Msgr. Paul J. Glenn, in his A Tour of the Summa,[i] simplifies the writing of St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica on this topic:
The topics contain the Questions and Articles numbered (27-43) exactly as in the Summa itself.
The Proceeding of the Divine Persons
1. Scripture indicates a proceeding in God. This cannot be a creatural movement, nor an operation involving change. It must be in God and of God. And it must be in the order of intellect and will (that is, the intellective order), for this is the most perfect type of proceeding.
2. There is in God an eternal proceeding, likened to our human knowing, in which God (the Father) eternally begets the Word. The Word is God the Son. This proceeding is generation.
3. There is in God an eternal proceeding, likened to our willing or loving, in which Spirit proceeds from Father and Son. The Spirit is God the Holy Spirit. This proceeding is procession.
4. The two proceedings cannot both be called generation, for one is in the order of knowing, and the other is in the order of willing or loving. Speaking in terms of our creatural human processes, the mind begets reality by knowing; the mind generates the mental word or concept. Hence the divine proceeding which is likened to knowing is rightly called generation. And since, when we know a lovable being that can reciprocate our love, love proceeds from lover and beloved, the second divine proceeding is rightly called procession.
5. Proceedings of the intellective order which are in and of the agent, are two only: one in the likeness of knowing; one in the likeness of willing. Hence in God there are no other proceedings than generation and procession. There are other relations, as we shall see, but there are no other proceedings.
1. A relation is the standing of a thing with reference to something other. A relation, or relationship, exists between things that can be in some way referred to one another. If the basis of the relation is in things, the relation is called real; if the basis of the relation is in the mind’s grasp and comparison of things, the relation is called logical or rational. Between sons of the same parents, the relation of brotherhood is a real relation. Between subject and predicate of a sentence, the relation is a logical relation. Now, in God there are real proceedings, and in consequence there are real relations in God.
2. A real relation in God cannot be an accidental, for there are no accidentals in God. As a thing, an entity, a real relation in God is one with the divine essence.
3. Now, a real relation involves contrast inasmuch as really related things must be really distinct from one another. Hence, real relations in God mean that in God there are real distinctions. These real distinctions cannot be in the simple and undivided essence of God. They must be really distinct respects which exist in God by reason of the divine proceedings. (It is to be remembered that distinction does not necessarily mean separation nor separability. Things are distinct by a real distinction when they are distinguished one from another as thing and thing, even though they are completely inseparable. Thus, for example, the whiteness and the coldness of snow are really distinct from each other, and each is really distinct from the substance of the snow, although there is no separating these things.) The real respects in God which come from the divine proceedings are real relations and imply real distinction in their terminals (that is, in the divine Persons), but there is neither separation nor separability in God; the divine Persons are one in essence, nature, and substance; they are one and the same undivided God, eternally existing in absolutes implicity and unity of being.
4. There are four real relations in God: (a) The relation of the Father to the Son. This is paternity or fatherhood, (b) The relation of the Son to the Father. This is filiation or sonship.(c) The relation consequent upon the proceeding in which Father and Son are the principle whence proceeds the Holy Spirit. This is the spiration or breathing forth of the Holy Spirit. (d) The relation consequent upon the same proceeding as considered from the standpoint of the Person spirated. This is the procession of the Holy Spirit. These real relations in their essence and being as entities or things are one with the simple and undivided divine essence; yet they are real relations and hence are really distinct in their terminals (that is, in the realities related),which are the three divine Persons.
1. A person is a complete substance of the rational order.
2. A person is a substance, not an accidental. A person is a complete and subsistent substance, not a mere member or part of a greater substance. A person is of the rational order, or has a rational nature, that is, a person has (at least fundamentally) understanding and free will.
3. The name person indicates what is most perfect in nature. Hence it is a name rightly applied to God who is all-perfect. But in applying the term to God we exclude from its meaning all that is limited and imperfect in our concept of a creatural person.
4. Applied to God, the name person means a divine relation as subsisting, that is, as perfectly existing in the order of infinite substance. What actually subsists is, as we have said, the divine nature and essence itself. And this subsistence is actual in the terminals of the divine relations (that is, in the three Persons) without being merely shared among them. The undivided nature of God subsists perfectly in each of the three Persons, so that, while they are really distinct Persons, they and the same God.
The Plurality of Persons in God
1. A divine Person is a real divine relation as subsisting in the divine nature or essence. Since there are several real relations in God, there are several Persons in God.
2. There are, in fact, three and only three Persons in God. The four real relations (paternity, filiation, relation consequent on spiration, relation consequent on procession) involve not four, but three, relatively opposed or contrasted terminals. These three are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
3. When we call God “One,” we indicate the undivided divine essence or nature. When we call the Persons “Three,” we mean that each is really distinct from the others as a Person, but not as God.
4. The meaning of the term person is common to the three Persons in God. Whether applied to Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, the term person means a really distinct divine relation, in which subsists one and the same undivided divine nature or essence.
Terms for unity and Plurality in God
1. The name Trinity as applied to God means the determinate number of three Persons in one and the same undivided God.
2. We rightly use the term distinction when we speak of the Persons of the Trinity. But we avoid the vagueness or the plain error of the terms diversity and difference; these words appear to suggest a cleavage in the undivided divine essence. We may, however, use the term other when we contrast the divine Persons, for this word stresses the distinction of Persons without implying a difference of essence or nature. Hence we may say, “The Son is other than the Father.”
3. The terms alone and only are properly applied to God’s name when we speak of God in comparison with creatures. Thus we say, “God alone is eternal,” and “Only God is infinite.” But we do not use the words alone and only in such a way as to suggest that God is solitary or lonely; such use would be an implied denial of the Trinity of Persons in God. Therefore, it is misleading to say, “Before there were creatures, God was alone.”
4. The terms alone and only may be added to the name of one Person of the Trinity as distinct from the others when what is expressed is proper to that one Person. These words alone and only are not to be added to the name of any one divine Person if such expression would or could suggest the excluding of the other Persons from what is attributable to God in unity. Thus we may say, “The Son alone is begotten or generated.” But we cannot rightly say, “The Holy Spirit alone gives us grace.”
Our Knowledge of the Divine Persons
1. We cannot come to the knowledge of the Trinity by reason alone, that is, by the natural and unaided efforts of the human mind. By our natural reason, we can know that God exists; that he is the First Cause of all; that he is one, infinite, simple, immutable, etc. But that the one God subsists in three really distinct Persons is a truth that can be known only by supernatural means. This is a truth beyond the reach of human reason to know, to prove, or to disprove. We know this truth by divine revelation, and accept it by supernatural faith; we take it upon the authority of God himself.
2. Once we know the truth, we naturally tend to discuss it. In our discussion we use such terms as we have, knowing that these are imperfect and inadequate. Some scholars think that we ought not name properties of the divine Persons, using abstract words. But this is a mistaken view. We cannot discuss the divine Persons in concrete terms alone. And we are thoroughly justified in using abstract words, and, by their use, ascribing properties to the divine Persons, provided that we use terms that are neither mistaken nor misleading.
3. Five notable abstract terms are used with reference to the divine Persons: (a) innascibility, or unbegottenness, is proper to the First Person; (b) paternity is also proper to the Father; (c) filiation is proper to God the Son; (d) spiration is not proper to any one Person, but is common to the Father and the Son; (e) procession is proper to the Holy Spirit.
4. Disagreement about terms used with reference to God’s unity and trinity may arise among scholars without involving any heresy, provided the Church has not spoken on the precise points at issue, and also provided that the terms employed are not plainly misleading or erroneous.
