On Ecclesiastical Theology
De ecclesiastica theologia · Περὶ τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς θεολογίας
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Contents
Reading pages: 1.0.1–1.12.10 · 1.13.1–1.20.23 · 1.20.24–1.20.87 · 1.20.88–2.8.5 · 2.9.1–2.15.4 · 2.16.1–2.20.15 · 2.21.1–3.1.5 · 3.2.1–3.3.27 · 3.3.28–3.4.9 · 3.5.1–3.13.4 · 3.14.1–3.21.2
- 1.0.1Eusebius had thought Marcellus's own words sufficient to refute him.
- 1.0.2Eusebius will refute Marcellus's scriptural arguments and set out the church's received theology of the Saviour.
- 1.1.1Eusebius is astonished that Marcellus attacks Sabellius, whose view he shares.
- 1.1.2Marcellus, by abolishing the Son's hypostasis, really teaches Sabellius's Son-Father.
- 1.1.3Marcellus calls the Word God's son only in name, insisting he is properly a word.
- 1.1.4Marcellus's view makes God himself incarnate, which the church condemned in Sabellius.
- 1.2.1The church knows one God as Father of an only Son, who is God by receiving the fullness of the Father's divinity.
- 1.3.1Eusebius lists three errors about the Son and the church's confession of one God and one only-begotten Son.
- 1.4.1Those who make Father and Son the same belong in the synagogue and make the Father suffer.
- 1.5.1Marcellus revives Sabellius, making God a composite of Father and Son.
- 1.5.2Even the Jew is better than Marcellus, though Jews suffer for rejecting Christ.
- 1.6.1Believers know three: the man born of David's line, the pre-existing Son who dwelt in him, and the Father.
- 1.6.2Body, Son and Father are distinct; denying any one puts one outside the church.
- 1.7.1Docetists deny the flesh; adoptionists and Sabellians deny the pre-existing Son.
- 1.7.2Sabellius and Marcellus accept God and the flesh but deny the Son, who is light and truth.
- 1.7.3The Son must be truly subsisting, distinct both from his body and from the Father.
- 1.8.1At baptism the church confesses one God, the Father Almighty, against Greeks, Jews and heretics.
- 1.8.2The church confesses one Father Almighty and the only-begotten Son, God from God, begotten before all ages, distinct from the Father.
- 1.8.3God begot the Son before all things as the foundation of creation.
- 1.8.4The Son is life, light, Word and Wisdom itself, and alone is the only-begotten.
- 1.9.1Those who call the Son a creature from nothing make him a brother of creatures, not the Son.
- 1.9.2Scripture says all things came into being through the Son.
- 1.9.3Scripture's titles mark the Son off from creatures and show his unique relation to the Father.
- 1.9.4At the Jordan and the transfiguration the Father named him alone his beloved Son.
- 1.9.5The Father, the evangelist and the Saviour all testify that he is the only-begotten Son.
- 1.9.6To call the Son a creature from nothing is to deny that he is truly Son.
- 1.10.1God is Father of the Son but maker of the world, as a king begets a son but founds a city.
- 1.10.2Prov 8:22 must be read in context, not used to overturn the church's doctrine as Marcellus used “Word.”
- 1.10.3The titles Son and only-begotten show a natural, unique relation to the Father, not creaturehood.
- 1.10.4Marcellus denies the Son's hypostasis; those who make him a creature deny his divinity.
- 1.10.5The church worships the Son as truly God, not as one of those called gods by grace.
- 1.11.1Confessing the Son as God does not make two gods, since the Father alone is unbegotten and the Son's source.
- 1.11.2The Son calls the Father his God, and Paul calls God the head of Christ.
- 1.11.3The Father, as the one unbegotten source and head, is the one God who sends, commands and exalts the Son.
- 1.11.4The Son obeys, prays to and thanks the Father, whom he calls the only true God and greater than himself.
- 1.11.5The church knows the Son alone as God besides the Father, the one whom the Father begot.
- 1.11.6Prov 8:25 shows the Son begotten before all heavenly powers.
- 1.12.1The manner of the Son's begetting is beyond inquiry, as Sirach and Paul warn.
- 1.12.2If creation from nothing is beyond us, the Son's generation is far more so.
- 1.12.3Creatures of yesterday cannot pry into the Son's generation, when they do not know even themselves.
- 1.12.4We cannot even explain the soul, still less angels and powers.
- 1.12.5The Father's own testimony to his beloved Son is enough.
- 1.12.6Faith in the only-begotten Son, not knowledge of his generation, gives eternal life.
- 1.12.7Faith in the Father and the only Son suffices for salvation; what is born of Spirit is spirit.
- 1.12.8What is begotten of God is God, and the begetting involves no emission, change or passion.
- 1.12.9The Son's begetting is bodiless and beyond every analogy, even that of light and ray.
- 1.12.10Against the poets' “father of men and gods,” the church proclaims one God and one only Son.
- 1.13.1Creation could not approach God directly, so the Father set his Son over all as helper.
- 1.13.2The Father entrusted the governing of all things to the Son alone.
- 1.13.3The Son, like a pilot and physician, governs and cares for all things.
- 1.13.4Before the incarnation the Son appeared to the patriarchs, gave the law, and spoke through the prophets.
- 1.13.5In the fullness of time the Son lived among men, using his body as an instrument.
- 1.13.6The pre-existing Son emptied himself and died so that eternal life might reign through his grace.
- 1.14.1The church rejected Sabellius, and the first preachers named the Ebionites, for denying the Son's divinity.
- 1.14.2Paul of Samosata was condemned for denying Christ's pre-existence as Son and God.
- 1.14.3Marcellus disguised Sabellius's error but was caught in his own nets.
- 1.14.4Marcellus attacked Sabellius to avoid suspicion.
- 1.15.1Marcellus says Sabellius erred by not knowing the Word, through whom alone the Father is known.
- 1.15.2Marcellus, knowingly falling into Sabellius's error, deserves less pardon than Sabellius.
- 1.16.1Christ calls himself Son of God throughout the Gospels, yet Marcellus says he calls himself only Son of Man.
- 1.16.2Marcellus avoids calling Christ Son of God and calls him only Word and Son of Man.
- 1.16.3Marcellus cites Matt 11:27 against Sabellius.
