Against the Heresy of Noetus

Some others are introducing another doctrine, having become disciples of a certain Noetus, who was a Smyrnaean by birth and lived not long ago. This man, puffed up, was carried away into pride, swept along by the conceit of an alien spirit. He said that Christ was himself the Father, and that the Father himself had been born, had suffered, and had died. See how much pride of heart and inflation of an alien spirit crept into him! Already, then, from his other actions the proof against them leads to this: that he did not speak with a pure spirit; for whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit is cast out of the holy inheritance. He said that he himself was Moses, and his brother Aaron. When the blessed presbyters heard this, they summoned him before the church and examined him. But he denied it, saying that at first he did not hold these views. Later, however, having gone to ground among some people and gathered to himself companions in error, he wished afterwards to establish his doctrine openly. The blessed presbyters summoned him again and refuted him. But he resisted, saying: "What evil am I doing, then, in glorifying Christ?" To him the presbyters replied: "We too know in truth one God; we know Christ; we know the Son, who suffered as he suffered, died as he died, rose on the third day, is at the right hand of the Father, and is coming to judge the living and the dead. And these things we say, which we have learned." Then, having refuted him, they expelled him, … so as to set up a school.

They also want to show support for their doctrine by saying: "He said in the law: I am the God of your fathers; you shall have no other gods besides me. And again in another place: I, he says, am the first and the last, and after me there is no one." In this way they claim to establish one God. They answer by saying: "If, then, I confess Christ to be God, he is therefore the Father, if indeed he is God; and Christ, being himself God, suffered; therefore the Father suffered, for he was himself the Father." But it is not so; for the Scriptures do not set it out so. They also use other testimonies, saying: "Thus it is written: This is our God; no other will be reckoned beside him. He found out every way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel who was loved by him. Afterwards he appeared on earth and lived among men. You see, then," he says, "that this is God, who alone is, and who later appeared and lived among men." And in another place, he says, it says: "Egypt has laboured, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians and the Sabeans, tall men, will pass over to you [and will be your slaves], and will follow after you bound in manacles, and will worship in you, because God is in you, and will pray in you; and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Saviour. You see," he says, "how the Scriptures proclaim one God? This being clearly shown, and these being the testimonies, I am compelled," he says, "since one is confessed, to make this one subject to suffering. For Christ was God and suffered for us, being himself the Father, so that he might be able to save us. We cannot say anything else," he says; "for the apostle too confesses one God, saying: Of whom are the fathers, from whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed for ever."

And they want to expound these things in this way, themselves using them one-sidedly, in the way that Theodotus, … of the church, spoke, who was carried to such a pitch of conceit that he wished to make (Christ) a mere man. But neither have those understood the truth, nor these, as the Scriptures themselves refute their ignorance, bearing witness to the truth. See, brothers, what a rash and audacious doctrine they have introduced, shamelessly saying: "Christ himself is the Father; he himself is the Son; he himself was born, he himself suffered, he himself raised himself." But it is not so. The Scriptures speak rightly, but Noetus understands otherwise. Yet if Noetus does not understand, the Scriptures are not on that account to be thrown out. For who will not say that there is one God? But he will not (on that account) do away with the economy. In truth, then, these chief passages must first be overturned as those men understand them, and then shown according to the truth. For first it is truly right to set out that there is one God, the Father, from whom is every family, through whom are all things, from whom are all things, and we in him.