1. A principle is that from which anything takes its rise in any way whatever, or from which anything proceeds in any manner. A principle is not necessarily a cause; a cause is only one type of principle. The divine proceedings involve, in first instance, the Father begetting (but not causing) the Son. Hence the term principle is rightly applied to God the Father.
2. A name proper to the First Person of the Trinity is that which divine paternity (which is proper to the First Person) implies. This is the name Father.
3. The name Father is truly a personal name, that is, it applies to a divine person rather than to the divine essence in unity. But we often use the name Father as an essential name of God and not a personal name. When we say, for instance, “God is the Father of us all,” we are not speaking of the First Person of the Trinity, but of the three Persons in undivided Godhead. Thus Father, strictly speaking, is a distinctive personal title of the First Person; less strictly, Father is one of our ordinary names for God in unity.
4. In the divine proceedings the Father is the principle whence proceeds the Son (by eternal begetting or generation); the Father and the Son together are the one principle whence proceeds the Holy Spirit (by spiration and procession). The Father himself does not proceed from any principle. It is the distinctive property of the Father to be unbegotten. This is the Father’s immiscibility.
Teaching of Christ on God and the Trinity.
I.— The Synoptic Gospels.
(1) Christ presupposes and confirms the teaching of the Old Testament. regarding God the Creator:
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God” (Mk. 12:29).
“He created creatures ” (Mk. 13:19).
“Lord of Heaven and earth ” (Mt. 11:25).
“Heaven the throne of God ” (Mt. 5:34).
“The earth: is his footstool ” (Mt. 5:35).
“Your heavenly Father is perfect ” (Mt. 5:48).
“One is good, God ” (Mt. 19:17).
“Things- that are impossible with men are possible with God ” (Lk. 18:27).
“Thy Father who sees in secret ” (Mt. 6: 4, 6, 18).
“Your Father knows what is needful for you before you ask him ” (Mt. 6:8).
(2) Relatively to man God is our Father, most provident,’ merciful and just.
“Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt, 5:48).
” Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father who art In heaven” (Mt. 6:9).
“Behold the birds of the air . . . your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they?” (Mt. 6:26).
“Ask and it shall be given you” (Mt. 7:7).
“Your Father is merciful ” (Lk. 6:36).
He requires labor proportioned to the talents of each (Mt. 25:14 sq.).
He gives to each according to his works: “Come you blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world ” (Mt. 25:34).
“Depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels ” (Mt. 25:41).
He seeks the lost sheep (Lk. 15:1-7).
He mercifully and joyfully receives the penitent prodigal (Lk. 15:24).
(3) God has a Son equal to Himself.
“No one knows the Son but the Father: neither does anyone know the Father but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him ” (Mt. 11:27; Lk. 10:22).
(4) The Holy Spirit.
“I send the promise of my Father upon you ” (Lk. 24: 49)
“When they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what to speak … it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you” (Mt. 10:19-20).
“The Holy Spirit shall teach you in that hour what you must say” (Lk. 12:12).
“Who speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not ‘be forgiven him, neither in this world or in the world to come ” (Mt. 12:32; Mk 10:19).
The distinction and equality of the three Divine Persons is asserted by Christ, when He said to His Apostles:
“Going, therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 28:19).
II. — Gospel of St. John.
(1) Regarding God.
“God is a spirit, and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 15:24).
(2) God has a Son equal to Himself.
“My Father worketh until now; and I work” (Jn. 5:17).
“As the Father raises up the dead and giveth life, so the Son also giveth life to whom he will” (Jn. 5:21).
“As the Father hath life in himself: so he hath given to the Son also to have life in himself” (Jn. 5:26).
“God so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son” (Jn. in. 16).
“I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:30; 17:11, 21).
(3) The Holy Spirit.
“But when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he shall give testimony of me” (Jn. 15:26).
The Paraclete, Spirit of Truth, “shall abide with you and shall’ be in you . . . he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you ” (Jn. 14:17, 26).
The Spirit of Truth “shall glorify me: because he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it to you. All things whatsoever the Father has are mine. Therefore, I said, “he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it to you” (Jn. 16:14-1$).
From this teaching it is clear that the Holy Spirit is God, personally distinct from Father and Son, by whom He is sent. The mystery of the Trinity is explicitly revealed by, Christ. The same doctrine is found in the Epistles of St. Paul.
Towards the end of the First Century when Pope Clement of Rome wished to repeat the Old Testament affirmation “As the Lord lives,” he wrote: “As God lives, and the Lord Jesus Christ lives and the Holy Spirit” (Clem. ad. Cor. 58:2).
1. The name Son is manifestly a personal name in God, not an essential name; that is, it refers to one of the three Persons, and not simply to God in unity. The name Word is also a personal name in God.
2. The name Son and the name Word are proper to the Second Person of the Trinity. The eternal generation or begetting of the Son is likened to the process by which the human intellect generates the concept or mental word. Hence the Word of God is the Person begotten by the Father. It is a personal name for God the Son.
3. God, in knowing himself by one eternal act of the divine intellect, that is, “by his only Word,” knows his own essence, his operations, and all things. Hence, he knows all creatures. And thus the name Word in God implies a relation with creatures.
The Son as Image of the Father
1. The name image in God implies a relation, for an image refers to what is imaged. And this relation includes a contrast or relative opposition between image and thing imaged. Now, such a relation in God must be subsistent; that is, it must be a person. Hence, the name image in God refers to one of the three divine Persons. It is a personal, not an essential name.
2. The Person to whom the name image is proper is God the Son. Scripture (Col. 1:15) calls the Son, “the image of the invisible God,” and (Heb. 1:3) “the figure of God’s substance.” Thus, the Son is the image of the Father. We notice that while man is made to or in the image of God, the Son is the image of the Father. The image of a ruler is impressed on the coins of his country; his image is also found in his living child. This illustrates very imperfectly the difference between the image of God in man and the image of the Father in God the Son.
What are the dates for Jesus’ birth and ministry?[ii]
Most scholars today concur that Jesus was born circa 6 B.C., possibly earlier. This date is based on the idea that Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great, whom they hold to have died in 4 B.C. The Gospel of Matthew indicates that Jesus was two years old when Herod died (see Matt. 2:16), which would require a date of 6 B.C. or earlier—if Herod died in 4 B.C.; however, Herod did not die if 4 B.C.[iii] Instead, he died in 1 B.C.[iv] As a result, it turns out that the Church Fathers were correct in placing the birth of Jesus at 3/2 B.C.[v]
Luke reports that John the Baptist began his ministry “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar” (Luke 3:1), or A.D. 29. He also reports that Jesus began his ministry (very) shortly after John and that “Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age” (Luke 3:23).
This fits in with the date established for His birth. If He was born in 3/2 B.C. then, bearing in mind there is no “Year 0” in the B.C./A.D. system, He would have been “about thirty” in A.D. 29. (In fact, his 30th birthday would have fallen in A.D. 29 if he was born in 2 B.C., due to the absence of a “Year 0”).
Since we can show that Jesus was crucified on April 3, A.D. 33,[vi] that indicates He was between 33 and 34 years old at the time of the Crucifixion, which gives us a basis to calculate the probable ages of the Apostles and the New Testament authors.
The Person of God the Holy Spirit
1. The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity is the Holy Spirit or the Holy Spirit. These two names mean the same thing. They are names proper to the Third Person; thus, they are personal names, not essential names. Since the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from a common principle, it is fitting that his name should be something that is common to Father and Son. St. Augustine says (De Trin. xv 17),”The Father is a spirit; the Son is a spirit. The Father is holy; the Son is holy.” Therefore, Holy Spirit or Holy Spirit is a name suitably applied to the Third Person of the Trinity.
2. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, not from the Father alone. If the Holy Spirit were not from the Father and Son, there would be no relative opposition in the relation of Son and Holy Spirit, and these two would really be only one Person. Now, this is in conflict with the truth of the Trinity. Hence it is certain that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
3. The Son, eternally begotten of the Father, constitutes with the Father the principle whence proceeds the Holy Spirit. It is therefore permissible to say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son.
4. The Father and the Son are one principle whence proceeds the Holy Spirit. The divine Persons are one in everything that is not relatively opposite (i.e., consisting in contrasted real relation). Now, in spirating the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son act together as one and not as relatively opposed. Therefore, Father and Son are one principle from which the Holy Spirit proceeds.
Writings of the Early Church Fathers on the Trinity.
Pope Saint Clement I of Rome A.D. 92–101?
“The apostles have preached the gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ [has done so] from God. Christ therefore was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ. Both these appointments, then, were made in an orderly way, according to the will of God. Having therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and established in the word of God, with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. And thus, preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the first fruits [of their labors], having first proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe. Nor was this any new thing, since indeed many ages before it was written concerning bishops and deacons. For thus says the Scripture in a certain place, I will appoint their bishops in righteousness, and their deacons in faith”. – Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 42.
“Have we not [all] one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us? And have we not one calling in Christ?” – Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 46.
“For, as God lives, and as the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost live — both the faith and hope of the elect, he who in lowliness of mind, with instant gentleness, and without repentance has observed the ordinances and appointments given by God— the same shall obtain a place and name in the number of those who are being saved through Jesus Christ, through whom is glory to Him for ever and ever.” – Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 58.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch A.D. 30–107
“Since, also, there is but one unbegotten Being, God, even the Father; and one only-begotten Son, God, the Word and man; and one Comforter, the Spirit of truth; and also one preaching, and one faith, and one baptism…” – The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians, Chapter 4.
“Nevertheless, I have heard of some who have passed on from this to you, having false doctrine, whom ye did not suffer to sow among you, but stopped your ears, that ye might not receive those things which were sown by them, as being stones of the temple of the Father, prepared for the building of God the Father, and drawn up on high by the instrument of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, making use of the Holy Spirit as a rope, while your faith was the means by which you ascended, and your love the way which led up to God.” – The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians, Chapter 9.
“But the Holy Spirit does not speak His own things, but those of Christ, and that not from himself, but from the Lord; even as the Lord also announced to us the things that He received from the Father. For, says He, ‘the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s, who sent Me.’ And says He of the Holy Spirit, ‘He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever things He shall hear from Me.’ And He says of Himself to the Father, ‘I have,’ says He, ‘glorified Thee upon the earth; I have finished the work which, Thou gavest Me; I have manifested Thy name to men.’ And of the Holy Ghost, ‘He shall glorify Me, for He receives of Mine.’” – The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians, Chapter 9.
“Being mindful of your love and of your zeal in Christ, which ye have manifested towards us, we thought it fitting to write to you, who display such a godly and spiritual love to the brethren, to put you in remembrance of your Christian course, ‘that ye all speak the same thing, being of one mind, thinking the same thing, and walking by the same rule of faith,’ as Paul admonished you. For if there is one God of the universe, the Father of Christ, ‘of whom are all things;’ and one Lord Jesus Christ, our [Lord], ‘by whom are all things;’ and also one Holy Spirit, who wrought in Moses, and in the prophets and apostles; and also one baptism, which is administered that we should have fellowship with the death of the Lord; and also one elect Church; there ought likewise to be but one faith in respect to Christ. For ‘there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is through all, and in all.’” – The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philippians, Chapter 1.
“There is then one God and Father, and not two or three; One who is; and there is no other besides Him, the only true [God]. For ‘the Lord thy God,’ saith [the Scripture], ‘is one Lord.’ And again, ‘Hath not one God created us? Have we not all one Father? And there is also one Son, God the Word. For ‘the only-begotten Son,’ saith [the Scripture], ‘who is in the bosom of the Father.’ And again, ‘One Lord Jesus Christ.’ And in another place, ‘What is His name, or what His Son’s name, that we may know?’ And there is also one Paraclete. For ‘there is also,’ saith [the Scripture], ‘one Spirit,’ since ‘we have been called in one hope of our calling.’ And again, “We have drunk of one Spirit,’ with what follows. And it is manifest that all these gifts [possessed by believers] ‘worketh one and the self-same Spirit.’ There are not then either three Fathers, or three Sons, or three Paracletes, but one Father, and one Son, and one Paraclete. Wherefore also the Lord, when He sent forth the apostles to make disciples of all nations, commanded them to ‘baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,’ not unto one [person] having three names, nor into three [persons] who became incarnate, but into three possessed of equal honor.” – The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philippians, Chapter 2.
“Study, therefore, to be established in the doctrines of the Lord and the apostles, that so all things, whatsoever ye do, may prosper both in the flesh and spirit; in faith and love; in the Son, and in the Father, and in the Spirit; in the beginning and in the end; with your most admirable bishop, and the well-compacted spiritual crown of your presbytery, and the deacons who are according to God. Be ye subject to the bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the flesh, and the apostles to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit; that so there may be a union both fleshly and spiritual.” – The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians, Chapter 13.
The Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp A.D. 155–157
“Lord God Almighty, Father of thy beloved and blessed Servant Jesus Christ, through whom we have received full knowledge of thee, ‘the God of angels and powers and all creation and of the whole race of the righteous who live in thy presence: I bless thee, because thou hast deemed me worthy of this day and hour, to take my part in the number of the martyrs, in the cup of thy Christ, for ‘resurrection to eternal life’ of soul and body in the immortality of the Holy Spirit; among whom may I be received in thy presence this day as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, just as thou hast prepared and revealed beforehand and fulfilled, thou that art the true God without any falsehood. For this and for everything I praise thee, I bless thee, I glorify thee, through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, thy beloved Servant, through whom be glory to thee with him and Holy Spirit both now and unto the ages to come. Amen.” –The Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, Chapter 14.
Saint Justin Martyr A.D. 110–165
“We will show that we honor him [Jesus] in accordance with reason, having learned that he is the Son of the true God himself, and holding him to be in the second place and the prophetic Spirit in the third rank. It is for this that they charge us with madness, saying that we give the second place after the unchanging and ever-existing God and begetter of all things to a crucified man, not knowing the mystery involved in this, to which we ask you to give your attention as we expound it.” – The First Apology, Chapter 13.
“How we dedicated ourselves to God when we were made new through Christ I will explain, since it might seem to be unfair if I left this out from my exposition. Those who are persuaded and believe that the things we teach and say are true, and promise that they can live accordingly, are instructed to pray and beseech God with fasting for the remission of their past sins, while we pray and fast along with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are reborn by the same manner of rebirth by which we ourselves were reborn; for they are then washed in the water in the name of God the Father and Master of all, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. For Christ said, “Unless you are born again you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” – The First Apology, Chapter 61.
“Then bread and a cup of water and mixed wine are brought to the president of the brethren and he, taking them, sends up praise and glory to the Father of the universe through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and offers thanksgiving at some length that we have been deemed worthy to receive these things from him. When he has finished the prayers and the thanksgiving, the whole congregation present assents, saying, ‘Amen.’” – The First Apology, Chapter 65.
