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| Against the Heresy of One Noetus.
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Against the Heresy of One
Noetus.1603
1. Some others are secretly introducing
another doctrine, who have become disciples of one Noetus, who was a
native of Smyrna,1604
| 1604 That
Noetus was a native of Smyrna is mentioned also by Theodoret,
book iii. Hæret Fab., c. iii., and Damascenus, sec. lvii.
(who is accustomed to follow Epiphanius); and yet in Epiphanius,
Hæres., 57, we read that Noetus was an Asian of the city
of Ephesus (᾽Ασιανον τῆς
᾽Εφέσου
πόλεως). (Fabricius.) | (and) lived not
very long ago.1605
| 1605
Epiphanius says that Noetus made his heresy public about 130 years
before his time (οὐ πρὸ
ἐτῶν
πλειόνων
ἀλλ᾽ ὡς πρὸ
χρόνου τῶν
τουτων
ἑκατὸν
τριάκοντα,
πλείω ἢ
ἐλάσσω); and as Epiphanius wrote
in the year 375, that would make the date of Noetus about 245. He
says also that Noetus died soon after (ἔναγχος), along with his
brother. (Fabricius.) | This
person was greatly puffed up and inflated with pride, being inspired by
the conceit of a strange spirit. He alleged that Christ was the
Father Himself, and that the Father Himself was born, and suffered, and
died. Ye see what pride of heart and what a strange inflated
spirit had insinuated themselves into him. From his other
actions, then, the proof is already given us that he spoke not with a
pure spirit; for he who blasphemes against the Holy Ghost is cast out
from the holy inheritance. He alleged that he was himself Moses,
and that Aaron was his brother.1606
| 1606
So also Epiphanius and Damascenus. But Philastrius,
Heresy, 53, puts Elijah for Aaron: hic etiam
dicebat se Moysem esse, et fratrem suum Eliam prophetam. | When the blessed presbyters heard
this, they summoned him before the Church, and examined him. But
he denied at first that he held such opinions. Afterwards,
however, taking shelter among some, and having gathered round him some
others1607
| 1607
Epiphanius remarks that they were but ten in number. | who had embraced
the same error, he wished thereafter to uphold his dogma openly as
correct. And the blessed presbyters called him again before them,
and examined him. But he stood out against them, saying,
“What evil, then, am I doing in glorifying Christ?”
And the presbyters replied to him, “We too know in truth one
God;1608
| 1608
The following words are the words of the Symbolum, as it
is extant in Irenæus, i. 10, etc., and iii. 4; and in Tertullian,
Contra Praxeam, ch. ii., and De Præscript., ch.
xiii., and De virginibus velandis, ch. i. [See vol. iii.,
this series.] | we know Christ;
we know that the Son suffered even as He suffered, and died even as He
died, and rose again on the third day, and is at the right hand of the
Father, and cometh to judge the living and the dead. And these
things which we have learned we allege.” Then, after
examining him, they expelled him from the Church. And he was
carried to such a pitch of pride, that he established a
school.
2. Now they seek to exhibit the foundation
for their dogma by citing the word in the law, “I am the God of
your fathers: ye shall have no other gods beside
me;”1609
| 1609
Ex. iii. 6 and xx.
3. | and again in
another passage, “I am the first,” He saith, “and
the last; and beside
me there is none other.”1610
Thus they say they prove that God is
one. And then they answer in this manner: “If
therefore I acknowledge Christ to be God, He is the Father Himself, if
He is indeed God; and Christ suffered, being Himself God; and
consequently the Father suffered, for He was the Father
Himself.” But the case stands not thus; for the Scriptures
do not set forth the matter in this manner. But they make use
also of other testimonies, and say, Thus it is written:
“This is our God, and there shall none other be accounted of in
comparison of Him. He hath found out all the way of knowledge,
and hath given it unto Jacob His servant (son), and to Israel His
beloved. Afterward did He show Himself upon earth, and conversed
with men.”1611
| 1611
Baruch iii.
35–38. [Based on
Prov. viii., but so remarkable that Grotius
presumptuously declared it an interpolation. It reflects
canonical Scripture, but has no canonical value otherwise.] | You see,
then, he says, that this is God, who is the only One, and who
afterwards did show Himself, and conversed with men.” And
in another place he says, “Egypt hath laboured; and the
merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come
over unto thee, (and they shall be slaves to thee); and they shall come
after thee bound with manacles, and they shall fall down unto thee,
because God is in thee; and they shall make supplication unto
thee: and there is no God beside thee. For Thou art God,
and we knew not; God of Israel, the Saviour.”1612
Do you see, he says, how the
Scriptures proclaim one God? And as this is clearly exhibited,
and these passages are testimonies to it, I am under necessity, he
says, since one is acknowledged, to make this One the subject of
suffering. For Christ was God, and suffered on account of us,
being Himself the Father, that He might be able also to save us.
And we cannot express ourselves otherwise, he says; for the apostle
also acknowledges one God, when he says, “Whose are the fathers,
(and) of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God
blessed for ever.”1613
3. In this way, then, they choose to set
forth these things, and they make use only of one class of
passages;1614
| 1614
καὶ
αὐτοις
μονοκῶλα
χρώμενοι, etc.