Let us see, as I said, how he is overturned, and then let us set out the truth. For he says: "Egypt has laboured, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the Sabeans," and the rest, so as to reach "For you are the God of Israel, the Saviour," not understanding what is said before. For whenever they wish to act craftily, they cut the Scriptures short. But let him quote it whole, and he will find the reason, and to whom it is said. For the beginning of the passage lies a little higher up, from which one must begin to show to whom and about whom it speaks. For above, the beginning of the passage runs thus: "Ask me about my sons and my daughters, and command me concerning the works of my hands. I made the earth and man upon it. I with my hand established the heaven. I commanded all the stars. I raised him up, and all his ways are straight. He will build my city and turn back the captivity, not for ransom nor for gifts, said the Lord of hosts. Thus said the Lord of hosts: Egypt has laboured, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the Sabeans, tall men, will pass over to you and will be your slaves, and will follow after you bound in manacles, and will worship in you, and will pray in you, because God is in you, and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Saviour." "In you, then," he says, "is God." And in whom is God but in Christ Jesus, the Father's Word, and in the mystery of the economy? Concerning whom again, showing what pertains to his flesh, he signifies: "I raised him up with righteousness, and all his ways are straight." What, then? Of whom does the Father bear witness? Concerning the Son the Father says: "I raised him up with righteousness." And that the Father raised his Son in righteousness, the apostle Paul bears witness, saying: "If the Spirit of him who raised Christ Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." See, what was said through the prophet stands firm: "I raised him up with righteousness." And the saying "God is in you" showed the mystery of the economy: that when the Word had become flesh and been made man, the Father was in the Son and the Son in the Father, the Son living among men. This, then, was signified, brothers: that in truth this Word was the mystery of the economy, from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin, making one Son for God. And it is not I who say this; he himself bears witness who came down from heaven, for he says thus: "No one has ascended into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven." What, then, does he look for beyond what is said? Will he say that there was flesh in heaven? There is indeed the flesh that was offered as a gift by the Father's Word, the flesh from the Spirit and the Virgin, shown forth as the perfect Son of God. It is plain, then, that he offered himself to the Father. But before this there was no flesh in heaven. Who, then, was in heaven but the Word without flesh, sent to show that, being on earth, he was also in heaven? For he was Word, he was Spirit, he was Power. The name common among men and intelligible to them he took to himself, being called from the beginning Son of Man because of what was to be, though not yet a man, as Daniel bears witness, saying: "I saw, and behold, one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven." Rightly, then, he said that he who was in heaven was called by this name, being from the beginning what he is called from the beginning, the Word of God.

"But what," he says, "does it say to me in another place: This is God; no other will be reckoned beside him?" It spoke well. For who will be reckoned beside the Father? And it says: "This is our God; no other will be reckoned beside him. He found out every way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel who was loved by him." It speaks well. For who is Jacob his servant, Israel who is loved by him, but the one about whom he cries out, saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him"? Having received, then, all knowledge from the Father, the perfect Israel, the true Jacob, "afterwards appeared on earth and lived among men." And who is Israel but a man who sees God? And no one sees God except the Child alone, the perfect man, who alone has declared the will of the Father. For John too says: "No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him." And again: "He who came down from heaven bears witness to what he has heard and seen." This, then, is he to whom the Father gave all knowledge, who appeared on earth and lived among men.

And as for what the apostle says: "Of whom are the fathers, from whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed for ever," he sets out well and brightly the mystery of the truth. He who is over all is God; for he says thus with boldness: "All things have been handed over to me by the Father." He who is over all, God blessed, has been born, and having become man he is God for ever. For so John too said: "He who is and who was and who is to come, God the Almighty." Rightly did he call Christ Almighty; for he said what Christ himself will bear witness to. For Christ, bearing witness, said: "All things have been handed over to me by the Father"; and he rules over all; Christ was appointed Almighty by the Father. And Paul too, showing that all things have been handed over to him, spoke thus: "Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ's at his coming; then the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God and the Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy, death, is abolished. For all things have been subjected to him. But when it says, All things have been subjected to him, it is plain that he who subjected all things to him is excepted. Then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all." If, then, all things have been subjected to him except the one who subjected them, he rules over all, but the Father over him, so that in all one God may be manifested, to whom all things are subjected together with Christ, to whom the Father subjected all things except himself. For this Christ said when in the Gospel he confessed him as his own Father and God. For he says thus: "I go to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." If, then, Noetus dares to say that Christ is himself the Father, to what Father will he say that Christ goes, according to the voice of the Gospel? And if he expects us to abandon the Gospel and believe his folly, he labours in vain; "for we must obey God rather than men."