Athenagoras of Athens A.D. 176-178
“That we are not atheists, therefore, seeing that we acknowledge one God, uncreated, eternal, invisible, impassible, incomprehensible, illimitable, who is apprehended by the understanding only and the reason, who is encompassed by light, and beauty, and spirit, and power ineffable, by whom the universe has been created through His Logos, and set in order, and is kept in being — I have sufficiently demonstrated. [I say His Logos], for we acknowledge also a Son of God. Nor let anyone think it ridiculous that God should have a Son. For though the poets, in their fictions, represent the gods as no better than men, our mode of thinking is not the same as theirs, concerning either God the Father or the Son. But the Son of God is the Logos of the Father, in idea and in operation; for after the pattern of Him and by Him were all things made, the Father and the Son being one. And, the Son being in the Father and the Father in the Son, in oneness and power of spirit, the understanding and reason (νοῦς καὶ λόγος) of the Father is the Son of God. But if, in your surpassing intelligence, it occurs to you to inquire what is meant by the Son, I will state briefly that He is the first product of the Father, not as having been brought into existence (for from the beginning, God, who is the eternal mind [νοῦς], had the Logos in Himself, being from eternity instinct with Logos [λογικός]); but inasmuch as He came forth to be the idea and energizing power of all material things, which lay like a nature without attributes, and an inactive earth, the grosser particles being mixed up with the lighter. The prophetic Spirit also agrees with our statements. The Lord, it says, made me, the beginning of His ways to His works. Proverbs 8:22 The Holy Spirit Himself also, which operates in the prophets, we assert to be an effluence of God, flowing from Him, and returning back again like a beam of the sun. Who, then, would not be astonished to hear men who speak of God the Father, and of God the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and who declare both their power in union and their distinction in order, called atheists? Nor is our teaching in what relates to the divine nature confined to these points; but we recognize also a multitude of angels and ministers, whom God the Maker and Framer of the world distributed and appointed to their several posts by His Logos, to occupy themselves about the elements, and the heavens, and the world, and the things in it, and the goodly ordering of them all.” –Supplication for the Christians, Chapter 10.
“For, as we acknowledge a God, and a Son his Logos, and a Holy Spirit, united in essence — the Father, the Son, the Spirit, because the Son is the Intelligence, Reason, Wisdom of the Father, and the Spirit an effluence, as light from fire; so also do we apprehend the existence of other powers, which exercise dominion about matter, and by means of it…”-Supplication for the Christians, Chapter 24.
Saint Theophilus of Antioch A.D. 185–191
“The three days before the luminaries were created are types of the Trinity: God, His Word, and His Wisdom.”-To Autolycus, Chapter 2.
Saint Irenaeus of Lyon A.D. 120–202
“The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father “to gather all things in one,…” –Against Heresies Book I, Chapter 10.
“The rule of truth which we hold, is, that there is one God Almighty, who made all things by His Word, and fashioned and formed, out of that which had no existence, all things which exist. Thus saith the Scripture, to that effect “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established, and all the might of them, by the spirit of His mouth.” And again, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made.” There is no exception or deduction stated; but the Father made all things by Him, whether visible or invisible, objects of sense or of intelligence, temporal, on account of a certain character given them, or eternal; and these eternal things He did not make by angels, or by any powers separated from His Ennœa.
“For God needs none of all these things, but is He who, by His Word and Spirit, makes, and disposes, and governs all things, and commands all things into existence,—He who formed the world (for the world is of all),—He who fashioned man,—He [who] is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, above whom there is no other God, nor initial principle, nor power, nor pleroma,—He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we shall prove.” –Book I Chapter 22.
“Therefore, neither would the Lord, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the apostles, have ever named as God, definitely and absolutely, him who was not God, unless he were truly God; nor would they have named any one in his own person Lord, except God the Father ruling over all, and His Son who has received dominion from His Father over all creation, as this passage has it: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” Here the [Scripture] represents to us the Father addressing the Son; He who gave Him the inheritance of the heathen, and subjected to Him all His enemies. Since, therefore, the Father is truly Lord, and the Son truly Lord, the Holy Spirit has fitly designated them by the title of Lord.” –Against Heresies Book III, Chapter 6.
“For with Him were always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom, freely and spontaneously, He made all things, to whom also He speaks, saying, “Let Us make man after Our image and likeness;” He taking from Himself the substance of the creatures [formed], and the pattern of things made, and the type of all the adornments in the world.” –Against Heresies Book IV, Chapter 20.
Saint Clement of Alexandria A.D. 153–217
“O mystic marvel! The universal Father is one, and one the universal Word; and the Holy Spirit is one and the same everywhere….” –The Instructor of Children. Book I Chapter 6.
Saint Dionysius of Corinth A.D. 166–174
Belonging to the 3rd or perhaps even to the 2nd century, the text of the present work can be found in M. J. Routh, Reliquiae sacre, Vol. 3, p. 515,
Joyous light of the holy glory Of the immortal Father, [Who is] heavenly, holy blessed: Jesus Christ!
Having come to the setting sun, Seeing the evening light, We praise the Father and the Son
And the Holy Spirit of God.
It is right that You be praised At all times with holy sounds, O Son of God, Giver of life:
Therefore, the world glorifies You.
Aristides of Athens ca. A.D. 140
“These are they who, above every people on earth, have found the truth; for they acknowledge God, the Creator and Maker of all things, in the only-begotten Son in the Holy Spirit.” – Apology, Chapter 15.
Tertullian A.D. 145–220
“In the course of time, then, the Father forsooth was born, and the Father suffered, God Himself, the Lord Almighty, whom in their preaching they declare to be Jesus Christ. We, however, as we indeed always have done (and more especially since we have been better instructed by the Paraclete, who leads men indeed into all truth), believe that there is one only God, but under the following dispensation, or οἰκονομία, as it is called, that this one only God has also a Son, His Word, who proceeded from Himself, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. Him we believe to have been sent by the Father into the Virgin, and to have been born of her—being both Man and God, the Son of Man and the Son of God, and to have been called by the name of Jesus Christ; we believe Him to have suffered, died, and been buried, according to the Scriptures, and, after He had been raised again by the Father and taken back to heaven, to be sitting at the right hand of the Father, and that He will come to judge the quick and the dead; who sent also from heaven from the Father, according to His own promise, the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost.
“But keeping this prescriptive rule inviolate, still some opportunity must be given for reviewing (the statements of heretics), with a view to the instruction and protection of divers persons; were it only that it may not seem that each perversion of the truth is condemned without examination, and simply prejudged; especially in the case of this heresy, which supposes itself to possess the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in One Only God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame Person. As if in this way also one were not All, in that All are of One, by unity (that is) of substance; while the mystery of the dispensation is still guarded, which distributes the Unity into a Trinity, placing in their order the three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in substance, but in form; not in power, but in aspect; yet of one substance, and of one condition, and of one power, inasmuch as He is one God, from whom these degrees and forms and aspects are reckoned, under the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. How they are susceptible of number without division, will be shown as our treatise proceeds.” – Against Praxeas, Chapter 2.
“The simple, indeed, (I will not call them unwise and unlearned,) who always constitute the majority of believers, are startled at the dispensation (of the Three in One), on the ground that their very rule of faith withdraws them from the world’s plurality of gods to the one only true God; not understanding that, although He is the one only God, He must yet be believed in with His own οἰκονομία . The numerical order and distribution of the Trinity they assume to be a division of the Unity; whereas the Unity which derives the Trinity out of its own self is so far from being destroyed, that it is actually supported by it. They are constantly throwing out against us that we are preachers of two gods and three gods, while they take to themselves pre-eminently the credit of being worshippers of the One God; just as if the Unity itself with irrational deductions did not produce heresy, and the Trinity rationally considered constitute the truth.” –Against Praxeas, Chapter 3.
“But as for me, who derive the Son from no other source but from the substance of the Father, and (represent Him) as doing nothing without the Father’s will, and as having received all power from the Father, how can I be possibly destroying the Monarchy from the faith, when I preserve it in the Son just as it was committed to Him by the Father? The same remark (I wish also to be formally) made by me with respect to the third degree in the Godhead, because I believe the Spirit to proceed from no other source than from the Father through the Son.” –Against Praxeas, Chapter 4.
