On the Trinity 12
Summary: Hosea, Isaiah, and Habakkuk speak of God saving, coming, and working signs, which Christ fulfilled; so those who call Christ a mere man must either confess him God the Son or fall into Sabellianism.
Latin text · PL 3:932c–934b
Cur ergo dubitemus dicere, quod Scriptura non dubitat exprimere? cur haesitabit fidei veritas, in quo Scripturae nunquam haesitavit auctoritas? Ecce enim Osee prophetes ait ex persona Patris: Jam non salvabo eos in arcu, neque in equis neque in equitibus; sed salvabo eos in Domino Deo ipsorum. Si Deus salvare se dicit in Deo, non autem salvat nisi in Christo Deus: cur ergo homo dubitet Christum Deum dicere, quem Deum a Patre animadvertit positum per Scripturas esse? imo si non salvat nisi in Deo Pater Deus, salvari non poterit a Deo Patre quisquam, nisi confessus fuerit Christum Deum, in quo se et per quem se promittit Pater salutem daturum; ut merito quis quis illum agnoscit esse Deum, salutem inveniat in Deo Christo; quisquis non recognoscit esse Deum, salutem perdiderit, quam alibi nisi in Christo Deo invenire non poterit. Quomodo enim Isaias: Ecce virgo concipiet, et pariet filium, et vocabitis nomen ejus Emmanuel; quod interpretatum est nobiscum Deus, sic Christus ipse dicit: Ecce ego vobiscum sum usque ad consummationem saeculi. Est ergo nobiscum Deus, imo multo magis etiam in nobis est. Nobiscum est Christus: est ergo cujus nomen est, nobiscum Deus, quia et nobiscum est. Aut numquid non est nobiscum? quomodo ergo dicit se nobiscum esse? Est ergo nobiscum. Sed quoniam nobiscum est; Emmanuel, id est, nobiscum Deus, dictus est. Deus ergo quia nobiscum est, nobiscum Deus dictus est. Idem prophetes: Convalescite, manus dissolutae, et genua debilia, consolamini pusillanimes sensu, convalescite, nolite timere: ecce Deus noster judicium retribuet; ipse veniet et salvabit nos: tunc aperientur oculi caecorum, et aures surdorum audient; tunc saliet claudus sicut cervus, et diserta erit lingua mutorum. Si in adventu Dei dicit prophetes haec futura signa quae facta sunt; aut Dei Filium agnoscant et Christum, in cujus adventu, et a quo haec sanitatum signa facta sunt; aut divinitatis Christi veritate superati, in alteram haeresim ruentes, Christum, dum Filium Dei et Deum confiteri nolunt, Patrem illum esse confiteantur. Vocibus enim prophetarum inclusi jam Christum Deum negare non possunt. Quid ergo respondeat, cum in adventu Dei haec signa futura dicuntur, quae in adventu Christi gesta sunt? Christum qualiter accipiunt Deum? Deum enim jam negare non possunt. Qua Patrem? aut qua Filium? Si qua Filium, cur Dei Filium Deum negant? Si qua Patrem, cur eos non sequuntur, qui ejusmodi blasphemias tenere videntur? nisi quoniam nobis in hoc adversus illos de veritate certamine, hoc interim sufficit, ut quocunque genere convicti Christum confiteantur et Deum, quem etiam Deum negare voluerunt. Per Habacuc prophetam ait: Deus ab Africo veniet et sanctus de monte opaco et condenso. Quem volunt isti ab Africo venire? Si venisse aiunt omnipotentem Deum Patrem, ergo de loco Deus Pater venit ex quo etiam loco cluditur, et intra sedis alicujus angustias continetur; et jam per istos, ut diximus, Sabelliana haeresis sacrilega corporatur. Siquidem Christus non Filius, sed Pater creditur; et novo more, dum ab istis districto homo nudus asseritur, per eos rursum Christus Pater Deus omnipotens comprobatur. At si in Bethlehem, cujus metaturae regio ad meridianam respicit plagam coeli, Christus nascitur, qui per Scripturas et Deus dicitur; merito Deus hic ab Africo venire describitur, quia a Bethlehem venturus esse praevidebatur. Eligant ergo ex duobus quid velint, hunc, qui ab Africo venit Filium esse, an Patrem: Deus enim dicitur ab Africo venturus. Si Filium, quid dubitant Christum et Deum dicere? Deum enim Scriptura dicit esse venturum. Si Patrem, quid dubitant cum Sabellii temeritate misceri, qui Christum Patrem dicit? nisi quoniam, sive illum Patrem, sive Filium dixerint, ab haeresi sua, inviti licet, desciscant necesse est, qui Christum hominem tantummodo solent dicere: dum illum, rebus ipsis coacti, Deum incipiunt promere, sive dum illum Patrem, sive dum illum Filium voluerint nuncupare.
