Anf-03 v.vii.xxiv Pg 6
Isa. xlv. 5.
And when in another passage he says, in like manner, “Before me there was no God,”7273 7273
Anf-03 v.ix.xviii Pg 4
Isa. xlv. 5.
And when He Himself makes this declaration, He denies not the Son, but says that there is no other God; and the Son is not different from the Father. Indeed, if you only look carefully at the contexts which follow such statements as this, you will find that they nearly always have distinct reference to the makers of idols and the worshippers thereof, with a view to the multitude of false gods being expelled by the unity of the Godhead, which nevertheless has a Son; and inasmuch as this Son is undivided and inseparable from the Father, so is He to be reckoned as being in the Father, even when He is not named. The fact is, if He had named Him expressly, He would have separated Him, saying in so many words: “Beside me there is none else, except my Son.” In short He would have made His Son actually another, after excepting Him from others. Suppose the sun to say, “I am the Sun, and there is none other besides me, except my ray,” would you not have remarked how useless was such a statement, as if the ray were not itself reckoned in the sun? He says, then, that there is no God besides Himself in respect of the idolatry both of the Gentiles as well as of Israel; nay, even on account of our heretics also, who fabricate idols with their words, just as the heathen do with their hands; that is to say, they make another God and another Christ. When, therefore, He attested His own unity, the Father took care of the Son’s interests, that Christ should not be supposed to have come from another God, but from Him who had already said, “I am God and there is none other beside me,”7987 7987
Anf-03 v.ix.xviii Pg 5
Isa. xlv. 5, 18; xliv. 6.
who shows us that He is the only God, but in company with His Son, with whom “He stretcheth out the heavens alone.”7988 7988
Anf-03 v.ix.xx Pg 4
Isa. xlv. 5.
so in the Gospel they simply keep in view the Lord’s answer to Philip, “I and my Father are one;”8007 8007
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 45
VERSE (5) - :14-18,21,22; 44:8; 46:9 De 4:35,39; 32:39 1Ki 8:60 Joe 2:27