- 1.16.4Marcellus substitutes “Word” for “Son” in quoting Christ.
- 1.16.5The Saviour pairs Son with Father; Marcellus, avoiding “Son,” blames Sabellius for what he does himself.
- 1.16.6Everyone grants God a word; Sabellius, like Marcellus, was expelled for denying a subsisting Son.
- 1.16.7Eusebius shows that Marcellus, like Sabellius, makes God and his Word one and the same.
- 1.17.1Eusebius repeats Marcellus's sayings that the Word is one with God, like a man's word.
- 1.17.2Marcellus compares God's Word to a signifying word inseparable in hypostasis.
- 1.17.3Marcellus repeats his analogy of the human word.
- 1.17.4Marcellus's words could be Sabellius's; Sabellius at least did not call a non-subsisting word Son.
- 1.17.5Marcellus holds Sabellius's premise yet blames only Sabellius.
- 1.17.6Marcellus should not have pictured God as a sculptor talking to himself.
- 1.17.7The distinction of internal and uttered word, applied to God, suits Jews or Sabellius, not Christians.
- 1.17.8Marcellus introduces a Jewish dogma, insisting that before the world there was only God.
- 1.17.9Christians too confess one God, Father of a true Son who bore many titles before the incarnation.
- 1.18.1Marcellus says “Word” is the only eternal name; all other titles come from the incarnation.
- 1.18.2Marcellus repeats that before the incarnation the Son was only Word.
- 1.18.3Marcellus says John mentions only the Word because the man came into being later.
- 1.18.4Marcellus applies the names Jesus and Christ only to the incarnate Word, denying the living Son.
- 1.18.5From his premise of a human-like word Marcellus proceeds to misinterpret Scripture.
- 1.19.1Eusebius will show that Scripture opposes Marcellus's interpretations.
- 1.19.2Marcellus claims the Son bore no name but Word before the incarnation.
- 1.20.1John calls the Word not “God's” but “God,” to mark him off from a human word.
- 1.20.2John next names the Word light, existing before the incarnation.
- 1.20.3John 1:8–11 shows the light was in the world and made the world.
- 1.20.4The light, like the Word, pre-existed and made the world.
- 1.20.5“Through him” shows that the Son serves the Father, the author of creation.
- 1.20.6The world knows God by nature, so the one it did not know is another, the Son.
- 1.20.7The Son is the rational light that enlightens human beings, not sensory light.
- 1.20.8The Son, light for rational souls, is distinct from the Father, the unapproachable light.
- 1.20.9John begins by giving the Son three titles: Word, God and light.
- 1.20.10John calls the Word only-begotten, whose glory was seen by the mind, not in the flesh.
- 1.20.11John says “glory as of the only-begotten,” not “of a word,” since a mere word cannot become flesh.
- 1.20.12The Son's glory is received from the Father and existed before the world.
- 1.20.13The Father's answer and the Baptist's witness confirm the Son's prior existence.
- 1.20.14John the Baptist, born first, says Christ was before him, so Christ pre-existed.
- 1.20.15The Baptist's words fit neither the Father nor a non-subsisting word, but the pre-existing Son.
- 1.20.16The Son pre-existed as God, light and only-begotten, as the Son himself revealed.
- 1.20.17The Son, distinct from the invisible Father, was in his bosom, as the saints will be in Abraham's.
- 1.20.18After the prologue John never again calls the Son “Word”; Christ calls himself Son and only-begotten.
- 1.20.19The Son sent by the Father is other than the Father, and Christ answers those who begrudge him the title Son.
- 1.20.20Christ calls himself Son of God, whom the Father sanctified and sent.
- 1.20.21If mortals are called gods, it is not blasphemy to confess the sanctified and sent one as Son and God.
- 1.20.22Marcellus's claim that Christ never calls himself Son of God cannot face the evidence.
- 1.20.23Christ calls himself the light of the world.
- 1.20.24The one who came from heaven saw and heard the Father before coming to earth.
- 1.20.25The Son, who saw and heard the Father, is a living Son to whom the Father gave all things.
- 1.20.26“All things” shows the vastness of the Son's power.
- 1.20.27The Son's one hand holds all visible and invisible creation.
- 1.20.28No creature, human or angelic, can fully comprehend the Son.
- 1.20.29Only the Father knows the Son; we must rest on the Son's own teaching in faith.
- 1.20.30The Father handed all things to the Son, who holds them as a true Son.
- 1.20.31Christ calls himself the living bread from heaven, living because of the Father.
- 1.20.32The Son was the bread of life in heaven before the incarnation, having life in himself.
- 1.20.33The Son alone shares the Father's kind of life, but as received from the Father.
- 1.20.34The Son received from the Father a self-springing life, from which all others live.
- 1.20.35In heaven the Son was already the bread of angels, living because of the Father.
- 1.20.36The Son subsists with his own life given by the Father.
- 1.20.37Christ says he speaks as the Father taught him and always does what pleases him.
- 1.20.38“Always” and “taught me” show the Son is distinct from the Father, his teacher.
- 1.20.39A word inseparable from God could not be taught, sent, or pleasing to him.
- 1.20.40If the Word lived in the flesh apart from the Father, there were two hypostases.
- 1.20.41Marcellus must make either the Father, a subsisting Son, a human soul, or nothing at all move Christ's flesh.
- 1.20.42Saying the Father was incarnate is Sabellianism; so the Son must be confessed.
- 1.20.43Denying the Son's subsistence leaves Christ a mere man, as the Ebionites and Paulianists held.
- 1.20.44The flesh alone could not speak of being taught and sent; the speaker was the subsisting Son.
- 1.20.45If Marcellus posits a human soul, he becomes a Paulianist; if a mere word, the next objections follow.
- 1.20.46Christ's prayers, his glorifying of the Father, and his double testimony show a subsisting Son.
- 1.20.47Christ never calls himself Word, but Son, light, only-begotten, and bread of life.
- 1.20.48Christ speaks of having a word, not of being one; Eusebius repeats Marcellus's claim.
- 1.20.49Marcellus says all newer names come from the incarnation.
- 1.20.50Marcellus repeats that before the incarnation he was only Word.
- 1.20.51John himself would answer that he called the Son God, light and only-begotten, not only Word.