The word μονοκῶλα appears
to be used adverbially, instead of μονοκώλως
and μονοτύπως, which are the terms employed by Epiphanius (p. 481). The
meaning is, that the Noetians, in explaining the words of Scripture
concerning Christ, looked only to one side of the
question—namely, to the divine nature; just as Theodotus, on his
part going to the opposite extreme, kept by the human nature
exclusively, and held that Christ was a mere man. Besides others,
the presbyter Timotheus, in Cotelerii Monument., vol. iii. p.
389, mentions Theodotus in these terms: “They say that this
Theodotus was the leader and father of the heresy of the Samosatan,
having first alleged that Christ was a mere man.” [See vol.
iii, p. 654, this series.] | just in the same
one-sided manner that Theodotus employed when he sought to prove that
Christ was a mere man. But neither has the one party nor the
other understood the matter rightly, as the Scriptures themselves
confute their senselessness, and attest the truth. See, brethren,
what a rash and audacious dogma they have introduced, when they say
without shame, the Father is Himself Christ, Himself the Son, Himself
was born, Himself suffered, Himself raised Himself. But it is not
so. The Scriptures speak what is right; but Noetus is of a
different mind from them. Yet, though Noetus does not understand
the truth, the Scriptures are not at once to be repudiated. For
who will not say that there is one God? Yet he will not on that
account deny the economy (i.e., the number and disposition of persons
in the Trinity). The proper way, therefore, to deal with the
question is first of all to refute the interpretation put upon these
passages by these men, and then to explain their real meaning.
For it is right, in the first place, to expound the truth that the
Father is one God, “of whom is every family,”1615
“by whom are
all things, of whom are all things, and we in Him.”1616
4. Let us, as I said, see how he is
confuted, and then let us set forth the truth. Now he quotes the
words, “Egypt has laboured, and the merchandise of Ethiopia and
the Sabeans,” and so forth on to the words, “For Thou art
the God of Israel, the Saviour.” And these words he cites
without understanding what precedes them. For whenever they wish
to attempt anything underhand, they mutilate the Scriptures. But
let him quote the passage as a whole, and he will discover the reason
kept in view in writing it. For we have the beginning of the
section a little above; and we ought, of course, to commence there in
showing to whom and about whom the passage speaks. For above, the
beginning of the section stands thus: “Ask me concerning my
sons and my daughters, and concerning the work of my hands command ye
me. I have made the earth, and man upon it: I with my hand
have stablished the heaven; I have commanded all the stars. I
have raised him up, and all his ways are straight. He shall build
my city, and he shall turn back the captivity; not for price nor
reward, said the Lord of hosts. Thus said the Lord of hosts,
Egypt hath laboured, and the merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sabeans,
men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be slaves to
thee: and they shall come after thee bound with manacles, and
they shall fall down unto thee; and they shall make supplication unto
thee, because God is in thee; and there is no God beside thee.
For Thou art God, and we knew not; the God of Israel, the
Saviour.”1617
“In thee, therefore,” says he, “God is.”
But in whom is God except in Christ Jesus, the Father’s Word,
and the mystery of the economy?1618
| 1618
[Bull, Opp., v. pp. 367, 734, 740–743,
753–756.] | And again, exhibiting the truth
regarding Him, he points to the fact of His being in the flesh when He
says, “I have raised Him up in righteousness, and all His ways
are straight.” For what is this? Of whom does the
Father thus testify? It is of the Son that the Father says,
“I have raised Him up in righteousness.” And that the
Father did raise up His Son in righteousness, the Apostle Paul bears
witness, saying, “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Christ
Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from
the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that
dwelleth in you.”1619
Behold, the word spoken by the
prophet is thus made good, “I have raised Him up in
righteousness.” And in saying, “God is in
thee,” he referred to the mystery of the economy, because when
the Word was made incarnate and became man, the Father was in the Son,
and the Son in the Father, while the Son was living among men.
This, therefore, was signified, brethren, that in reality the mystery
of the economy by the Holy Ghost and the Virgin was this Word,
constituting yet one Son to God.1620
| 1620 Turrian
has the following note: “The Word of God constituted
(operatum est) one Son to God; i.e., the Word of God effected, that He
who was the one Son of God was also one Son of man, because as His
hypostasis He assumed the flesh. For thus was the Word made
flesh.” | And it is not simply that I say this,
but He Himself attests it who came down from heaven; for He speaketh
thus: “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came
down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in
heaven.”1621
What
then can he seek beside what is thus written? Will he say,
forsooth, that flesh was in heaven? Yet there is the flesh which
was presented by the Father’s Word as an offering,—the
flesh that came by the Spirit and the Virgin, (and was) demonstrated to
be the perfect Son of God. It is evident, therefore, that He
offered Himself to the Father. And before this there was no flesh
in heaven. Who, then, was in heaven1622
but the Word unincarnate, who was
despatched to show that He was upon earth and was also in heaven?