“Bear always in mind that this is the rule of faith which I profess; by it I testify that the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit are inseparable from each other, and so will you know in what sense this is said. Now, observe, my assertion is that the Father is one, and the Son one, and the Spirit one, and that They are distinct from Each Other. This statement is taken in a wrong sense by every uneducated as well as every perversely disposed person, as if it predicated a diversity, in such a sense as to imply a separation among the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit.
I am, moreover, obliged to say this, when (extolling the Monarchy at the expense of the Economy) they contend for the identity of the Father and Son and Spirit, that it is not by way of diversity that the Son differs from the Father, but by distribution: it is not by division that He is different, but by distinction; because the Father is not the same as the Son, since they differ one from the other in the mode of their being. For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, as He Himself acknowledges: “My Father is greater than I.” In the Psalm His inferiority is described as being “a little lower than the angels.” Thus the Father is distinct from the Son, being greater than the Son, inasmuch as He who begets is one, and He who is begotten is another; He, too, who sends is one, and He who is sent is another; and He, again, who makes is one, and He through whom the thing is made is another.
“Happily the Lord Himself employs this expression of the person of the Paraclete (Holy Spirit), so as to signify not a division or severance, but a disposition (of mutual relations in the Godhead); for He says, “I will pray the Father, and He shall send you another Comforter…even the Spirit of truth,” thus making the Paraclete distinct from Himself, even as we say that the Son is also distinct from the Father; so that He showed a third degree in the Paraclete, as we believe the second degree is in the Son, by reason of the order observed in the Economy. Besides, does not the very fact that they have the distinct names of Father and Son amount to a declaration that they are distinct in personality? For, of course, all things will be what their names represent them to be; and what they are and ever will be, that will they be called; and the distinction indicated by the names does not at all admit of any confusion, because there is none in the things which they designate. ‘Yes is yes, and no is no; for what is more than these, cometh of evil.’” – Against Praxeas, Chapter 9.
“Go”, He says, “teach the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” – On Baptism, Chapter 13.
Saint Hippolytus of Rome A.D. 215
“Pour forth now that power, which comes from you, from your royal Spirit, which you gave to your beloved Son Jesus Christ, and which he bestowed on his holy apostles, who established in every place, the church of your sanctification for the glory and unceasing praise of thy name. You that knows the hearts of all, grant to this thy servant, whom you have chosen for the episcopate, to feed thy holy flock and to serve without blame as thy high priest, ministering night and day to propitiate unceasingly before your face; and to offer thee the gifts of your holy Church; and by the Spirit of high-priesthood to have the authority to forgive sins, in accord with your command; to assign lots, in accord with the authority which you gave to the apostles; and to please you in meekness and purity of heart, offering to you an odor of sweetness: through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom be glory, might, honor, to you, to the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit, both now and through the ages of ages. Amen.”
The Apostolic Tradition Chapter II
“God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, look upon this thy servant, and grant to him the Spirit of grace and the counsel of a presbyter, so that he may support and govern your people with a pure heart; as also you looked upon your chosen people and commanded Moses to choose presbyters, whom you filled with thy Spirit, which you gave to thy servant. And now, O Lord, grant that there may be ever preserved among us the Spirit of your grace, and make us worthy that, in faith, we may give praise to you and minister to you in simplicity of heart: through your Son Jesus Christ, through whom be glory and honor to you, the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit in your holy church, both now and through the ages of ages. Amen.” –The Apostolic Tradition, Chapter 8.
Origen of Alexandria A.D. 185–254
“The particular points clearly delivered in the teaching of the apostles are as follow:—
First, That there is one God, who created and arranged all things, and who, when nothing existed, called all things into being — God from the first creation and foundation of the world — the God of all just men, of Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Enoch, Noe, Sere, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets; and that this God in the last days, as He had announced beforehand by His prophets, sent our Lord Jesus Christ to call in the first place Israel to Himself, and in the second place the Gentiles, after the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel. This just and good God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself gave the law and the prophets, and the Gospels, being also the God of the apostles and of the Old and New Testaments. Secondly, That Jesus Christ Himself, who came (into the world), was born of the Father before all creatures; that, after He had been the servant of the Father in the creation of all things — For by Him were all things made — He in the last times, divesting Himself (of His glory), became a man, and was incarnate although God, and while made a man remained the God which He was; that He assumed a body like to our own, differing in this respect only, that it was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit: that this Jesus Christ was truly born, and did truly suffer, and did not endure this death common (to man) in appearance only, but did truly die; that He did truly rise from the dead; and that after His resurrection He conversed with His disciples, and was taken up (into heaven).
Then, Thirdly, the apostles related that the Holy Spirit was associated in honor and dignity with the Father and the Son.” –Origen De Principiis, Preface 4.
“From all which we learn that the person of the Holy Spirit was of such authority and dignity, that saving baptism was not complete except by the authority of the most excellent Trinity of them all, i.e., by the naming of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and by joining to the unbegotten God the Father, and to His only-begotten Son, the name also of the Holy Spirit.. . .
“Nevertheless it seems proper to inquire what is the reason why he who is regenerated by God unto salvation has to do both with Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and does not obtain salvation unless with the co-operation of the entire Trinity; and why it is impossible to become partaker of the Father or the Son without the Holy Spirit.” – Origen De Principiis, Book I Chapter 3.
“But in our desire to show the divine benefits bestowed upon us by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which Trinity is the fountain of all holiness, we have fallen, in what we have said, into a digression, having considered that the subject of the soul, which accidentally came before us, should be touched on, although cursorily, seeing we were discussing a cognate topic relating to our rational nature. We shall, however, with the permission of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, more conveniently consider in the proper place the subject of all rational beings, which are distinguished into three genera and species.”-Origen De Principiis, Book I Chapter 4.
“For the end is always like the beginning: and, therefore, as there is one end to all things, so ought we to understand that there was one beginning; and as there is one end to many things, so there spring from one beginning many differences and varieties, which again, through the goodness of God, and by subjection to Christ, and through the unity of the Holy Spirit, are recalled to one end, which is like unto the beginning: all those, viz., who, bending the knee at the name of Jesus, make known by so doing their subjection to Him: and these are they who are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: by which three classes the whole universe of things is pointed out, those, viz., who from that one beginning were arranged, each according to the diversity of his conduct, among the different orders, in accordance with their desert; for there was no goodness in them by essential being, as in God and His Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. For in the Trinity alone, which is the author of all things, does goodness exist in virtue of essential being; while others possess it as an accidental and perishable quality, and only then enjoy blessedness, when they participate in holiness and wisdom, and in divinity itself.” – Origen De Principiis, Book I Chapter 6.
“After these points, now, we proved to the best of our power in the preceding pages that all things which exist were made by God, and that there was nothing which was not made, save the nature of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that God, who is by nature good, desiring to have those upon whom He might confer benefits, and who might rejoice in receiving His benefits, created creatures worthy (of this), i.e., who were capable of receiving Him in a worthy manner, who, He says, are also begotten by Him as his sons. He made all things, moreover, by number and measure. For there is nothing before God without either limit or measure. For by His power He comprehends all things, and He Himself is comprehended by the strength of no created thing, because that nature is known to itself alone. For the Father alone knows the Son, and the Son alone knows the Father, and the Holy Spirit alone searches even the deep things of God.”- Origen De Principiis, Book IV Chapter 1.