- 1.20.52John's Word is God and creator; the Saviour never calls himself Word.
- 1.20.53“In the beginning was the Word” is as much from the New Testament as the other titles.
- 1.20.54Paul names the pre-existent creator Son “Lord Jesus Christ,” distinct from the one God the Father.
- 1.20.55Paul adds a second, the Lord Jesus Christ, which a Jew would not confess.
- 1.20.56The Son is Lord of all after God because all things came into being through him.
- 1.20.57“Through whom are all things” refers to the pre-existent Word, not the flesh.
- 1.20.58Paul calls the pre-existent Son “Christ” in the wilderness.
- 1.20.59Hebrews and Philippians speak of Christ before his human birth.
- 1.20.60Jesus Christ existed in the form of God before emptying himself.
- 1.20.61Paul explains who Christ Jesus is: the one in the form of God who emptied himself.
- 1.20.62Phil 2:6–7 cannot refer to the flesh, nor to a word without existence of its own.
- 1.20.63Obedience to the Father shows two persons, not a word identical with God.
- 1.20.64Applied to a human word, Phil 2 is absurd; it fits only the pre-existent Son.
- 1.20.65Paul calls the Son the mediator of the law in Moses' time.
- 1.20.66Paul calls the Son a great high priest.
- 1.20.67Hebrews calls the Son heir, radiance and imprint, through whom the ages were made.
- 1.20.68“Radiance” is a godlike image of the Son's generation, unlike animal birth.
- 1.20.69The Son is the radiance of the Father's unapproachable light and therefore his image.
- 1.20.70Col 1:15–17 describes the Son as image and agent of all creation.
- 1.20.71Col 1:15–17 speaks of the Son's divinity; “who” could not refer to the flesh.
- 1.20.722 Cor 4:4 also calls Christ the image of God.
- 1.20.73Calling Christ God's image guards against two gods: the one God is known through his image.
- 1.20.74The Son is God as the Father's image, and was so before the incarnation.
- 1.20.75The prophets call the Son Spirit of God, as Isaiah and Lamentations show.
- 1.20.76The psalms call the Son the fountain of life and light, and Zerubbabel praises truth.
- 1.20.77Zerubbabel's living, ruling truth points to the subsisting Son, who called himself truth.
- 1.20.78The psalm calls the Son a river that gladdens God's city.
- 1.20.79Daniel's mountain and stone signify the Son's divinity and humanity.
- 1.20.80The prophets call the Son righteousness and sun of righteousness.
- 1.20.81Solomon calls the Son Wisdom, who lived before the world.
- 1.20.82Solomon calls Wisdom the tree of life and Lord.
- 1.20.83David calls the Son Lord and eternal priest.
- 1.20.84Psalm 45 calls the Son God, anointed by God, and so Christ.
- 1.20.85The psalm's title calls the Son the beloved.
- 1.20.86Isaiah calls the Son God's arm; David calls him salvation and righteousness.
- 1.20.87The prophets knew the Son under veiled titles; the full proclamation was kept for the church.
- 1.20.88Paul calls Christ the mystery hidden for ages and now revealed.
- 1.20.89Israel was taught one God; the Father of the only Son was revealed to the church of the nations.
- 1.20.90Scripture gives the pre-existent Son many titles, not only “Word.”
- 1.20.91Marcellus clings to “Word” alone because he Sabellianizes and denies the Son.
- 1.20.92Marcellus's “hidden mystery” of a word in God is something every Jew already grants.
- 1.20.93That God is rational and wise is universally known; the mystery is the Son, who is all these.
- 1.20.94As only Son and heir, the Son has all that the Father has and is his form and image.
- 1.20.95The hidden mystery is not that God is rational, but Christ.
- 1.20.96Christ is the mystery the prophets veiled; Marcellus is ignorant of Scripture, and Eusebius turns to his Sabellianism.
- 2.1.1Book 2: Marcellus's reasoning makes the Father himself born of the Virgin.
- 2.1.2Marcellus identifies the Spirit who came on Mary with God the Father, renewing Sabellius.
- 2.1.3Marcellus applies Bar 3:38 to the Father in the Word.
- 2.1.4Marcellus applies Lam 4:20 to the Word and then identifies that spirit with God the Father.
- 2.1.5Marcellus says that before the world there was only God, abolishing the Son's hypostasis.
- 2.2.1Marcellus agrees with the Jew that only God existed before the world; the church confesses the Lord through whom all things exist.
- 2.2.2The Son, through whom all things and ages were made, existed with the Father before the world.
- 2.2.3Proverbs and John show the Son present at creation and existing before the world.
- 2.2.4Wisdom rejoiced with the Father before the world, so God was not alone.
- 2.2.5Denying anything but God before the world makes one either a Jew or a Sabellian.
- 2.3.1Marcellus's view makes God his own father and son.
- 2.3.2Marcellus says the Word rested in God before creation and had glory only by being in the Father.
- 2.3.3Marcellus calls the Word eternal, which Eusebius takes to mean unbegotten.
- 2.3.4Marcellus says the Word's eternity is united to the Father.
- 2.4.1Marcellus calls God and the Word one indivisible monad, expanded only by activity.
- 2.4.2If God and his Word are one, the God over all was born and died, as Sabellius taught.
- 2.5.1One indivisible hypostasis of God and Word leaves no Father or Son, only Sabellius's Son-Father.
- 2.6.1The church confesses one unbegotten principle and a subsisting Son who has the Father as his source.
- 2.6.2The baptismal creed confesses Father and Son; “expansion” applies to bodies, not to God.
- 2.6.3God begot the Son without division, change or passion.
- 2.6.4God does not speak or see like men, but foresees by divine power.
- 2.6.5As God creates beyond our understanding, he begets the Son without passion in a way known only to him.
- 2.7.1Two hypostases do not mean two first principles, since the Son has the Father as his principle.
- 2.7.2Two hypostases of Father and Son no more imply two gods than two fathers.
- 2.7.3The two hypostases are not equal in honour; the Father is the Son's God.
- 2.7.4The Father is shown to be the Son's God.
- 2.7.5The Son, compared with the Father, is his image who worships and obeys him as his God.
- 2.7.6The Son lives because of the Father and does the will of the one who sent him.
- 2.7.7The Father bears witness to the Son and is greater than he.