For He was Word, He was Spirit, He was Power. The same took to
Himself the name common and current among men, and was called from the
beginning the Son of man on account of what He was to be, although He
was not yet man, as Daniel testifies when he says, “I saw, and
behold one like the Son of man came on the clouds of
heaven.”1623
Rightly, then, did he say that He who was in heaven was called from the
beginning by this name, the Word of God, as being that from the
beginning.
5. But what is meant, says he, in the other
passage: “This is God, and there shall none other be
accounted of in comparison of Him?”1624
That said he rightly. For in
comparison of the Father who shall be accounted of? But he
says: “This is our God; there shall none other be accounted
of in comparison of Him. He hath found out all the way of
knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob His servant, and to Israel His
beloved.” He saith well. For who is Jacob His
servant, Israel His beloved, but He of whom He crieth, saying,
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye
Him?”1625
Having
received, then, all knowledge from the Father, the perfect Israel, the
true Jacob, afterward did show Himself upon earth, and conversed with
men. And who, again, is meant by Israel1626
| 1626 The
word Israel is explained by Philo, De præmiis et
pœnis, p. 710, and elsewhere, as = a man seeing
God, ὁρῶν Θεόν,
i.e., לִא” האר
שיא. So also in the
Constitutiones Apostol., vii. 37, viii. 15; Eusebius,
Præparat., xi. 6, p. 519, and in many others. To the
same class may be referred those who make Israel = ὁρατικὸς
ανὴρ καὶ
θεωρητικὸς, a man apt to see and speculate, as Eusebius,
Præparat., p. 310, or = νοῦς ὁρῶν
Θεόν, as Optatus in the end of the
second book; Didymus in Jerome, and Jerome himself in various passages;
Maximus, i. p. 284; Olympiodorus on Ecclesiastes, ch. i.; Leontius,
De Sectis, p. 392; Theophanes, Ceram. homil., iv. p. 22,
etc. Justin Martyr, Dialog. cum Tryph. [see vol. i. pp.
226, 262], adduces another etymology, ἄνθρωπος
νικῶν
δύναμιν. | but a man who sees God? and there
is no one who sees God except the Son alone, the perfect man who alone
declares the will of the Father. For John also says, “No
man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the
bosom of the Father, He hath declared1627
| 1627
Hippolytus reads διηγήσατο
for ἐξηγήσατο. | Him.”1628
And again: “He who
came down from heaven testifieth what He hath heard and
seen.”1629
This,
then, is He to whom the Father hath given all knowledge, who did show
Himself upon earth, and conversed with men.
6. Let us look next at the apostle’s
word: “Whose are the fathers, of whom as concerning the
flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for
ever.”1630
This word
declares the mystery of the truth rightly and clearly. He who is
over all is God; for thus He speaks boldly, “All things are
delivered unto me of my Father.”1631
He who is over all, God blessed,
has been born; and having been made man, He is (yet) God for
ever. For to this effect John also has said, “Which is, and
which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”1632
And well has he named Christ the
Almighty. For in this he has said only what Christ testifies of
Himself. For Christ gave this testimony, and said, “All
things are delivered unto me of my Father;”1633
and Christ rules all things, and has
been appointed1634
Almighty by the Father.
And in like manner Paul also, in setting forth the truth that all
things are delivered unto Him, said, “Christ the first-fruits;
afterwards they that are Christ’s at His coming. Then
cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God,
even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule, and all
authority, and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all
enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is
death. For all things are put under Him. But when He saith,
All things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted which
did put all things under Him. Then shall He also Himself be
subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in
all.”1635
If,
therefore, all things are put under Him with the exception of Him who
put them under Him, He is Lord of all, and the Father is Lord of Him,
that in all there might be manifested one God, to whom all things are
made subject together with Christ, to whom the Father hath made all
things subject, with the exception of Himself. And this, indeed,
is said by Christ Himself, as when in the Gospel He confessed Him to be
His Father and His God. For He speaks thus: “I go to
my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.”1636
If then,
Noetus ventures to say that He is the Father Himself, to what father
will he say Christ goes away according to the word of the Gospel?
But if he will have us abandon the Gospel and give credence to his
senselessness, he expends his labour in vain; for “we ought to
obey God rather than men.”1637
7. If, again, he allege His own word when He
said, “I and the Father are one,”1638
let him attend to the fact, and
understand that He did not say, “I and the Father am one,
but are one.”1639
| 1639
ἐγὼ
καὶ ὁ
πατὴρ—ἕν
ἐσμεν, not ἕν
εἰμι. | For the word are1640
is not said of one
person, but it refers to two persons, and one power.1641
He has
Himself made this clear, when He spake to His Father concerning the
disciples, “The glory which Thou gavest me I have given them;
that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one; that the world may know that
Thou hast sent me.”1642
What have the Noetians to say to
these things? Are all one body in respect of substance, or is it
that we become one in the power and disposition of unity of
mind?1643
| 1643
ἢτῇ
δυνάμει καὶ
τῇ διαθέσει
τῆς
ὁμοφρονίας
ἓν
γινόμεθα. | In the
same manner the Son, who was sent and was not known of those who are in
the world, confessed that He was in the Father in power and
disposition. For the Son is the one mind of the Father. We
who have the Father’s mind believe so (in Him); but they who have
it not have denied the Son. And if, again, they choose to allege
the fact that Philip inquired about the Father, saying, “Show us
the Father, and it sufficeth us,” to whom the Lord made answer in
these terms: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet
hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the
Father in me?”1644
and if they choose to maintain that their dogma is ratified by this
passage, as if He owned Himself to be the Father, let them know that it
is decidedly against them, and that they are confuted by this very
word. For though Christ had spoken of Himself, and showed Himself
among all as the Son, they had not yet recognised Him to be such,
neither had they been able to apprehend or contemplate His real
power. And Philip, not having been able to receive this, as far
as it was possible to see it, requested to behold the Father. To
whom then the Lord said, “Philip, have I been so long time with
you, and yet hast thou not known me? He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father.” By which He means, If thou hast seen me,
thou mayest know the Father through me. For through the image,
which is like (the original), the Father is made readily known.