“If the heavenly virtues, then, partake of intellectual light, i.e., of divine nature, because they participate in wisdom and holiness, and if human souls, have partaken of the same light and wisdom, and thus are mutually of one nature and of one essence, —then, since the heavenly virtues are incorruptible and immortal, the essence of the human soul will also be immortal and incorruptible. And not only so, but because the nature of Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, whose intellectual light alone all created things have a share, is incorruptible and eternal, it is altogether consistent and necessary that every substance which partakes of that eternal nature should last for ever, and be incorruptible and eternal, so that the eternity of divine goodness may be understood also in this respect, that they who obtain its benefits are also eternal. But as, in the instances referred to, a diversity in the participation of the light was observed, when the glance of the beholder was described as being duller or more acute, so also a diversity is to be noted in the participation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, varying with the degree of zeal or capacity of mind.” -Origen De Principiis, Book IV Chapter I.36
Saint Cornelius I, Pope of Rome [Reigned A.D.251-253
“We are not ignorant of the fact that there is one God, and one Christ the Lord whom we confess, and one Holy Spirit; and that there must be one bishop in the Catholic Church.” – Letter of Cornelius of Rome to Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 49 A.D.252.
Saint Dionysius the Great, Bishop of Alexandria A.D. 200–265
“The individual names uttered by me can neither be separated from one another, nor parted. I spoke of the Father, and before I made mention of the Son, I already signified Him in the Father. I added the Son; and the Father, even although I had not previously named Him, had already been absolutely comprehended in the Son. I added the Holy Spirit; but, at the same time, I conveyed under the name whence and by whom He proceeded. But they are ignorant that neither the Father, in that He is Father, can be separated from the Son, for that name is the evident ground of coherence and conjunction; nor can the Son be separated from the Father, for this word Father indicates association between them. And there is, moreover, evident a Spirit who can neither be disjoined from Him who sends, nor from Him who brings Him. How, then, should I who use such names think that these are absolutely divided and separated the one from the other?”
(After a few words he adds:—)
“Thus, indeed, we expand the indivisible Unity into a Trinity; and again we contract the Trinity, which cannot be diminished, into a Unity.”
(From the Same Second Book.)
“’In the beginning was the Word. But that was not the Word which produced the Word. For “the Word was with God.’ The Lord is Wisdom; it was not therefore Wisdom that produced Wisdom; for ‘I was that’ says He, ‘wherein He delighted.’ Christ is truth; but ‘blessed,’ says He, ‘is the God of truth.’”
(The Conclusion of the Entire Treatise.)
“In accordance with all these things, the form, moreover, and rule being received from the elders who have lived before us, we also, with a voice in accordance with them, will both acquit ourselves of thanks to you, and of the letter which we are now writing. And to God the Father, and His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” –The Works of Dionysius. Extant Fragments, Part I, Chapter 4.
Saint Cyprian of Carthage A.D. 200–258
“The Lord says: ‘I and the Father are one.’ And again, of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit it is written: ‘And these three are one.’ Does anyone believe that this unity which comes from divine strength, which is closely connected with the divine sacraments, can be broken asunder in the Church and be separated by the divisions of colliding wills? He who does not hold this unity, does not hold the law of God, does not hold the faith of the Father and the Son, does not hold life and salvation.”-The Unity of the Catholic Church, Chapter 6.
“For it is no small and insignificant matter, which is conceded to heretics, when their baptism is recognized by us; since thence springs the whole origin of faith and the saving access to the hope of life eternal, and the divine condescension for purifying and quickening the servants of God. For if any one could be baptized among heretics, certainly he could also obtain remission of sins. If he attained remission of sins, he was also sanctified. If he was sanctified, he also was made the temple of God. I ask, of what God? If of the Creator; he could not be, because he has not believed in Him. If of Christ; he could not become His temple, since he denies that Christ is God. If of the Holy Spirit; since the three are one, how can the Holy Spirit be at peace with him who is the enemy either of the Son or of the Father? – Letter of Cyprian to Jubaianus, a Bishop in Mauretania, Epistle 73, A.D. 254–256.
“Finally, when, after the resurrection, the apostles are sent by the Lord to the heathens, they are bidden to baptize the Gentiles “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” How, then, do some say, that a Gentile baptized without, outside the Church, yea, and in opposition to the Church, so that it be only in the name of Jesus Christ, everywhere, and in whatever manner, can obtain remission of sin, when Christ Himself commands the heathen to be baptized in the full and united Trinity?” – Epistle 72, 5.18.
Novatian A.D. 210–280
“And now, indeed, concerning the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let it be sufficient to have briefly said thus much, and to have laid down these points concisely, without carrying them out in a lengthened argument. For they could be presented more diffusely and continued in a more expanded disputation, since the whole of the Old and New Testaments might be adduced in testimony that thus the true faith stands. But because heretics, ever struggling against the truth, are accustomed to prolong the controversy of pure tradition and Catholic faith, being offended against Christ; because He is, moreover, asserted to be God by the Scriptures also, and this is believed to be so by us; we must rightly—that every heretical calumny may be removed from our faith—contend, concerning the fact that Christ is God also, in such a way as that it may not militate against the truth of Scripture; nor yet against our faith, how there is declared to be one God by the Scriptures, and how it is held and believed by us.” – A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity, Chapter 30.
“God the Father, the Founder and Creator of all things, who alone knows no beginning, who is invisible, immeasurable, immortal, and eternal, is one God. Neither His greatness nor His majesty, or His power, can possibly be—I should not say exceeded, for they cannot even be equaled. From Him, when He willed it, the Word, His Son, … And the latter, since He was born of the Father, is always in the Father. And I do indeed say always, not to prove Him unborn but born. He that exists before all time must be said to have been always in the Father; for He that exists before all time cannot be spoken of in relation to time. And always He must be in the Father, otherwise the Father were not always the Father. And yet the Father precedes Him, because it is necessary for the Father to be prior, in order to be the Father. -in some degree-that It is necessary for Him who knows no origin, to be antecedent to Him who has an origin.… He, then, when the Father willed it, proceeded from the Father. And He that was in the Father because He was from the Father, was afterwards with the Father because He proceeded from the Father — that divine substance, I mean, whose name is Word, and through whom all things were made, and without whom was made nothing. For all things are AFTER Him of whose will all things were made: assuredly, He is God proceeding from God, causing, as Son, a second Person after the Father, but not taking away from the Father the fact that God is one.” A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity, Chapter 31.
Saint Dionysius of Rome A.D. 259-268
“Rather, we must believe in God, the Father almighty; and in Jesus Christ, His Son; and in the Holy Spirit: and that the Word is united to the God of the Universe. ‘For,” says He, ‘The Father and I are one;’ and ‘I am in the Father, and the Father is in me/’ Thus both the Divine Trinity and the sacred proclamation of the Monarchy will be preserved.” – Epistle of Dionysius of Rome to Dionysius of Alexandria, Chapter 1.
Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus or Saint Gregory the Miracle Worker A.D. 213-270
“There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image, perfect Begetter of the perfect Begotten, Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, Only of the Only, God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity, Efficient Word, Wisdom comprehensive of the constitution of all things and Power formative of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, Invisible of Invisible and Incorruptible of Incorruptible and Immortal of Immortal and Eternal of Eternal. And there is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence from God
and being made manifest by the Son, to wit to men, Image of the Son, Perfect Image of the Perfect, Life, the Cause of the living, Holy Fount, Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader, of Sanctification, in whom is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all and God the Son, who is through all. There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing, either created or in servitude in the Trinity, nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent and at some later period it was introduced. And thus, neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abides ever.”
The Creed. –
Aphraates The Persian Sage A.D. 280–345
“That God is one, and that we are to confess, worship, praise, exalt, honor, sanctify, and glorify His majesty, we do indeed acknowledge through Jesus, His Son, our Savior, who chose us and drew us near to Him; and through whom we acknowledge Him and become His adorers and a people and a church and an assembly that is holy. Glory and honor be to the Father and to His Son, and to His living and holy Spirit, from the mouths of all who praise Him, whether above or below. Forever in eternity so be it and so be it.”