- 2.7.8The one who came down from heaven to do the sender's will is other than the Father, and not the flesh.
- 2.7.9It cannot be the Father who came down, for the Son came to do the will of his sender.
- 2.7.10These sayings cannot be the Father's.
- 2.7.11God's internal thought could not come down and speak of doing another's will.
- 2.7.12Toward creation the Son is proclaimed God, Lord and King.
- 2.7.13The church worships the Son as God, as he taught.
- 2.7.14The Son is to be honoured as the Father is honoured.
- 2.7.15Thomas confessed Christ as Lord and God; we give the Son alone divine honour, and so honour the Father.
- 2.7.16Honouring the Son honours the Father, as honouring the king's image honours the king.
- 2.7.17The Son mirrors the Father and has received all from him; the Father, receiving from none, is the one God.
- 2.8.1Marcellus allows a going forth before the ages but rejects a true Son as too human.
- 2.8.2Marcellus denies the Word's generation and says he goes forth from God and returns.
- 2.8.3Marcellus's creed: the Word went forth for creation and returns into God after the judgment.
- 2.8.4Marcellus says the Word came forth from the Father to make the world.
- 2.8.5Marcellus makes God's Word go out of God and return into him, a grave difficulty.
- 2.9.1Eusebius asks what Marcellus's Word was while outside God: either a separate hypostasis or never outside at all.
- 2.9.2Marcellus's view makes both God and his Word change.
- 2.9.3Change in time is foreign to God's unchangeable substance.
- 2.9.4Marcellus's quiet in God before creation resembles Valentinus's “God and Silence.”
- 2.9.5Marcellus implies that the Word went forth like a spoken human word.
- 2.9.6Marcellus repeats his analogy of the human word.
- 2.9.7Marcellus's view implies the Word will again be idle after the end.
- 2.9.8Daniel foresees myriads before God's throne at the end.
- 2.9.9At the end all the saints will hear Christ's invitation to the kingdom.
- 2.9.10Why should the Word fall silent when the saints live for ever?
- 2.9.11Marcellus's view makes God deprive the saints of his Word in the kingdom.
- 2.9.12Marcellus built his heresy on John 1:1 alone, a word of the evangelist, not of Christ.
- 2.10.1John gives the Son many titles, and Christ never calls himself Word.
- 2.10.2Marcellus reads only “Word” literally and all other titles figuratively.
- 2.10.3Eusebius gathers Marcellus's statements that the Son was only Word.
- 2.10.4Scripture never says the Son was “only” Word.
- 2.10.5One could as well say he is only Son, only God or only light.
- 2.10.6The one Son is all these things together, under different aspects.
- 2.10.7It is absurd to make the evangelist's one title exclusive while ignoring Christ's own titles.
- 2.10.8If “Word” is proper, so are “God,” “light” and “only-begotten Son,” given by the same evangelist.
- 2.11.1Marcellus treats “light” as spiritual but “Word” as like a human word.
- 2.11.2Eusebius again quotes Marcellus's analogy and his account of the Word's going forth.
- 2.11.3Eusebius quotes Marcellus's exposition of John 1:1.
- 2.11.4Marcellus reads the clauses of John 1:1 as power and activity.
- 2.11.5Marcellus enlists John for his denial of the Son's hypostasis.
- 2.12.1John never says “Word of God” in his prologue, to keep us from thinking of a mere activity of God.
- 2.12.2An eternal Word other than God makes two principles; the same as God makes Sabellianism.
- 2.12.3Marcellus's view makes the Father pray to himself; Eusebius turns to the true sense of John 1:1.
- 2.13.1Eusebius distinguishes the senses of logos: reason, speech and writing.
- 2.13.2Logos also means the seminal principle and the principle of an art or science.
- 2.14.1John's Word is unlike any known logos, since “the Word was God.”
- 2.14.2The divine Word does not exist in another substance but subsists by himself as God.
- 2.14.3John says “the Word was God” without the article and “with God,” not “in God.”
- 2.14.4“In God” would make the Word an accident and God composite.
- 2.14.5Marcellus's view makes the Father a substance without reason and the Son its accident.
- 2.14.6The God beyond all is simple, and is Mind, Word, Wisdom and Good itself.
- 2.14.7The Son, image of the Father and most like him, is God, Word and Wisdom, but begotten.
- 2.14.8Marcellus's identification makes John 1:1 say “God was with God.”
- 2.14.9“Through him” signifies service, as the law came through Moses, so the Word is the Father's agent.
- 2.14.10If all came through the Word, there is a maker other than he, which Marcellus cannot name.
- 2.14.11The God of whom John speaks is the subsisting only Son, not the Father.
- 2.14.12John 1:1 can rightly be read with “Son” in place of “Word.”
- 2.14.13“In the beginning” refers to the Son's generation; “with God” shows his nearness to the Father.
- 2.14.14Proverbs too shows the begotten Son always present with the Father.
- 2.14.15What is begotten of God is God, so “the Word was God.”
- 2.14.16The Son is creator; the law through Moses taught only that God made the world.
- 2.14.17The law taught that the world was made, against worshipping creation.
- 2.14.18Grace through Christ revealed what Moses kept silent: creation through the Word.
- 2.14.19John's prologue teaches the Son's life and light; Marcellus Judaizes or Sabellianizes.
- 2.14.20Marcellus agrees with the Jew on God alone before creation and with Sabellius on one Father-Son.
- 2.14.21John's Word is not any human logos but the only Son, Word as creator and God as Son.
- 2.14.22The Son is truly light, life and truth, each title showing one of his divine powers.
- 2.15.1Eusebius again quotes Marcellus's analogy of the human word.
- 2.15.2Marcellus uses both the uttered and the internal human word as images of God's Word.
- 2.15.3Marcellus says only the Word, who helped fashion man, could undo man's punishment.
- 2.15.4Marcellus's sculptor image attaches to God an internal and an uttered word like ours.
- 2.16.1Every man has a word, but not every man has a son; so a word is not a son.
- 2.16.2Marcellus pretends to confess the Son while making him a mere internal word.
- 2.16.3Eusebius agrees that the evangelist called him Word.
- 2.17.1John wrote “the Word was God” without the article, not identifying the Word with the God over all.
- 2.17.2John teaches that the Father is God and that the Word, distinct from him, is also God.