But if thou hast not known the image, which is the Son, how dost thou
seek to see the Father? And that this is the case is made clear
by the rest of the chapter, which signifies that the Son who “has
been set forth1645
was sent from
the Father,1646
| 1646
John v. 30; vi. 29; viii. 16,
18, etc. | and goeth to the
Father.”1647
8. Many other passages, or rather all of
them, attest the truth. A man, therefore, even though he will it
not, is compelled to acknowledge God the Father Almighty, and Christ
Jesus the Son of God, who, being God, became man, to whom also the
Father made all things subject, Himself excepted, and the Holy Spirit;
and that these, therefore, are three. But if he desires to learn
how it is shown still that there is one God, let him know that His
power1648
is one.
As far as regards the power, therefore, God is one. But as far as
regards the economy there is a threefold manifestation, as shall be
proved afterwards when we give account of the true doctrine. In
these things, however, which are thus set forth by us, we are at
one. For there is one God in whom we must believe, but
unoriginated, impassible, immortal, doing all things as He wills, in
the way He wills, and when He wills. What, then, will this Noetus, who
knows1649
| 1649 There
is perhaps a play on the words here—Νόητος μὴ
νοῶν. | nothing of the
truth, dare to say to these things? And now, as Noetus has been
confuted, let us turn to the exhibition of the truth itself, that we
may establish the truth, against which all these mighty
heresies1650
| 1650 i.e.,
the other thirty-one heresies, which Hippolytus had already
attacked. From these words it is apparent also that this treatise
was the closing portion of a book against the heresies (Fabricius). | have arisen without
being able to state anything to the purpose.
9. There is, brethren, one God, the
knowledge of whom we gain from the Holy Scriptures, and from no other
source. For just as a man, if he wishes to be skilled in the
wisdom of this world, will find himself unable to get at it in any
other way than by mastering the dogmas of philosophers, so all of us
who wish to practise piety will be unable to learn its practice from
any other quarter than the oracles of God.1651
| 1651 [This
emphatic testimony of our author to the sufficiency of the Scriptures
is entirely in keeping with the entire system of the Ante-Nicene
Fathers. Note our teeming indexes of Scripture texts.] | Whatever things, then, the Holy
Scriptures declare, at these let us look; and whatsoever things they
teach, these let us learn; and as the Father wills our belief to be,
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 bestowed, let us receive
Him. Not according to our own will, nor according to our own
mind, nor yet as using violently those things which are given by God,
but even as He has chosen to teach them by the Holy Scriptures, so let
us discern them.
10. God, subsisting alone, and having
nothing contemporaneous with Himself, determined to create the
world. And conceiving the world in mind, and willing and uttering
the word, He made it; and straightway it appeared, formed as it had
pleased Him. For us, then, it is sufficient simply to know that
there was nothing contemporaneous with God. Beside Him there was
nothing; but1652
| 1652
See, on this passage, Bull’s Defens. Fid. Nic., sec.
iii. cap. viii. § 2, p. 219. | He, while
existing alone, yet existed in plurality.1653
For He was neither without reason,
nor wisdom, nor power, nor counsel.1654
| 1654
ἄλογος, ἄσοφος, ἀδύνατος, ἀβούλευτος. | And all things were in Him, and He
was the All. When He willed, and as He willed,1655
| 1655
On these words see Bossuet’s explanation and defence,
Avertiss., vi. § 68, sur les lettres de M.