And if he says, "He himself said: I and the Father are one," let him attend and learn that he did not say, "I and the Father am one," but "are one." For "are" is not said of one; rather, he showed two persons, but one power. He himself explained it when he spoke to the Father about the disciples: "The glory which you gave me I have given to them, so that they may be one, as we are one; I in them and you in me, so that they may be perfected into one, so that the world may know that you sent me." What can the Noetians say to this? Are all one body as to substance, or do we become one by power and by the disposition of like-mindedness? In the same way the Child, who was sent and was not known by those who were in the world, confessed that he is in the Father by power [and] disposition. For the Child is the one mind of the Father. We who have the mind of the Father believe thus; but those who do not have the mind have denied the Son. And if they also wish to cite Philip asking about the Father, "Show us the Father, and it is enough for us," to whom the Lord answered, saying: "Have I been with you so long, Philip, and you have not known me? He who has seen me has seen the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?", and wish to say that their doctrine is confirmed by this, since he confesses himself to be the Father, let them know that they bring the greatest contradiction on themselves, being refuted by the saying itself. For when Christ had called himself Son in everything and shown it, they did not recognize him, nor were they able to grasp or gaze upon his power. And Philip, not having taken this in as far as it was possible to see, asked to see the Father. To him the Lord said: "Philip, have I been with you so long, and you have not known me? He who has seen me has seen the Father." That is: if you have seen me, through me you can know the Father. For through the image, which is like (him), the Father becomes readily known. But if you did not know the image, which is the Son, how do you want to see the Father? That this is so, the words that precede and follow in the passage make clear, signifying the Son "set forth," "sent from the Father and going to the Father."

There are many other things, or rather all things, bearing witness to the truth. He is compelled, then, even against his will, to confess God the Father Almighty, and Christ Jesus the Son of God, God who became man, to whom the Father subjected all things except himself, and the Holy Spirit, and that these are thus three. And if he wishes to learn how God is shown to be one, let him know that his power is one. As far as power is concerned, God is one; but as far as concerns the economy, the manifestation is threefold, as will be shown later when we give an account of the truth. These things, then, brothers, are shown to us as spoken in agreement. For God is one, in whom we must believe, but unbegotten, impassible, immortal, doing all things as he wills, in the way he wills, when he wills. What, then, will Noetus dare to say to this, not understanding the truth? Since, then, Noetus has now been overturned, let us come to the demonstration of the truth, so that we may establish the truth, against which all these many heresies have arisen, unable to say anything.

There is one God, whom we come to know, brothers, from no other source than the holy Scriptures. For just as anyone who wishes to practise the wisdom of this world cannot attain it otherwise than by reading the doctrines of the philosophers, so we who wish to practise piety will practise it from no other source than the oracles of God. Whatever, then, the divine Scriptures proclaim, let us see; whatever they teach, let us learn; and as the Father wills to be believed, let us believe; and as he wills the Son to be glorified, let us glorify him; and as he wills the Holy Spirit to be given, let us receive. Not according to our own choice, nor our own mind, nor doing violence to what has been given by God; but in the way he himself willed to show it through the holy Scriptures, so let us see it.

God, existing alone and having nothing contemporaneous with himself, willed to create the world. Having conceived the world in thought, and willing and uttering the word, he made it; and at once what came to be stood before him as he had willed. It is enough for us, then, only to know that nothing is contemporaneous with God. Nothing existed besides him; yet he, while existing alone, was many. For he was neither without word, nor without wisdom, nor without power, nor without counsel. All things were in him, and he was the All. When he willed, and as he willed, he showed his Word at the times determined by him, through whom he made all things. When he wills, he does; when he purposes, he accomplishes; when he speaks, he shows; when he fashions, he works with wisdom. For all things that come to be he contrives through word and wisdom, creating by word and ordering by wisdom. He made, then, as he willed; for he was God. And as Author and Counsellor and Worker of the things that come to be he begot the Word; and having this Word in himself, and he being invisible to the world that was being created, he makes him visible: uttering the voice first, and begetting him as Light from Light, he sent forth to the creation its Lord, his own Mind; and him who was formerly visible to himself alone, and invisible to the world that was coming to be, he makes visible, so that the world, seeing him through his appearing, might be able to be saved.

And so another stood beside him. In saying "another" I do not speak of two Gods, but (I mean) as light from light, or as water from a spring, or as a ray from the sun. For the power is one, that which is from the All; and the All is the Father, from whom comes the power, the Word. This is the Mind, which, coming forth into the world, was shown to be the Child of God. All things, then, are through him, but he alone is from the Father. Who, then, declares a multitude of gods brought in from time to time? For all have been shut up, against their will, to saying this: that the All runs back to one. If, then, all things run back to one, even according to Valentinus and Marcion, Cerinthus and all their nonsense, they too have fallen, against their will, into confessing the One as the cause of all things. So they too, though unwilling, concur with the truth in saying that one God made (all things) as he willed. And he gave the law and the prophets, and in giving them through the Holy Spirit he constrained them to speak, so that, receiving the breath of the Father's power, they might proclaim the counsel and will of the Father.