- 2.17.3The Word is God as the living image of the Father's divinity.
- 2.17.4A better human image: the hidden mind is father of the word that makes it known.
- 2.17.5Others benefit from the word but never see the mind behind it.
- 2.17.6The living Word goes forth to supply all creation, while the Father remains beyond, like the hidden mind.
- 2.17.7The Father is unapproachable; the Son pervades and governs creation.
- 2.18.1John called the Son “Word” because of the prophets' formula “the word of the Lord came to.”
- 2.18.2The Word that once “came to” the prophets now himself became flesh, so John begins with who he was.
- 2.18.3John proclaims the Word's divine beginning, which no prophet revealed so openly.
- 2.18.4John proclaims the hidden mystery of the Word in his prologue.
- 2.18.5John announces not how the Word came, but that he was in the beginning, was God, and became flesh.
- 2.18.6John's message is not that God is rational, which deniers of the Son also grant.
- 2.18.7Marcellus hides behind the Old Testament's teaching of one God, given to idolatrous Israel.
- 2.19.1Marcellus accuses Asterius of separating Father and Son like a human father and son.
- 2.19.2Marcellus argues that “I am he who is” cannot be said by one of two distinct hypostases.
- 2.19.3Marcellus reads John 14:10 and Eph 4:5–6 as showing Father and Son are one.
- 2.19.4Marcellus gathers Old Testament texts against the Son.
- 2.19.5Marcellus cites “worship the Lord your God alone” for an indivisible monad.
- 2.19.6Marcellus cites Christ's answer on the first commandment.
- 2.19.7The scribe agrees that God is one.
- 2.19.8Marcellus says his opponents make a second God, unlike the scribe who confessed one.
- 2.19.9Marcellus cites Exod 3:15 for one person called Lord and God.
- 2.19.10Marcellus argues from the pronoun in the first commandment.
- 2.19.11Marcellus cites Exodus and Deuteronomy on the one Lord.
- 2.19.12Marcellus cites Deut 32:39 and 4:39 against Asterius.
- 2.19.13Marcellus cites Baruch's “this is our God” as prophecy of the Saviour.
- 2.19.14Marcellus reads Isa 45:14–15 as showing the Father in the Word.
- 2.19.15Marcellus argues from “I am” in Isa 41:4 that God is one person.
- 2.19.16Marcellus cites Isa 44:6 and challenges Asterius to say who speaks it.
- 2.19.17Marcellus argues that if there were two gods, one would be neither righteous nor Saviour.
- 2.19.18Marcellus applies Isa 46:8–9 to his opponents.
- 2.19.19Marcellus argues from the article in Isaiah and cites Hosea and Malachi.
- 2.19.20Marcellus adds Malachi and Psalm 81 against a second god.
- 2.19.21Marcellus concludes that “I am the Lord your God” shows one God only.
- 2.20.1The Old Testament's teaching of one God was adapted to Israel's hardness of heart.
- 2.20.2The law's provisions, including Moses' permission of divorce, were concessions to hardness of heart.
- 2.20.3Moses taught only one God, not the Son, because Israel kept falling into polytheism.
- 2.20.4Moses did not mention the creation of angels, though later prophets spoke of them.
- 2.20.5Moses knew of the angels but kept silent about their creation.
- 2.20.6Many things the New Testament reveals, such as the hostile powers, are absent from Moses.
- 2.20.7Must we disbelieve Paul because Moses did not mention the powers?
- 2.20.8The New Testament reveals things, like the heavenly Jerusalem, withheld from stubborn Israel.
- 2.20.9Eusebius challenges Marcellus to find these things in the Old Testament.
- 2.20.10Many mysteries Paul prays we may know were kept silent by the prophets.
- 2.20.11Christ revealed to his disciples mysteries not found in Moses or the prophets.
- 2.20.12The church should receive the teaching on the Son from the New Testament, kept back from Israel until its time.
- 2.20.13The mystery of Father and Son was withheld from Israel lest they fall into Greek polytheism.
- 2.20.14The Old Testament proclaimed one God without denying that he is Father of the Son.
- 2.20.15“He who is” can be said of the Father and, as his image, of the Son.
- 2.21.1The Lord who appeared to Abraham in human form was the Son, as Christ himself says.
- 2.21.2“Before Abraham was, I am” shows that the Son spoke “I am he who is” to Moses.
- 2.21.3The one who spoke to Moses was the mediator, the Son, before the incarnation.
- 2.21.4Whether the Son spoke in his own person or the Father through him, “I am he who is” is true.
- 2.21.5Eusebius restates Marcellus's dilemma about “I am he who is.”
- 2.21.6Marcellus's dilemma ends by denying either the Father or the Son.
- 2.21.7The first commandment is aimed against idols.
- 2.21.8The Son, as the Father's image and mediator, gave the commandment against idols.
- 2.21.9Paul calls the giver of the law a mediator distinct from the one God.
- 2.21.10As God speaks through Isaiah, the Father spoke through the Son to idolatrous Israel.
- 2.22.1The Father spoke the prophets' “none besides me” through the Son, who teaches the one true God.
- 2.22.2Isaiah's “no God besides me” is directed against idols.
- 2.22.3As Christians first teach Greeks one God before Christ, so did the prophets with Israel.
- 2.22.4The mystery of the Trinity was reserved for the church, not for idolatrous Israel.
- 2.22.5Marcellus offers what a synagogue teacher could say and distorts the true theology of Christ.
- 2.23.1The church teaches one God and one image, his Son, not two unbegotten substances.
- 2.23.2The Son is the living image of the Father's attributes and true God as image; “only” fits the Father as archetype.
- 2.23.3As a king's image does not make two kings, the Son as image does not make two gods.
- 2.23.4Marcellus makes the flesh, not the Son, the image of God.
- 2.23.5John unveiled the mystery hidden in Moses and the prophets.
- 2.23.6John showed the Son's sonship by distinguishing him from the unseen Father.
- 2.24.1Marcellus defines the Word from Old Testament texts about God's commanding word.
- 2.24.2Marcellus thinks these prophetic texts support his view of the Word.
- 2.24.3Marcellus mixes the healing Word with commanding words, avoiding the living Son.
