On the Trinity 23
Summary: Even heretics who call Christ the Father, or who deny his flesh, testify by their error to his evident divinity; the Scriptures show him God as the Son and man as the Mediator who unites God and man.
Latin text · PL 3:959c–960c
Hoc in loco licebit mihi argumenta etiam ex aliorum haereticorum parte conquirere. Firmum est genus probationis, quod etiam ab adversario sumitur, ut veritas etiam ab ipsis inimicis veritatis probetur. Nam usque adeo hunc manifestum est in Scripturis esse Deum tradi, ut plerique haereticorum, divinitatis ipsius magnitudine et veritate commoti, ultra modum extendentes honores ejus, ausi sint non Filium, sed ipsum Deum Patrem promere vel putare. Quod, etsi contra Scripturarum veritatem est, tamen divinitatis Christi argumentum grande atque praecipuum est; qui usque adeo Deus, sed qua Filius Dei natus ex Deo, ut plerique illum (ut diximus) haeretici ita Deum acceperint, ut non Filium, sed Patrem pronuntiandum putarint. AEstiment ergo an hic sit Deus, cujus auctoritas tantum movit quosdam, ut putarent illum ut diximus superius jam ipsum Patrem Deum; effrenatius et effusius in Christo divinitatem confiteri, ad hoc illos manifesta Christi divinitate cogente, ut quem Filium legerent, quia Deum animadverterent, Patrem putarent. Alii quoque haeretici usque adeo Christi manifestam amplexati sunt divinitatem, ut dixerint illum fuisse sine carne, et totum illi susceptum detraxerint hominem, ne decoquerent in illo divini nominis potestatem, si humanam illi sociassent, ut arbitrabantur, nativitatem: quod tamen nos non probamus; sed argumentum afferimus usque adeo Christum esse Deum, ut quidam illum, subtracto homine, tantummodo putarint Deum, quidam autem ipsum crediderint Patrem Deum: cum ratio et temperamentum Scripturarum coelestium Christum ostendant Deum, sed qua Filium Dei, et assumpto a Deo etiam Filio hominis, credendum et hominem. Quoniam si ad hominem veniebat ut mediator Dei et hominum esse deberet, oportuit illum cum eo esse, et Verbum carnem fieri, ut in semetipso concordiam confibularet terrenorum pariter atque coelestium, dum utriusque partis in se connectens pignora, et Deum homini, et hominem Deo copularet; ut merito Filius Dei per assumptionem carnis Filius hominis, et Filius hominis per receptionem Dei Verbi Filius Dei effici possit. Hoc altissimum atque reconditum sacramentum ad salutem generis humani ante saecula destinatum in Domino Jesu Christo Deo et homine invenitur impleri, quo conditio generis humani ad fructum aeternae salutis posset adduci.
English · Claude translation
At this point I may also gather arguments from the side of other heretics. It is a firm kind of proof that is taken even from an opponent, so that the truth is proved even by the enemies of the truth themselves. For it is so plain that he is presented in the Scriptures as God that many of the heretics, moved by the greatness and truth of his divinity, stretching his honors beyond measure, have dared to proclaim or think him not the Son but God the Father himself. Though this is against the truth of the Scriptures, it is nevertheless a great and outstanding argument for the divinity of Christ, who is so truly God, but as the Son of God born from God, that many heretics (as we have said) have taken him as God in such a way that they thought he should be declared not the Son but the Father. Let them consider, then, whether he is God whose authority has so moved some that they thought him, as we said above, to be God the Father himself: confessing the divinity in Christ in an unbridled and extravagant way, the plain divinity of Christ driving them to this, that whom they read to be the Son they thought to be the Father, because they perceived him to be God.
Other heretics too have so embraced the plain divinity of Christ as to say that he was without flesh, and have taken away from him the whole man that he took up, lest they should impair in him the power of the divine name if they associated a human birth with him, as they supposed. We do not approve this; but we bring it forward as an argument that Christ is so truly God that some, removing the man, have thought him only God, while some have believed him to be God the Father himself: whereas the reasoning and balance of the heavenly Scriptures show Christ to be God, but as the Son of God, and, since the Son of man was also taken up by God, to be believed to be man as well. For if he was coming to man in order to be the Mediator of God and men, he had to be with man, and the Word had to become flesh, so that in himself he might fasten together the concord of earthly and heavenly things alike, joining in himself the pledges of both parties and uniting God to man and man to God; so that rightly the Son of God, by taking up flesh, might become the Son of man, and the Son of man, by receiving the Word of God, might become the Son of God. This most profound and hidden mystery, destined before the ages for the salvation of the human race, is found fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man, by which the human race might be brought to the fruit of eternal salvation.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The first group of heretics are the Monarchians or Sabellians, who identified the Son with the Father; the second are the docetists. Allusions to 1 Tim 2:5; John 1:14; and Col 1:26 (the mystery hidden before the ages).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR: misread letters; OCR: split word): Scriptu rarum → Scripturarum; in semel ipso → in semetipso.
Cite this passage
Novatian, Trin. 23 (PL 3:959c–960c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/novatian-trinitate/23/).
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Plain text
Novatian, Trin. 23 (PL 3:959c–960c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/novatian-trinitate/23/).
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