Jurieu. | He manifested His word in the times
determined by Him, and by Him He made all things. When He wills,
He does; and when He thinks, He executes; and when He speaks, He
manifests; when He fashions, He contrives in wisdom. For all
things that are made He forms by reason and wisdom—creating them
in reason, and arranging them in wisdom. He made them, then, as
He pleased, for He was God. And as the Author, and
fellow-Counsellor, and Framer1656
| 1656
ἀρχηγόν, καὶ
σύμβουλον,
καὶ
ἐργάτην. |
of the things that are in formation, He begat1657
| 1657
The “begetting” of which Hippolytus speaks here is
not the generation, properly so called, but that manifestation and
bringing forth of the Word co-existing from eternity with the Father,
which referred to the creation of the world. So at least Bull and
Bossuet, as cited above; also Maranus, De Divinit. J. C., lib.
iv. cap. xiii. § 3, p. 458. | the Word; and as He bears this Word in
Himself, and that, too, as (yet) invisible to the world which is
created, He makes Him visible; (and) uttering the voice first, and
begetting Him as Light of Light,1658
| 1658
φως ἐκ
φωτός. This phrase,
adopted by the Nicene Fathers, occurs before their time not only here,
but also in Justin Martyr, Tatian, and Athenagoras, as is noticed by
Grabe, ad Irenæum, lib. ii. c. xxiii. Methodius also,
in his Homily on Simeon and Anna, p. 152, has the
expression, σὺ
εἶ φῶς
ἀληθινὸν ἐκ
φωτὸς
ἀληθινοῦ
Θεὸς
ἀληθινὸς ἐκ
Θεοῦ
ἀληθινοῦ.
Athanasius himself also uses the phrase λύχνον ἐκ
λύχνου, vol. i. p. 881, ed.
Lips. [Illustrating my remarks (p. v. of this volume), in the
preface, as to the study of Nicene theology in Ante-Nicene
authors.] | He set Him forth to the world as its
Lord, (and) His own mind;1659
and whereas He was visible formerly to Himself alone, and invisible to
the world which is made, He makes Him visible in order that the world
might see Him in His manifestation, and be capable of being
saved.
11. And thus there appeared another beside
Himself. But when I say another,1660
| 1660 Justin
Martyr also says that the Son is ἕτερόν τι,
something other, from the Father; and Tertullian affirms,
Filium et Patrem esse aluid ab alio, with the same intent as
Hippolytus here, viz., to express the distinction of persons.
[See vol. i. pp. 170, 216, 263, and vol. iii. p. 604.] | I do not mean that there are two Gods, but
that it is only as light of light, or as water from a fountain, or as a
ray from the sun. For there is but one power, which is from the
All;1661
and the Father is
the All, from whom cometh this Power, the Word. And this is the
mind1662
which came forth
into the world, and was manifested as the Son1663
of God. All things, then, are by
Him, and He alone is of the Father. Who then adduces a multitude
of gods brought in, time after time? For all are shut up, however
unwillingly, to admit this fact, that the All runs up into one.
If, then, all things run up into one, even according to Valentinus, and
Marcion, and Cerinthus, and all their fooleries, they are also reduced,
however unwillingly, to this position, that they must acknowledge that
the One is the cause of all things. Thus, then, these too, though
they wish it not, fall in with the truth, and admit that one God made
all things according to His good pleasure. And He gave the law
and the prophets; and in giving them, He made them speak by the Holy
Ghost, in order that, being gifted with the inspiration of the
Father’s power, they might declare the Father’s counsel and
will.
12. Acting then in these (prophets), the Word
spoke of Himself. For already He became His own herald, and
showed that the Word would be
manifested among men. And for this reason He cried thus:
“I am made manifest to them that sought me not; I am found of
them that asked not for me.”1664
And who is He that is made manifest
but the Word of the Father?—whom the Father sent, and in whom He
showed to men the power proceeding from Him. Thus, then, was the
Word made manifest, even as the blessed John says. For he sums up
the things that were said by the prophets, and shows that this is the
Word, by whom all things were made. For he speaks to this
effect: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him, and
without Him was not anything made.”1665
| 1665
John i. 1–3. Hippolytus evidently puts the
full stop at the οὐδὲ
εν, attaching the ο
γέγονεν to the
following. So also Irenæus, Clemens Alex., Origen,
Theophilus of Antioch, and Eusebius, in several places; so, too, of the
Latin Fathers—Tertullian, Lactantius, Victorinus, Augustine; and
long after these, Honorius Augustodunensis, in his De imagine
Mundi. This punctuation was also adopted by the heretics
Valentinus, Heracleon, Theodotus, and the Macedonians and Eunomians;
and hence it is rejected by Epiphanius, ii. p. 80, and
Chrysostom. (Fabricius.) | And beneath He says, “The
world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not; He came unto His
own, and His own received Him not.”1666
If, then, said he, the world was
made by Him, according to the word of the prophet, “By the Word
of the Lord were the heavens made,”1667
then this is the Word that was also made
manifest. We accordingly see the Word incarnate, and we know the
Father by Him, and we believe in the Son, (and) we worship the Holy
Spirit. Let us then look at the testimony of Scripture, with
respect to the announcement of the future manifestation of the
Word.
13. Now Jeremiah says, “Who hath stood
in the counsel1668
| 1668
ὑποστήματι,
foundation. Victor reads ἐν τῇ
ὑποστάσει, in the
substance, nature; Symmachus has ἐν τῇ
ὁμιλίᾳ, in the fellowship. | of the
Lord, and hath perceived His Word?”1669
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 (Word) has been
sent. And there was none other (sent) but the Word. And
that He was sent Peter testifies, when he says to the centurion
Cornelius: “God sent His Word unto the children of Israel
by the preaching of Jesus Christ. This is the God who is Lord of
all.”1670
If, then,
the Word is sent by Jesus Christ, the will1671
| 1671
τὸ
θέλημα. Many of the
patristic theologians called the Son the Father’s βούλησις or
θέλημα. See the
passages in Petavius, De S. S. Trinitate, lib. vi. c. 8, §
21, and vii. 12, § 12. [Dubious.] | of the Father is Jesus Christ.