- 2.25.1Marcellus contradicts himself, calling the Word a hidden mystery yet proclaimed in all the prophets.
- 2.25.2Marcellus praises the scribe's confession of one God, which even demons make.
- 2.25.3The commanding word Marcellus finds was known to Jews and Sabellius alike.
- 2.25.4Marcellus's claims about who knew the Word are inconsistent.
- 2.25.5The Jews knew God's commanding word without the incarnation, so Marcellus's claim fails.
- 2.25.6Eusebius turns to Marcellus's perverse interpretations of Scripture.
- 3.1.1Book 3: Eusebius quotes Wisdom's speech in Proverbs 8 to refute Marcellus's interpretation.
- 3.1.2Wisdom speaks of her counsel and strength.
- 3.1.3Through Wisdom kings reign; she rewards those who love her.
- 3.1.4Wisdom's fruit is better than gold.
- 3.1.5Wisdom tells how the Lord created and begot her before creation and she was with him at creation.
- 3.2.1One person speaks throughout Proverbs 8, and “Wisdom,” like John's “Word,” is named absolutely as subsisting.
- 3.2.2Proverbs always names Wisdom absolutely.
- 3.2.3Wisdom in Proverbs is a living, subsisting Wisdom, the Son of God.
- 3.2.4Wisdom cannot be a mere property of God, for she is called the righteous man's sister.
- 3.2.5Read of Christ, Wisdom's sayings make sense; read of God himself, they would not.
- 3.2.6Reading Wisdom as God would make Prov 7:4 absurd.
- 3.2.7Read of the Son, the Wisdom passages fit, as Paul calls Christ God's wisdom.
- 3.2.8In Prov 8:22 “created” means “appointed” to rule, not made from nothing.
- 3.2.9Peter calls human rulers a “creation,” showing that the word can mean appointment.
- 3.2.10In Amos and the Psalms “create” does not mean bringing into existence from nothing.
- 3.2.11The Spirit existed before Pentecost; “create” there means “send,” as “create a clean heart” means “renew.”
- 3.2.12“Create” is often metaphorical in Scripture, as “confess” in Matt 11:25 means “thank.”
- 3.2.13Scripture is full of metaphor and words with several senses.
- 3.2.14Prov 8:22 means the Son was appointed to rule God's works.
- 3.2.15The Hebrew and the other Greek versions read “acquired,” not “created.”
- 3.2.16The Son is the “head” of creation, appointed by the Father to govern and save all.
- 3.2.17Wisdom's rule over kings shows the Son's government of all.
- 3.2.18The Son governs all things and calls men to love him and avoid evil ways.
- 3.2.19Wisdom, the Son, then reveals the knowledge of himself.
- 3.2.20Wisdom recalls being appointed by the Father to rule his works.
- 3.2.21The Son is the Father's most precious possession, as Eve “acquired” a son.
- 3.2.22The same Hebrew verb qānâ, “acquire,” stands in Prov 8:22.
- 3.2.23“Created” means coming into being; “acquired” means belonging of what already exists.
- 3.2.24“Acquired” shows the Son's pre-existence, his belonging to the Father, and his rule.
- 3.2.25Wisdom's words show the Son existed before creation and that the abyss and waters, which Moses did not call created, were made through him.
- 3.2.26Wisdom names earth, abyss and water, then heaven, as made after her.
- 3.2.27Eusebius turns to Marcellus's reading of Prov 8 as referring to the flesh.
- 3.2.28Marcellus applies Prov 8:22–23 to the flesh, created and predestined.
- 3.2.29Marcellus reads “earth” as the flesh, a crooked road.
- 3.2.30Marcellus will say anything rather than confess that Wisdom is the Son.
- 3.2.31Marcellus admits that Christ speaks Prov 8:22.
- 3.2.32Since one person speaks throughout Proverbs 8, Marcellus's reading makes the flesh Wisdom.
- 3.2.33On Marcellus's view the flesh would be Wisdom ruling kings and remembering eternity.
- 3.2.34Marcellus explains “beginning of ways” as the apostles' teaching.
- 3.3.1The Old Testament speaks of God's ways long before the apostles.
- 3.3.2David and Jeremiah also speak of God's ways.
- 3.3.3As beginning of God's ways, the Son is older than the patriarchs, so Prov 8:22 cannot mean the flesh.
- 3.3.4The Son leads all God's ways travelled by the saints of old.
- 3.3.5The Son is the beginning also of God's providential ways, not the flesh.
- 3.3.6Marcellus refers “his works” to the works of Christ's earthly ministry.
- 3.3.7Marcellus reads Prov 8:22 as the incarnation, the Godhead displayed bodily.
- 3.3.8Marcellus ignores the works of creation that Scripture calls God's works.
- 3.3.9The Son existed before all God's works; Marcellus again reads “founded” as the flesh.
- 3.3.10Marcellus speaks of one age, though Scripture says God exists before the ages.
- 3.3.11Marcellus makes the flesh both created before the earth and the earth itself.
- 3.3.12If “earth” is the flesh, the speaker existed before the flesh.
- 3.3.13Even “one age” means the Son, not his flesh, existed before this age.
- 3.3.14If the depths are the saints' hearts, the speaker is older than the prophets.
- 3.3.15Scripture's account of the abyss is complex and does not fit the saints' hearts.
- 3.3.16Scripture uses “abyss” of Hades.
- 3.3.17The abyss is linked with evil powers and darkness, not saints.
- 3.3.18The psalms speak of the deep in many senses.
- 3.3.19Even on Marcellus's reading, the speaker existed before the saints.
- 3.3.20Marcellus reads the springs as the apostles, typified in Exodus.
- 3.3.21The number twelve fits many things, not only the apostles.
- 3.3.22The prophets too are called springs in the Psalms.
- 3.3.23The Son existed before the prophets; Marcellus refers the words to the birth in the flesh.
- 3.3.24Marcellus concludes the apostles are the springs, ignoring the prophets.
- 3.3.25The Son existed before the natural springs Moses and Job mention.
- 3.3.26The Son existed even before the springs of the waters above the heavens.
- 3.3.27Marcellus reads mountains and hills as the apostles and their successors.
- 3.3.28Marcellus makes springs, mountains and hills all the apostles without distinction.
- 3.3.29Marcellus's reading is forced, and “he begets me” cannot fit the flesh.
