and his successors to Alexander Severus, the Easter controversy, the fifth persecution with the martyrdoms of Leonides and Perpetua and Felicity, Sabellius, and Origen's On First Principles.
  • Part 1, section 17Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 445-455 · The Chronicle covers Diocletian's great persecution, the tetrarchs, the rise of Constantine and the restoration of peace to the church, the heresy of Arius, and the Council of Nicaea, which confessed the Homoousion.
  • Part 1, section 18Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 445-455 · The Chronicle covers the end of Constantine's reign, the Donatist schism, Constantine's baptism, the sons of Constantine, the Arian persecution of Athanasius and others, the Audaeans and Macedonians, and the exile of Liberius of Rome.
  • Part 1, section 19Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 445-455 · The Chronicle covers the struggles over the empire after Constans, the exile of Nicene bishops under Constantius, the death of Antony, the councils of Ariminum and Seleucia, Julian's persecution and death, and the accession of Valentinian and Valens.
  • Part 1, section 20Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 445-455 · The Chronicle covers Apollinaris's heresy, Damasus's election, Valens's persecution of the Nicenes, the deaths of Hilary, Eusebius of Vercelli, and Lucifer, Didymus, Eunomius, Ambrose's election at Milan, and the disaster of Adrianople, where Valens died.
  • Part 2, entry 2 (Gratiano V et Theodosio coss.)Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 445-455 · Ambrose writes on the faith, Theodosius is baptized, peace is made with the Goths, and the Council of Constantinople condemns Macedonius.
  • Part 2, chapter 30Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Elisha, who clung to Elijah and received a double portion of his spirit with his mantle, figures the disciples who received the Spirit twice, after the resurrection and at Pentecost, and did greater works than Christ.
  • Part 3, chapter 11Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Prophecies of the exalted Jordan and of the anointing with the oil of gladness are fulfilled at Christ’s baptism, where the Spirit came as a dove and the Father spoke.
  • Part 3, chapter 31Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalms on ascending on high and sending the Spirit are fulfilled in Christ’s ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost.
  • Part 5, chapter 8Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The saints will see God the Trinity face to face, which the impious will not see.
  • Part 5, chapter 10Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Son’s handing over of the kingdom to God the Father the impious will not see.
  • Epiphanius of Cyprus 12Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · The sins of the righteous are of the lips; a fragment of saying 13 compares the Decalogue and the beatitudes.
  • Sisoes 25Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Sisoes answers Arians only by having a book of Athanasius read aloud.
  • Genesis Question 19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret rejects the views that “Let us make” was addressed to angels or demons or was a royal plural, and reads it as a hint of the Trinity, connected with baptism and the incarnation.
  • Genesis Question 20Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret rejects locating the image of God in the soul's invisibility or in the body, and sets out the views that man is God's image as the centerpiece of creation, as ruler, as maker and judge, and in the mind with its word and spirit, an image of the Trinity.
  • Genesis Question 89Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Jacob trusted God, not the peeled rods, for his flocks; the one who appeared to him is called both angel and God, which shows that it was the Son, not the Father.
  • Exodus Question 5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The one who appeared in the burning bush is called both angel and God; Theodoret identifies him as the Son, the “angel of great counsel.”
  • Exodus Question 37Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret argues that the first commandment condemns the Arians and Eunomians, who call the Son God yet make him a creature.
  • Numbers Question 43Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The unicorn's single horn signifies Israel's worship of one God; no divination can foretell God's dealings with Israel, which he reveals through his prophets.
  • Deuteronomy Question 2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The Shema teaches the one divine nature while hinting at the three persons.
  • 2 Kingdoms Question 16Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · David took Jerusalem from the Jebusites, perhaps through the water channel, and made Zion the city of David; “the Lord Almighty was with him” shows that the Spirit is Lord Almighty.
  • 3 Kingdoms Question 3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The officials could rightly wish Solomon greater than David, since fathers rejoice in sons who surpass them; David blessed God and charged Solomon to keep the whole law.
  • 3 Kingdoms Question 28Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · God's dwelling “in darkness” signifies his invisible essence and the dim temple; David received the temple's plan from the Spirit, here called Lord, and passed it to Solomon.
  • 3 Kingdoms Question 54Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · God let the widow's son die to rouse Elijah's compassion and to confirm the widow's faith by his resurrection; then God himself asked Elijah to end the drought.
  • 3 Kingdoms Question 58Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Elijah gave Baal's prophets every advantage, mocked their failure, and then, after drenching the sacrifice three times, called down fire from God, before ending the drought.
  • 4 Kingdoms Question 19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The prophets' poverty was powerful: Elisha cured the poisoned pot, fed a hundred, healed Naaman and refused his gifts, punished Gehazi's greed, and made the axe-head float, a figure of the incarnation.
  • 1 Chronicles, exposition (before question 1)Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret surveys 1 Chronicles: its purpose as a supplement to Kingdoms written after the exile, the genealogies (Nathan, Judah's leadership pointing to Christ, the priests and singers), the Nethinim, the temple service, Saul's death and the medium, the Spirit called Lord Almighty, and the moving of the ark.
  • 1 Chronicles, question 1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · On 1 Chronicles 15–29: David's ephod was not priestly; the psalms are David's; his altar on Ornan's floor was accepted by fire from heaven; he was not to build the temple because Christ, his son, would build the churches and Solomon prefigured his peace; the singers prophesied; the Spirit who gave the temple plan is Lord.