English · Claude translation
Why, then, should we hesitate to say what Scripture does not hesitate to express? Why will the truth of faith falter where the authority of Scripture has never faltered? For see, the prophet Hosea says in the person of the Father: “I will no longer save them by bow, nor by horses, nor by horsemen; but I will save them in the Lord their God.” If God says that he saves in God, and God does not save except in Christ, why then should man hesitate to call Christ God, whom he observes to have been set forth as God by the Father through the Scriptures? Indeed, if God the Father does not save except in God, no one can be saved by God the Father unless he has confessed Christ as God, in whom and through whom the Father promises that he will give salvation: so that rightly whoever acknowledges him to be God will find salvation in Christ, God; and whoever does not recognize him to be God will have lost the salvation that he could find nowhere else than in Christ, God. For just as Isaiah says, “Behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you will call his name Emmanuel”, which is interpreted “God with us”, so Christ himself says, “Behold, I am with you until the consummation of the age.” He is therefore God with us; indeed, much more, he is also in us. Christ is with us: he is therefore the one whose name is “God with us,” since he is also with us. Or is he not with us? How then does he say that he is with us? He is therefore with us. And because he is with us, he has been called Emmanuel, that is, “God with us.” Because, then, God is with us, he has been called “God with us.”
The same prophet says: “Be strong, you weakened hands and feeble knees; be comforted, you faint-hearted in mind; be strong, do not fear: behold, our God will render judgment; he himself will come and save us: then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear; then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will be eloquent.” If the prophet says that these signs, which have been done, would come at the coming of God, then either let them acknowledge Christ as the Son of God, at whose coming and by whom these signs of healing were done; or, overcome by the truth of Christ's divinity and rushing into another heresy, since they will not confess Christ as Son of God and God, let them confess that he is the Father. For, shut in by the voices of the prophets, they can no longer deny that Christ is God. What, then, will they answer, when the signs said to come at the coming of God are those that were done at the coming of Christ? In what way do they take Christ as God? For they can no longer deny him God. As the Father? Or as the Son? If as the Son, why do they deny that the Son of God is God? If as the Father, why do they not follow those who seem to hold blasphemies of that kind? Except that for us, in this contest for the truth against them, this suffices for the present: that, convicted in whatever way, they confess Christ to be God as well, whom they wished to deny as God.
Through the prophet Habakkuk he says: “God will come from the south, and the Holy One from the shady and thickly wooded mountain.” Whom do they want to come from the south? If they say that God the Father Almighty has come, then God the Father comes from a place, by which place he is also enclosed, and he is contained within the narrow bounds of some dwelling; and now, as we have said, through these men the sacrilegious Sabellian heresy takes bodily form, since Christ is believed to be not the Son but the Father; and, in a new fashion, while he is strictly asserted by them to be a bare man, through them in turn Christ is proved to be the Father, God Almighty. But if Christ, who through the Scriptures is also called God, is born in Bethlehem, whose surveyed region faces the southern quarter of the sky, then rightly this God is described as coming from the south, since he was foreseen as going to come from Bethlehem. Let them choose, then, which of the two they want: that he who comes from the south is the Son, or the Father; for it is God who is said to be coming from the south. If the Son, why do they hesitate to call Christ God as well? For Scripture says that it is God who is to come. If the Father, why do they hesitate to join with the rashness of Sabellius, who says that Christ is the Father? Except that, whether they call him Father or Son, they must, however unwillingly, abandon their heresy, they who are accustomed to say that Christ is only a man: since, compelled by the facts themselves, they begin to proclaim him God, whether they choose to call him Father or Son.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Hos 1:7; Isa 7:14 with Matt 1:23; Matt 28:20; Isa 35:3–6; Hab 3:3 (in a Latin form of the LXX: “from the south … from the shady and thickly wooded mountain”). Sabellius taught that Father and Son are one person under different names. “Strictly asserted … to be a bare man” renders “districto homo nudus asseritur”, where the text may be faulty.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR: c for e; OCR: h for r; OCR: i for l; OCR: i for r; OCR: l for t; OCR: letter lost; OCR: misread letters; OCR: o for a; OCR: o for u; OCR: r for c; OCR: stray uncertain characters; OCR: transposed letters; OCR: uncertain character; OCR: uncertain character; ending lost; OCR: uncertain character; period for comma; stray page or footnote number): cor ergo homo → cur ergo homo; per quem se (??)e promittit → per quem se promittit; pe(??)diderit → perdiderit; quam (78; alibi → quam alibi; Erce ego → Ecce ego; od consummationem → ad consummationem; uno multo magis → imo multo magis; nobisc(??)m → nobiscum; Deus ergo quia nobi cum est → Deus ergo quia nobiscum est; (??)ictus → dictus; phophetes → prophetes; el genua → et genua; pusilianimes → pusillanimes; sirut cervus → sicut cervus; ag(??)osca → agnoscant; Filuim → Filium; ne(??)ant → negant; inte(??)im → interim; (??)t diximus → ut diximus; non Fidus → non Filius; per cos rursum → per eos rursum; S(??)ripturas → Scripturas; Elig(??)nt → Eligant; an Patiem → an Patrem; h(??)eresi sua. inviti → haeresi sua, inviti; nceesse → necesse.
Cite this passage
Novatian, Trin. 12 (PL 3:932c–934b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/novatian-trinitate/12/).
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Plain text
Novatian, Trin. 12 (PL 3:932c–934b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/novatian-trinitate/12/).
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