14. These things then, brethren, are
declared by the Scriptures. And the blessed John, in the
testimony of his Gospel, gives us an account of this economy
(disposition) and acknowledges this Word as God, when he says,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God.” If, then, the Word was with God, and was
also God, what follows? Would one say that he speaks of two
Gods?1672
| 1672
From this passage it is clear that Hippolytus taught the doctrine
of one God alone and three Persons. A little before, in the
eighth chapter, he said that there is one God, according to substance
or divine essence, which one substance is in three Persons; and that,
according to disposition or economy, there are three Persons
manifested. By the term economy, therefore, he
understands, with Tertullian, adversus Praxeam. ch. iii.,
the number and disposition of the Trinity (numerum et dispositionem
Trinitatis). Here he also calls the grace of the Holy
Spirit the third economy, but in the same way as Tertullian, who
calls the Holy Spirit the third grade (tertium
gradum). For the terms gradus, forma, species,
dispositio, andœconimia mean the same in
Tertullian. (Maranus.) [Another proof that the Nicene Creed
was a compilation from Ante-Nicene theologians.] | I shall
not indeed speak of two Gods, but of one; of two Persons however, and
of a third economy (disposition), viz., the grace of the Holy
Ghost. For the Father indeed is One, but there are two Persons,
because there is also the Son; and then there is the third, the Holy
Spirit. The Father decrees, the Word executes, and the Son is
manifested, through whom the Father is believed on. The
economy1673
| 1673
οἰκονομία
συμφωνίας
συνάγεται
εἰς ἕνα
Θεόν, perhaps = "the" economy as being one
of harmony, leads to one God. | of harmony is
led back to one God; for God is One. It is the Father who
commands,1674
| 1674
This mode of speaking of the Father’s commanding,
and the Son’s obeying, was used without any offence, not
only by Irenæus, Hippolytus, Origen, and others before the Council
of Nicæa, but also after that council by the keenest opponents of
the Arian heresy—Athanasius, Basil, Marius Victorinus, Hilary,
Prosper, and others. See Petavius, De Trin., i. 7, §
7; and Bull, Defens Fid. Nic., pp. 138, 164, 167, 170.
(Fabricius.) | and the Son who
obeys, and the Holy Spirit who gives understanding:1675
the Father who is above
all,1676
and the Son who
is through all, and the Holy Spirit who is in all.
And we cannot otherwise think of one God,1677
| 1677 The
Christian doctrine, Maranus remarks, could not be set forth more
accurately; for he contends not only that the number of Persons in no
manner detracts from the unity of God, but that the unity of God itself
can neither consist nor be adored without this number of Persons. | but by believing in truth in Father and
Son and Holy Spirit. For the Jews glorified (or gloried in) the
Father, but gave Him not thanks, for they did not recognise the
Son. The disciples recognised the Son, but not in the Holy Ghost;
wherefore they also denied Him.1678
| 1678
This is said probably with reference to Peter’s denial. | The Father’s Word,
therefore, knowing the economy (disposition) and the will of the
Father, to wit, that the Father seeks to be worshipped in none other
way than this, gave this charge to the disciples after He rose from the
dead: “Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost.”1679
And by
this He showed, that whosoever omitted any one of these, failed in
glorifying God perfectly. For it is through this Trinity1680
| 1680
Τριαδος. [See
Theophilus, vol. ii. p. 101, note.] | that the Father
is glorified. For the Father willed, the Son did, the Spirit
manifested. The whole Scriptures, then, proclaim this
truth.
15. But
some one will say to me, You adduce a thing strange to me, when you
call the Son the Word. For John indeed speaks of the Word, but it
is by a figure of speech. Nay, it is by no figure of
speech.1681
| 1681
ἀλλ᾽ ἄλλως
ἀλληγορεῖ.
The words in Italics are given only in the Latin. They may have
dropped from the Greek text. At any rate, some such addition
seems necessary for the sense. | For while
thus presenting this Word that was from the beginning, and has now been
sent forth, he said below in the Apocalypse, “And I saw heaven
opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him (was)
Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.
And His eyes (were) as flame of fire, and on His head were many
crowns; and He had a name written that no man knew but He
Himself. And He (was) clothed in a vesture dipped in blood:
and His name is called the Word of God.”1682
See then, brethren, how the
vesture sprinkled with blood denoted in symbol the flesh, through which
the impassible Word of God came under suffering, as also the prophets
testify to me. For thus speaks the blessed Micah:
“The house of Jacob provoked the Spirit of the Lord to anger.