- 3.3.30The flesh could be called created, but not begotten of God.
- 3.3.31The flesh was born of a woman, not begotten of God.
- 3.3.32Taken literally, the words fit the Son, who existed before earth, springs and mountains.
- 3.3.33Proverbs does not mention the heavenly powers, since it educates beginners.
- 3.3.34Proverbs addresses its reader as a child.
- 3.3.35Many such sayings show Proverbs speaks to beginners.
- 3.3.36Moses likewise omitted the angels because his hearers were not ready.
- 3.3.37Proverbs teaches from familiar earthly things to lead toward higher things.
- 3.3.38In a deeper sense the mountains and hills hint at the angelic powers.
- 3.3.39Paul's teaching that the powers were made through the Son agrees with Prov 8:25.
- 3.3.40The Son, existing before the heavenly Zion, hinted at his generation in Proverbs.
- 3.3.41Marcellus stopped at Prov 8:27, unable to fit it to the flesh.
- 3.3.42Marcellus silently passed over what follows in Proverbs 8.
- 3.3.43Elsewhere Marcellus admits that the Word speaks Prov 8:27–30.
- 3.3.44Having admitted the Word speaks, Marcellus must apply the whole passage to him.
- 3.3.45One speaker says both “created me” and “I was present with him.”
- 3.3.46A Word one with God and unbegotten could not say he was created and begotten.
- 3.3.47If the flesh speaks Prov 8:22–25, it must also say it was present when the heavens were made.
- 3.3.48No sane person would make the flesh present at creation.
- 3.3.49Prov 8:27 shows the living Son present with the Father before heaven existed.
- 3.3.50The Father designed heaven; the Son, seeing his plans, carried them out.
- 3.3.51Eusebius quotes Psalm 148.
- 3.3.52Psalm 148 calls on all heavenly things, created by God's command, to praise him.
- 3.3.53The Son, present at the Father's planning, made creation like a painter from the Father's ideas.
- 3.3.54The Son does only what he sees the Father doing.
- 3.3.55The Son does the Father's works “likewise.”
- 3.3.56The Son made creation by imitating the archetypes the Father lovingly showed him.
- 3.3.57Father and Son rejoiced in each other before the world existed.
- 3.3.58The true sense concerns creation through the Son; Marcellus misreads it of the flesh.
- 3.3.59Marcellus says the Word prepared heaven within the Father as his thought.
- 3.3.60Eusebius again quotes Marcellus on the Word preparing the world within God.
- 3.3.61“I was present with him” shows the Son with the Father before creation, against Marcellus.
- 3.3.62The prefix “with” and “rejoiced in me” show two persons present together.
- 3.3.63“Glad before him” shows the Son's hypostasis; inside and outside imply a body in God.
- 3.3.64If the Word was a spoken word, to whom did God speak before creation?
- 3.3.65Craftsmen work silently; Marcellus's sculptor image lays bare his denial of the Son.
- 3.3.66Marcellus's view is either Jewish or Sabellian.
- 3.4.1Marcellus says three hypostases cannot be one unless the triad begins from the monad.
- 3.4.2Marcellus says the monad is expanded into a triad without division.
- 3.4.3Marcellus argues the Spirit's relation to Father and Son shows an expanded monad.
- 3.4.4Marcellus argues that distinct persons would make the Spirit either independent of the Son or not from the Father.
- 3.4.5Marcellus makes Father, Son and Spirit three names of one hypostasis.
- 3.4.6The Son “came out” from the Father's inner kingdom when sent for our salvation.
- 3.4.7The Spirit, standing by God's throne, was sent on the Son and on prophets and apostles.
- 3.4.8Even the devil and an evil spirit “went out from the Lord,” so going out does not imply identity.
- 3.4.9The Spirit receiving from the Son shows that the Spirit is other than the Son.
- 3.5.1Christ calls the Spirit “another Paraclete,” distinct from himself.
- 3.5.2Christ breathed and then gave the Spirit, showing the giver is other than the gift.
- 3.5.3Giver, gift and recipients are distinct.
- 3.5.4Christ speaks of himself and the Father as “we,” distinct from the Spirit.
- 3.5.5Christ speaks of the Spirit as another, who will teach.
- 3.5.6The Paraclete, about whom Christ taught, is other than he.
- 3.5.7The Spirit will teach what the disciples could not yet bear.
- 3.5.8The Spirit sent by Christ and bearing witness to him is other than he.
- 3.5.9The Paraclete comes only after Christ departs.
- 3.5.10Only a fool would identify the speaker with the Spirit he speaks of.
- 3.5.11Father and Son both send the Spirit, the Son acting by the Father's will.
- 3.5.12The Spirit comforts and teaches the full truth of the new covenant.
- 3.5.13After his ascent to the Father Christ appeared with the Spirit ready for its ministry.
- 3.5.14The breath gave a partial gift for forgiving sins; the full power came at Pentecost.
- 3.5.15Eusebius defers fuller discussion; it suffices that the Spirit is other than the Son.
- 3.5.16Christ speaks of the Spirit throughout as another person.
- 3.5.17The Spirit, distinct from the Son, is above every created rational being and included in the Trinity.
- 3.5.18Eusebius holds the Spirit to be below the Son, receiving from the Son's treasury.
- 3.5.19The Father and the Son are each called spirit; the Spirit is supplied by the Son.
- 3.5.20Scripture calls the Son spirit.
- 3.5.21“Paraclete” marks the Spirit off from angelic spirits; it alone belongs to the Trinity.
- 3.5.22Baptism in the triple name: the Father gives grace, the Son ministers it, the Spirit is the gift.
- 3.6.1Eusebius holds that the Spirit sanctifies, while the Son, alone sharing the Father's divinity, made all things including the Spirit.
- 3.6.2The Father presides over all, including the Son and the Spirit, and alone is called God over all.
- 3.6.3Eusebius says the Spirit is neither God nor Son but came into being through the Son.
- 3.6.4Marcellus makes one hypostasis with three faces and three names.
- 3.6.5Eusebius quotes Col 1:15–17 before showing Marcellus's misreading.
- 3.7.1Marcellus applies the masculine “who” and “he” of Col 1 to the flesh.
- 3.7.2Marcellus's reading of Col 1 as the flesh is obviously forced.