Acting, then, among these, the Word spoke about himself. For already he himself became his own herald, showing that the Word would appear among men; for which reason he cried out thus: "I became manifest to those who did not seek me; I was found by those who did not ask for me." And who is it that became manifest but the Word of the Father, whom the Father sent and so showed to men the authority that comes from himself? Thus, then, the Word became manifest, as (John) says; for the blessed John sums up what was said through the prophets, showing that this is the Word through whom all things came to be. For he says thus: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be." And further on he said: "The world came to be through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him." If, then, he says, the world came to be through him, as the prophet says, "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established," then this is the Word who was also shown to be manifest. We see, then, the Word incarnate; through him we understand the Father; we believe the Son; we worship the Holy Spirit. Let us see, then, what is written, that the Word was to be manifest …

And Jeremiah says: "Who has stood in the counsel of the Lord and seen his Word?" But the Word of God alone is visible, while the word of man is audible. When he speaks of seeing the Word, I must believe that this visible one was sent. It was no other than the Word. And that he was sent, Peter bears witness, saying to the centurion Cornelius: "God sent his Word to the sons of Israel through the preaching of Jesus Christ. This is the God who is Lord of all." If, then, the Word is sent through Jesus Christ, the will of the Father is Jesus Christ.

These things, then, brothers, the Scriptures signify. This economy the blessed John too hands down to us, bearing witness in the Gospel, and he confesses this Word to be God, speaking thus: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." If, then, the Word was with God, being God, what then? Would someone say that he speaks of two Gods? Two Gods I will not speak of, but of one; yet of two persons, and of a third economy, the grace of the Holy Spirit. For the Father is one, but there are two persons, because there is also the Son; and the third is the Holy Spirit. The Father commands, the Word accomplishes, and the Son is shown, through whom the Father is believed. The economy of harmony is brought together into one God; for God is one. For the one who commands is the Father, the one who obeys is the Son, and the one who gives understanding is the Holy Spirit. The Father is over all, the Son through all, and the Holy Spirit in all. Otherwise we cannot think of one God unless we truly believe in Father and Son and Holy Spirit. For the Jews glorified the Father but did not give thanks, for they did not recognize the Son. The disciples recognized the Son, but not in the Holy Spirit; and for that reason they also denied him. The Father's Word, then, knowing the economy and the will of the Father, that the Father wishes to be glorified in no other way than this, after he had risen handed it down to the disciples, saying: "Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," showing that whoever leaves out any one of these has not glorified God perfectly. For it is through this Trinity that the Father is glorified. For the Father willed, the Son made, the Spirit manifested. All the Scriptures, then, proclaim this.

But someone will say to me: "You bring me something strange in calling the Word Son. For John speaks of the Word, but he is speaking figuratively in another sense." … For thus, showing that this Word of God is he who was from the beginning and has now been sent, he said further on in the Revelation: "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it was faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. And he is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood; and his name is called the Word of God." See, then, brothers, how by a figure he described as the garment sprinkled with blood the flesh, through which the impassible Word of God also came under suffering, as the prophets bear witness to me. For the blessed Micah says thus: "The house of Jacob provoked the Spirit of the Lord to anger. These are their practices. Are not his words good with them, and do they not walk uprightly? And they rose up in enmity against the face of his peace; they stripped off his glory." That is, his suffering in the flesh. Likewise the blessed Paul says: "For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weak, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law might be manifested in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." What Son of his own, then, did God send down through the flesh but the Word, whom he addressed as Son because he was to become (man)? And he takes up the common name of tender love toward men in being called the Son. For neither was the Word, without flesh and by himself, perfect Son, though he was perfect Word, only-begotten; nor could the flesh subsist by itself apart from the Word, because it has its existence in the Word. Thus, then, one perfect Son of God was manifested.

These, then, are the testimonies concerning the incarnation of the Word; and there are very many others. But let us see also the matter before us: that in truth, brothers, the Father's power, which is the Word, came down from heaven, and not the Father himself. For he says thus: "I came forth from the Father and have come." What is it that came forth from the Father but the Word? And what is it that was begotten of him but Spirit, that is, the Word? But you will say to me: "How was he begotten?" Your own birth, how you were begotten, you cannot tell, although every day you see the cause as it is among men; nor can you tell accurately the economy concerning him. For it is not granted to you to know the skilled and indescribable art of the Maker, but only to see, to understand, and to believe that man is God's work. Yet you seek the generation of the Word, whom God the Father, having willed it, begot as he willed. Is it not enough for you to learn that God made the world, but do you dare to inquire also from what he made it? Is it not enough for you to learn that the Son of God was manifested to you for salvation, if you believe, but do you inquire curiously how he was begotten according to the Spirit? Not more than two were entrusted with narrating even his birth according to the flesh; and do you dare to inquire into the account of his birth according to the Spirit, which the Father keeps with himself, intending then to reveal it to the saints and to those worthy to see his face? Let what was said by Christ be enough for you: that "what is born of the Spirit is spirit"; as through the prophet he signifies the birth of the Word, that he has been begotten, but the manner he keeps with himself, intending to reveal it at an appointed time. And he says thus: "From the womb before the morning star I begot you."