These are their pursuits. Are not His words good with them,
and do they walk rightly? And they have risen up in enmity
against His countenance of peace, and they have stripped off His
glory.”1683
That
means His suffering in the flesh. And in like manner also the
blessed Paul says, “For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,
condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be
shown in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.”1684
| 1684
Hippolytus omits the words διὰ τῆς
σαρκός and καὶ περὶ
ἁμαρτίας, and reads
φανερωθῇ for
πληρωθῇ. | What
Son of His own, then, did God send through the flesh but the
Word,1685
| 1685
ὅν Υἱὸν
προσηγόρευε
διὰ τὸ
μέλλειν
αὐτὸν
γενέσθαι. | whom He
addressed as Son because He was to become such (or be begotten) in the
future? And He takes the common name for tender affection among
men in being called the Son. For neither was the Word, prior to
incarnation and when by Himself,1686
| 1686
Hippolytus thus gives more definite expression to this
temporality of the Sonship, as Dorner remarks, than even
Tertullian. See Dorner’s Doctrine of the Person of
Christ (T. & T. Clark), div. i. vol. ii. p. 88, etc.
[Pearson On the Creed, art. ii. p. 199 et seqq. The
patristic citations are sufficient, and Hippolytus may be harmonized
with them.] | yet perfect Son, although He was
perfect Word, only-begotten. Nor could the flesh subsist by
itself apart from the Word, because it has its subsistence1687
in the
Word.1688
| 1688
“Σύστασις,”
says Dorner, “be it observed, is not yet equivalent to
personality. The sense is, it had its subsistence in the Logos;
He was the connective and vehicular force. This is thoroughly
unobjectionable. He does not thus necessarily pronounce the
humanity of Christ impersonal; although in view of what has preceded,
and what remains to be adduced, there can be no doubt [?] that
Hippolytus would have defended the impersonality, had the question been
agitated at the period at which he lived.” See Dorner, as
above, i. 95. [But compare Burton, Testimonies of the
Ante-Nicene Fathers, etc., pp. 60–87, where Tertullian and
Hippolytus speak for themselves. Note also what he says of the
latter, and his variations of expression, p. 87.] | Thus,
then, one perfect Son of God was manifested.
16. And these indeed are testimonies bearing
on the incarnation of the Word; and there are also very many
others. But let us also look at the subject in
hand,—namely, the question, brethren, that in reality the
Father’s power, which is the Word, came down from heaven, and not
the Father Himself. For thus He speaks: “I came forth
from the Father, and am come.”1689
Now what subject is meant in this
sentence, “I came forth from the Father,”1690
| 1690 Reading
ἐξῆλθον. The Latin
interpreter seems to read ἐξελθόν = what is this that
came forth. | but just the Word? And what is it
that is begotten of Him, but just the Spirit,1691
| 1691
πνεῦμα. The
divine in Christ is thus designated in the Ante-Nicene Fathers
generally. See Grotius on Mark ii. 8; and for a full history of
the term in this use, Dorner’s Person of Christ, i. p.
390, etc. (Clark). | that is to say, the Word? But you
will say to me, How is He begotten? In your own case you can give
no explanation of the way in which you were begotten, although you see
every day the cause according to man; neither can you tell with
accuracy the economy in His case.1692
| 1692
την
περὶ τοῦτον
οἰκονομιαν. | For you have it not in your power
to acquaint yourself with the practised and indescribable art1693
| 1693
τὴν τοῦ
δημιουργήσαντος
ἔμπειρον καὶ
ἀνεκδιήγητου
τέχνην. | (method) of the
Maker, but only to see, and understand, and believe that man is
God’s work. Moreover, you are asking an account of the
generation of the Word, whom God the Father in His good pleasure begat
as He willed. Is it not enough for you to learn that God made the
world, but do you also venture to ask whence He made it? Is it
not enough for you to learn that the Son of God has been manifested to
you for salvation if you believe, but do you also inquire curiously how
He was begotten after the Spirit? No more than two,1694
| 1694 i.e.,
Matthew and Luke in their Gospels. | in sooth, have
been put in trust to give the account of His generation after the
flesh; and are you then so bold as to seek the account (of His
generation) after the Spirit, which the Father keeps with Himself,
intending to reveal it then to the holy ones and those worthy of seeing
His face? Rest satisfied with the word spoken by Christ, viz.,
“That which is born of the Spirit is spirit,”1695
just as, speaking
by the prophet of the generation of the Word, He shows the fact that He
is begotten, but reserves the question of the manner and means, to
reveal it only in the time determined by Himself. For He speaks
thus: “From the womb, before the morning star, I have
begotten Thee.”1696
17.
These testimonies are sufficient for the believing who study truth, and
the unbelieving credit no testimony.1697
| 1697
[A noble aphorism. See Shedd, Hist. of Theol., i.
pp. 300, 301, and tribute to Pearson, p. 319, note. The loving
spirit of Auberlen, on the defeat of rationalism, may be noted with
profit in his Divine Revelations, translation,
Clark’s ed., 1867.] | For the Holy Spirit, indeed, in
the person of the apostles, has testified to this, saying, “And
who has believed our report?”1698
Therefore let us not prove
ourselves unbelieving, lest the word spoken be fulfilled in us.