Treatise, 23.
Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria A.D. 273–328
“Therefore, when the holy prophets, and all, as I have said, who righteously and justly walked in the law of the Lord, together with the entire people, celebrated a typical and shadowy Passover, the Creator and Lord of every visible and invisible creature, the only-begotten Son, and the Word co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and of the same substance with them, according to His divine nature, our Lord and God, Jesus Christ….” – Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius, Chapter 1.7.
“Therefore to the unbegotten Father, indeed, we ought to preserve His proper dignity, in confessing that no one is the cause of His being; but to the Son must be allotted His fitting honor, in assigning to Him, as we have said, a generation from the Father without beginning, and allotting adoration to Him, so as only piously and properly to use the words, “He was,” and “always,” and “before all worlds,” with respect to Him; by no means rejecting His Godhead, but ascribing to Him a similitude which exactly answers in every respect to the Image and Exemplar of the Father. But we must say that to the Father alone belongs the property of being unbegotten, for the Savior Himself said, “My Father is greater than I.” And besides the pious opinion concerning the Father and the Son, we confess to one Holy Spirit, as the divine Scriptures teach us; who hath inaugurated both the holy men of the Old Testament, and the divine teachers of that which is called the New.” – Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius, Chapter 1.12.
Saint Anthanasius A.D. 297-373
“The bishops [at Nicaea] wrote as they did, not as men inventing phrases of themselves, but as having the witness of the Fathers. Indeed, nearly one hundred and thirty years ago former bishops of Great Rome and of our city wrote and censured those who were saying that the Son was a creature and not of the same substance as the Father. And Eusebius, who was bishop of Caesarea and who was at first a supporter of the Arian heresy, knew this; but afterwards, having subscribed in this very council at Nicaea, he wrote to his own people, declaring his assent as follows: “We know that even the old certain eloquent and distinguished bishops used the term homoousios [“of the same substance,” “of the same essence.”] in respect to the Godhead of the Father and the Son.” – Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa, Chapter 6.
“On this, the Church was founded; and if anyone departs from this, he neither is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian: there is a Trinity, holy and perfect, acknowledged as God, in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, having nothing foreign or external mixed with it, not composed of a fashioner and an originated, but entirely creative and fashioning; It is consistent in Itself, invisible in nature, and its activity is one. The Father does all things through the Word in the Holy Spirit; and thus, unity of the Holy Trinity is preserved; and thus, there is preached in the Church one God, ‘Who is over all, and through all, and in all.’ He is over all as Father, as beginning, as source; and through all, through the Word; and in all, in the Holy Spirit.”
“It is a Trinity not merely in name or in a figurative manner of speaking; rather, It is a Trinity in truth and in actual existence, Just as the Father is He that is, so also His Word is one that is, and is God over all. And neither id the Holy Spirit non-existent, but actually exists and has true being. Less than these the Catholic Church does not hold, lest she sink to the level of the Jews of the present time, imitators of Caiphas, or to the level of Sabellius. Nor does she add to their number by speculation, lest she be carried into the polytheism of the Greeks.
“And because this is the faith of the Church, let them somehow understand that the Lord sent out the Apostles and commanded them to make this the foundation of the Church, when He said: ‘Go out and instruct every people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’.” – Four Letters to Serapion of Thmuis. Chapter 1, 28.
Saint Augustine of Hippo A.D. 354–430
Those holy angels come to the knowledge of God not by audible words, but by the presence to their souls of immutable truth, i.e., of the only-begotten Word of God; and they know this Word Himself, and the Father, and their Holy Spirit, and that this Trinity is indivisible, and that the three persons of it are one substance, and that there are not three Gods but one God; and this they so know that it is better understood by them than we are by ourselves. –The City of God, Book 11, Chapter 29
The true objects of enjoyment, then, are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are at the same time the Trinity, one Being, supreme above all, and common to all who enjoy Him, if He is an object, and not rather the cause of all objects, or indeed even if He is the cause of all. For it is not easy to find a name that will suitably express so great excellence, unless it is better to speak in this way: The Trinity, one God, of whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things. Thus, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and each of these by Himself, is God, and at the same time they are all one God; and each of them by Himself is a complete substance, and yet they are all one substance. The Father is not the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the Son: but the Father is only Father, the Son is only Son, and the Holy Spirit is only Holy Spirit. To all three belong the same eternity, the same unchangeableness, the same majesty, the same power. In the Father is unity, in the Son equality, in the Holy Spirit the harmony of unity and equality; and these three attributes are all one because of the Father, all equal because of the Son, and all harmonious because of the Holy Spirit. –On Christian Doctrine, Book I, Chapter 5.
Wherefore, our Lord God helping, we will undertake to render, as far as we are able, that very account which they so importunately demand: viz., that the Trinity is the one and only and true God, and also how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are rightly said, believed, understood, to be of one and the same substance or essence; in such wise that they may not fancy themselves mocked by excuses on our part, but may find by actual trial, both that the highest good is that which is discerned by the most purified minds, and that for this reason it cannot be discerned or understood by themselves, because the eye of the human mind, being weak, is dazzled in that so transcendent light, unless it be invigorated by the nourishment of the righteousness of faith. – On the Trinity, Book I, Chapter 2.
And I would make this pious and safe agreement, in the presence of our Lord God, with all who read my writings, as well in all other cases as, above all, in the case of those which inquire into the unity of the Trinity, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; because in no other subject is error more dangerous, or inquiry more laborious, or the discovery of truth more profitable. – On the Trinity, Book I, Chapter 3.
All those Catholic expounders of the divine Scriptures, both Old and New, whom I have been able to read, who have written before me concerning the Trinity, Who is God, have purposed to teach, according to the Scriptures, this doctrine, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit intimate a divine unity of one and the same substance in an indivisible equality; and therefore that they are not three Gods, but one God: although the Father hath begotten the Son, and so He who is the Father is not the Son; and the Son is begotten by the Father, and so He who is the Son is not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, Himself also co-equal with the Father and the Son, and pertaining to the unity of the Trinity. Yet not that this Trinity was born of the Virgin Mary, and crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven, but only the Son. Nor, again, that this Trinity descended in the form of a dove upon Jesus when He was baptized; nor that, on the day of Pentecost, after the ascension of the Lord, when “there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind,” the same Trinity “sat upon each of them with cloven tongues like as of fire,” but only the Holy Spirit. Nor yet that this Trinity said from heaven, “Thou art my Son,” whether when He was baptized by John, or when the three disciples were with Him in the mount, or when the voice sounded, saying, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again;” but that it was a word of the Father only, spoken to the Son; although the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as they are indivisible, so work indivisibly. This is also my faith, since it is the Catholic faith. –On the Trinity, Book, I Chapter 4.
Some persons, however, find a difficulty in this faith; when they hear that the Father is God, and the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God, and yet that this Trinity is not three Gods, but one God; and they ask how they are to understand this: especially when it is said that the Trinity works indivisibly in everything that God works, and yet that a certain voice of the Father spoke, which is not the voice of the Son; and that none except the Son was born in the flesh, and suffered, and rose again, and ascended into heaven; and that none except the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove. They wish to understand how the Trinity uttered that voice which was only of the Father; and how the same Trinity created that flesh in which the Son only was born of the Virgin; and how the very same Trinity itself wrought that form of a dove, in which the Holy Spirit only appeared. Yet, otherwise, the Trinity does not work indivisibly, but the Father does some things, the Son other things, and the Holy Spirit yet others: or else, if they do some things together, some severally, then the Trinity is not indivisible. It is a difficulty, too, to them, in what manner the Holy Spirit is in the Trinity, whom neither the Father nor the Son, nor both, have begotten, although He is the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son. – On the Trinity, Book I, Chapter 5. “Love” as the Name of the Holy Spirit
1. Although love is an essential name of God, as we have seen, the term is also used specifically as a personal name in God; as such it is proper to the Third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is love.