- 3.8.1Marcellus says the flesh will be abandoned by the Word at the end.
- 3.9.1Marcellus repeats that the servant's form cannot remain with the Word.
- 3.10.1The transfiguration showed the glory of Christ's flesh even before the passion.
- 3.10.2Christ's glorified body and ours, conformed to it, refute Marcellus's view of the flesh.
- 3.10.3Eusebius quotes Marcellus's refusal to say what becomes of the flesh.
- 3.10.4Marcellus pleads ignorance about the flesh, citing 1 Cor 13:12.
- 3.10.5Marcellus invented his doctrine of the flesh, against Scripture's warnings.
- 3.10.6Marcellus calls the flesh a crown of victory, yet says it will be left lifeless.
- 3.10.7Marcellus misuses John 6:61–63.
- 3.11.1Marcellus misreads John 6:63 as a rejection of Christ's own flesh.
- 3.12.1The discourse of John 6 concerns the mystical body and blood, prompted by the manna.
- 3.12.2Eusebius quotes John 6 on the true bread from heaven.
- 3.12.3Eusebius continues quoting John 6.
- 3.12.4The disciples found the saying hard, and Jesus answered them.
- 3.12.5Eusebius reads John 6:63 as teaching that Christ's words are the flesh and blood to be received spiritually.
- 3.12.6Christ's words profit those who hear them spiritually.
- 3.12.7Marcellus says Jesus touched his own body when saying the flesh profits nothing.
- 3.12.8Marcellus added to the Gospel that Jesus touched his body, to support his view.
- 3.13.1Marcellus reads Acts 3:21 as limiting Christ's kingdom.
- 3.13.2Marcellus takes “until” in Ps 110:1 and 1 Cor 15:25 as a limit.
- 3.13.3Eusebius quotes Marcellus's argument for a limited kingdom.
- 3.13.4Marcellus says the incarnation will end when the kingdom is handed over.
- 3.14.1“Until” in Scripture does not imply an end, as Matt 28:20 shows.
- 3.14.2“Until” refers to Christ's session before his second coming, after which the saints will be with him for ever.
- 3.14.3The saints will share Christ's kingdom for ever; Marcellus misreads 1 Cor 15.
- 3.14.4Marcellus wrongly reads the Son's subjection as the Word's reunion with God.
- 3.15.1Paul says all things will be subjected to the Son, and the Son to the Father.
- 3.15.2God “all in all” does not mean the Son's absorption into the Father.
- 3.15.3If subjection meant union, all the saved would be fused with the Son and God.
- 3.15.4Marcellus's reading leads to absurdity.
- 3.15.5The Son's subjection means honour and willing obedience, not union.
- 3.15.6Meanwhile the Son reigns, correcting and healing, until his enemies are subdued.
- 3.15.7When the worthy live for ever, death, the last enemy, will be idle.
- 3.15.8The saints, subjected to the Son, will share his life, wisdom, holiness, and even divinity.
- 3.15.9The saints will be co-heirs with Christ and receive heavenly bodies.
- 3.15.10Christ's power to subject all things will transform our bodies to his glorious body.
- 3.15.11If our bodies are glorified, Christ's body even more will share his kingdom and divinity.
- 3.15.12The Son's subjection is his offering of all the saved to the Father in glory.
- 3.16.1“God all in all” means God dwelling in all the worthy in the age to come.
- 3.16.2God will be all in all the saints, and the Son will reign for ever as Gabriel foretold.
- 3.16.3Handing over the kingdom means presenting his subjects to the Father, not ceasing to reign.
- 3.16.4The Son, like a high priest, will present the perfected saints to the Father.
- 3.16.5As the Father is in the Son, so he will be in all perfected by the Son.
- 3.16.6God will be all things to all, according to the divine powers in him.
- 3.16.7God will be all to each by capacity, but the Son alone will keep the unique fatherly glory.
- 3.17.1Ezekiel's prophecy of God seeking and saving his sheep confirms the account.
- 3.17.2Ezekiel foretells David as shepherd and God as their God.
- 3.17.3In Ezekiel God is their God and “David,” meaning Christ, their eternal shepherd and ruler.
- 3.17.4Daniel foretells the Son of Man receiving an eternal kingdom from the Ancient of Days.
- 3.17.5The Son of Man, distinct from the Ancient of Days, receives an unending kingdom.
- 3.17.6Marcellus makes Father and Son one hypostasis and limits Christ's kingdom.
- 3.17.7Marcellus says Christ's kingdom began and will end.
- 3.17.8Marcellus argues a recent kingdom can be handed back.
- 3.17.9Against Marcellus, the prophets give Christ an unending rule after the judgment.
- 3.17.10After the judgment in Daniel 7 the Son of Man receives the incorruptible kingdom.
- 3.17.11Matthew 25 matches Ezekiel: the Son of Man as King after judgment, God as his Father.
- 3.17.12The King of Matthew 25 is the “David” of Ezekiel, shepherding under God.
- 3.17.13Ezekiel's destruction of wild beasts corresponds to Paul's abolition of hostile powers.
- 3.17.14In the new age the Son of Man is King and shepherd, while God is God over both sheep and shepherd.
- 3.18.1God will give himself to all, as Christ prayed that his own be one in the Father and the Son.
- 3.18.2Christ gives his disciples the glory the Father gave him, that they may be one.
- 3.18.3Christ's prayer asks that we share his glory and be one, by perfection in virtue, not by fusion of substance.
- 3.18.4Perfected by Christ, the saints become lights and sons of God by sharing his divinity.
- 3.19.1We become one with Father and Son as they are one, by shared glory, not by fusion.
- 3.19.2Eusebius answers the Sabellian proof-texts with Christ's prayer for his disciples' unity.
- 3.19.3The Father is in the Son as he wishes to be in us: by shared glory, not one hypostasis.
- 3.19.4Father and Son are one by shared glory, which the disciples also receive.
- 3.20.1Scripture says God is in us and we in him, though we are separate hypostases.
- 3.20.2Such sayings about the Son express his unique fellowship, not identity with the Father.
- 3.21.1Seeing the Son, the perfect image, the pure in heart see the Father as one sees a king in his portrait.
- 3.21.2Eusebius closes, judging that what he has examined is enough to refute Marcellus.