Let us believe then, dear1699
brethren, according to the tradition of the apostles, that God the Word
came down from heaven, (and entered) into the holy Virgin Mary, in
order that, taking the flesh from her, and assuming also a human, by
which I mean a rational soul, and becoming thus all that man is with
the exception of sin, He might save fallen man, and confer immortality
on men who believe on His name. In all, therefore, the word of
truth is demonstrated to us, to wit, that the Father is One, whose word
is present (with Him), by whom He made all things; whom also, as we
have said above, the Father sent forth in later times for the salvation
of men. This (Word) was preached by the law and the prophets as
destined to come into the world. And even as He was preached
then, in the same manner also did He come and manifest Himself, being
by the Virgin and the Holy Spirit made a new man; for in that He had
the heavenly (nature) of the Father, as the Word and the earthly
(nature), as taking to Himself the flesh from the old Adam by the
medium of the Virgin, He now, coming forth into the world, was
manifested as God in a body, coming forth too as a perfect man.
For it was not in mere appearance or by conversion,1700
| 1700
κατὰ
φαντασίαν ἢ
τροπήν. | but in truth, that He became man.
18. 1701
| 1701 [The
sublimity of this concluding chapter marks our author’s place
among the most eloquent of Ante-Nicene Fathers.] | Thus then, too, though demonstrated as God,
He does not refuse the conditions proper to Him as man,1702
| 1702
The following passage agrees almost word for word with what is
cited as from the Memoria hæresium of Hippolytus by
Gelasius, in the De duabus naturis Christi, vol. viii. Bibl.
Patr., edit. Lugd. p. 704. [Compare St. Ignatius, vol.
i. cap. vii. p. 52, this series; and for the crucial point
(γεννητὸς
καὶ
ἀγέννητος) see
Jacobson, ii. p. 278.] | since He hungers
and toils and thirsts in weariness, and flees in fear, and prays in
trouble. And He who as God has a sleepless nature, slumbers on a
pillow. And He who for this end came into the world, begs off
from the cup of suffering. And in an agony He sweats blood, and
is strengthened by an angel, who Himself strengthens those who believe
on Him, and taught men to despise death by His work.1703
And He who knew what manner of man
Judas was, is betrayed by Judas. And He, who formerly was
honoured by him as God, is contemned by Caiaphas.1704
And He is set at nought by Herod,
who is Himself to judge the whole earth. And He is scourged by
Pilate, who took upon Himself our infirmities. And by the
soldiers He is mocked, at whose behest stand thousands of thousands and
myriads of myriads of angels and archangels. And He who fixed the
heavens like a vault is fastened to the cross by the Jews. And He
who is inseparable from the Father cries to the Father, and commends to
Him His spirit; and bowing His head, He gives up the ghost, who said,
“I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it
again;”1705
and because He was
not overmastered by death, as being Himself Life, He said this:
“I lay it down of myself.”1706
And He who gives life bountifully to
all, has His side pierced with a spear. And He who raises the
dead is wrapped in linen and laid in a sepulchre, and on the third day
He is raised again by the Father, though Himself the Resurrection and
the Life. For all these things has He finished for us, who for
our sakes was made as we are. For “Himself hath borne our
infirmities, and carried our diseases; and for our sakes He was
afflicted,”1707
as Isaiah the
prophet has said. This is He who was hymned by the angels, and
seen by the shepherds, and waited for by Simeon, and witnessed to by
Anna. This is He who was inquired after by the wise men, and
indicated by the star; He who was engaged in His Father’s house,
and pointed to by John, and witnessed to by the Father from above in
the voice, “This is my beloved Son; hear ye Him.”1708
| 1708
Matt. xvii. 5. [It may be convenient for some to
turn to the Oxford translation of Bishop Bull’s
Defensio, part i. pp. 193–216, where Tertullian and
Hippolytus are nobly vindicated on Nicene grounds. The notes are
also valuable.] | He is
crowned victor against the devil.1709
This is Jesus of Nazareth, who was
invited to the marriage-feast in Cana, and turned the water into wine,
and rebuked the sea when agitated by the violence of the winds, and
walked on the deep as on dry land, and caused the blind man from birth
to see, and raised Lazarus to life after he had been dead four days,
and did many mighty works, and forgave sins, and conferred power on the
disciples, and had blood and water flowing from His sacred side when
pierced with the spear. For His sake the sun is darkened, the day
has no light, the rocks are shattered, the veil is rent, the
foundations of the earth are shaken, the graves are opened, and the
dead are raised, and the rulers are ashamed when they see the Director
of the universe upon the cross closing His eye and giving up the
ghost. Creation saw, and was troubled; and, unable to bear the
sight of His exceeding glory, shrouded itself in
darkness.1710
| 1710
[Hippolytus confirms Tertullian’s testimony. Compare vol.
iii. pp. 35 and 58.] | This (is He
who) breathes upon the disciples, and gives them the Spirit, and comes
in among them when the doors are shut, and is taken up by a cloud into
the heavens while the disciples gaze at Him, and is set down on the
right hand of the Father, and comes again as the Judge of the living
and the dead. This is the God who for our sakes became man, to
whom also the Father hath put all things in subjection. To Him be
the glory and the power, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in the
holy Church both now and ever, and even for evermore.
Amen.
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