2. The Father and the Son love each other by the Holy Spirit, not, however, as though the Holy Spirit were the principle of this love; for God is love by His essence, and not by a Person.
“Gift” as the Name of the Holy Spirit
1. The name gift in God is a personal name. A rational creature (man or angel) can possess God by or through a Person of the Trinity who is thus given to the creature.
2. This name gift in God is proper to the Third Person of the Trinity. A gift is the fruit of love. Love itself which dictates the giving is the first gift. Hence, as the Holy Ghost has the proper name of love, He is also properly called gift. St. Augustine (De Trin. vx) says, “By the gift which is the Holy Spirit, many particular gifts are bestowed on the members of Christ.”
1. Because God is absolutely simple in his being, the divine relations, as things or entities, are identified with God’s essence. Essence in God is not really distinct from Person, and still the three Persons are really distinct from one another. They are real relations in God which involve relative opposition in their terminals (the Persons) but none at all in their essence.
2. Therefore the three Persons in God, while really distinct from one another, are one and the same undivided and indivisible divine essence.
3. Hence when we use nouns or noun-expressions for the divine essence, we use them in the singular. We do not say, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are Gods”; we say, “Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are God. “Sometimes we may use adjective-expressions in the plural, for these often refer to the divine essence, not directly in itself, but as subsisting in the distinct Persons. Thus we may say that there are three eternal beings. But if the noun beings is stressed, rather than the adjective eternal, we should not use the expression, for it might be misunderstood as declaring the essence of God to be threefold, which is not the case.
4. Concrete names for the divine essence may sometimes be understood in a personal sense; whether such names are essential or personal depends on our use of them. Even the noun God can be used as a personal name: we may use it to indicate the Father only, as when we say, “God begets”; we may use it to indicate Father and Son, as when we say, “God spirates”; we may use it – and this is our ordinary use of the name – for the Trinity, as when we say, “God creates.”
5. Abstract names for the divine essence cannot thus be used as personal names. While we can say, “God begets God,” we cannot say, “Essence begets essence.”
6. And names for the Persons may be applied to the divine essence, since, in entity or being, the Persons and divine essence are one and the same. Thus, we may say, “The divine essence is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”; or “The divine essence is the three Persons”; or “God is the three Persons.”
7. Attributes of the divine essence (power, wisdom, knowledge, etc.) are sometimes appropriated to the Persons of the Trinity. Thus, it is customary to appropriate power to the Father, wisdom to the Son, and goodness to the Holy Spirit. Or we may say that the Father creates, the Son redeems, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies. Yet all that God does proceeds from the undivided will of the undivided Trinity.
8. Such appropriation is justified inasmuch as it helps us better to understand and explain our faith. We derive all our knowledge from creatures, and thus we are led to consider God himself as we consider creatures, and to parcel out the divine attributes. We need constantly to remind ourselves, however, that these helpful appropriations of essential divine attributes to distinct divine Persons are conveniences for us, and not accurate expressions of objective truth.
Divine Relations and Divine Persons
1. Boethius says that in God what is and whereby it is are the same. The Father is the Father by the divine relation of paternity; the what is the Father; the whereby is the relation of paternity; these are the same. In God, the subsistent real relations are the same as the Persons. Even the relation consequent upon spiration is identified with the Father and with the Son without involving the identity of these two divine Persons as persons.
2. But, though the divine relations are the same as the divine Persons, in our human way of understanding we distinguish the Persons one from another by the divine relations. It is the very notion of paternity in contrast with filiation that makes us aware of the distinct Persons of Father and Son.
3. We cannot think of Father except as one generating or begetting, nor of Son except as one generated or begotten. Therefore, we cannot remove the divine relations from our idea or concept of the divine Persons without removing the Persons themselves and thus nullifying our idea of the Trinity.
4. It has been said that, in our human way of understanding, the thought of generating precedes the thought of paternity; that is, in technical words, “notional acts precede the relations.” Generating as a “notional act” is our mental grasp of an operation; paternity is a relation. The saying, “notional acts precede relations,” means that our grasp of the operation carries us on to the grasp of the operator. But this saying is not correct. It is not true that “generating precedes paternity in the order of human understanding.” On the contrary, the human mind is aware of a person acting before it is aware of his action; or rather, the operator is there before we are aware of his operation. Hence, the Persons (that is, the subsistent relations which are the same as the Persons) precede the “notional acts” by which we conceive of the Persons as acting. Thus, the relation of paternity (which is the Father) precedes our notional act of generating. We reverse the saying that “notional acts precede the relations,” and say, “the relations precede the notional acts.”
Our Notions of the Divine Persons as Operating
1. Our concepts or ideas of the divine operations of generating and spirating (that is our “notional acts”) ascribe these operations to the divine Persons. Only by thus ascribing “notional acts” to the proper Persons can we grasp and designate the distinction of Persons in the Trinity.
2. The divine operations are not in God by free choice but by the necessity of the divine nature itself. Just as God is necessary being, in the sense that he cannot be nonexistent, not by reason of any outside force, but by reason of his infinite excellence, so generating and spirating are in God by the necessity involved in the supreme excellence of the divine nature itself.
3. The divine operations do not proceed from nothing, as is the case in the external action of creating. The Son is generated, not from nothing, but from the Father.
4. The divine operations of generating and spirating are from God’s almighty power, not, indeed from that power as creative, for the operations and relations are eternal and uncreated; they are from God’s power as the principle of divine proceeding.
5. God’s power to beget and his will to beget are one with his eternal essence. Hence the power of God means essence and not relation.
6. There is only one eternal generating in God and one spirating. There is only one Father, only one Son, only one Holy Spirit.
The Equality of the Divine Persons
1. The divine persons are coeternal and coequal, for they are, in undivided essence, one and the same God.
2. That the divine Persons are coeternal means that “whensoever the Father exists, the Son exists, and the Holy Spirit exists.” There is no time in God, no succession of before-and-after. The eternal proceedings in God are one with his timeless essence and exist always in his changeless nature.
3. The standing or order of the Persons, as First, Second, Third, is not an order of priority, as though one Person should be in any way more excellent than another. It is an order of nature. Sometimes it is called an order of origin, taking the word origin in the sense of principle, not in the sense of a start or beginning, for there are no beginnings of the eternal Persons.
4. The Son is the Father’s equal in greatness, as is the Holy Spirit. For greatness is a perfection of nature, and the divine nature is one and undivided in the three Persons.
5. By reason of the undivided divine essence, each Person is in each other Person of the Trinity. Our Lord says (John 14:10),”I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.”
6. The divine Persons are equal in power, for power, like greatness, is a perfection consequent upon nature, and the divine nature is one and the same in the three divine Persons.
[i] Glenn, Paul J., A Tour of the Summa, (St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co, 1960), pp: 28-39.
[ii] Jimmy Akin’s Blog. Used with permission.
[iii] http://jimmyakin.com/2013/04/the-100-year-old-mistake-about-the-birth-of-jesus.html
[iv] Ibid.
[v] http://jimmyakin.com/2013/04/what-year-was-jesus-born-the-answer-may-surprise-you.html
[vi] http://jimmyakin.com/2013/04/7-clues-tell-us-precisely-when-jesus-died-the-year-month-day-and-hour-revealed.html