These testimonies are sufficient for believers who practise the truth; but unbelievers believe nothing. For the Holy Spirit too, speaking in the person of the apostles, bore witness, saying: "Who has believed our report?" Let us not, then, become unbelievers, lest what was said be fulfilled in us. Let us believe, then, blessed brothers, according to the tradition of the apostles, that God the Word came down from heaven into the holy Virgin Mary, so that, having been made flesh from her, and having taken also a human soul (a rational one, I mean), and having become …, he might save the fallen and grant incorruption to people who believe in his name. In all things, then, the account of the truth has been demonstrated to us: that the Father is one, whose Word is present with him, through whom he made all things; whom in later times, as we said above, the Father sent for the salvation of men. He was proclaimed through the law and the prophets as about to come into the world. In the way, then, in which he was proclaimed, in this way too, when present, he manifested himself, from the Virgin and the Holy Spirit, made a new man: having the heavenly (nature), the Father's, as Word, and the earthly as from the old Adam, being made flesh through the Virgin. He, coming forth into the world, was manifested as God in a body, coming forth as perfect man. For not in appearance or by change, but truly, he became man.

Thus, then, being God, he does not refuse to show the human things that are his own: when he hungers and toils, and being weary thirsts; and in fear flees; and in prayer is grieved; and lies down on a pillow, he who as God has a sleepless nature; and asks that the cup of suffering be taken away, he who came into the world for this very reason; and in agony sweats, and is strengthened by an angel, he who strengthens those who believe in him and taught by his deed to despise death; and is betrayed by Judas, he who knows who Judas is; and is dishonoured by Caiaphas, he who formerly was served by him as God in his priestly office; and is set at naught by Herod, he who is to judge the whole earth; and is scourged by Pilate, he who took on himself our infirmities; and is mocked by soldiers, he before whom stand thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads of angels and archangels; and is nailed to the wood by the Jews, he who fixed the heaven like a vault; and crying out to the Father commits his spirit, he who is inseparable from the Father; and bowing his head breathes his last, he who said, "I have authority to lay down my life, and I have authority to take it again"; and because he was not mastered by death, being life, he said, "I lay it down of myself"; and is pierced in the side with a spear, he who bestows life on all; and wrapped in linen is laid in a tomb, he who raises the dead; and on the third day is raised by the Father, he who is himself the resurrection and the life. For all these things he accomplished for us, he who for our sake became like us. "For he himself took up our infirmities and bore our diseases," and was pained for us, as Isaiah the prophet said. (This is he who was) hymned by angels and seen by shepherds, awaited by Simeon and borne witness to by Anna. This was he who was sought by the magi and pointed out by a star; he who lived in his Father's house and was pointed out by John's finger; he to whom the Father bore witness from above: "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." He is crowned (victor) against the devil. This is Jesus of Nazareth, who was invited to a wedding in Cana and changed the water into wine, and rebuked the sea when it was stirred by violent winds, and walked on the sea as on dry land, and made one blind from birth see, and raised Lazarus, four days dead, and performed various mighty works, and forgave sins, and gave authority to the disciples, and poured out blood and water from his holy side when pierced by a spear. For his sake the sun is darkened, the day is not lit, rocks are split, the veil is torn, the foundations of the earth are shaken, tombs are opened and the dead are raised, and rulers are put to shame; for seeing the Ruler of the universe on the cross closing his eye and giving up (his spirit), creation was troubled, and, unable to contain his surpassing glory, it was darkened. He breathes on the disciples and gives them the Spirit, and enters when the doors are shut; and while the disciples look on he is taken up by a cloud into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, and is coming as Judge of the living and the dead. This is God, who became man for our sake, to whom the Father subjected all things. To him be the glory and the power, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in the holy Church, both now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.