Novatian — On the Trinity 19

That God Also Appeared to Jacob as an Angel; Namely, the Son of God. What if in another place also we read in like manner that God was described as an angel ? For when, to his wives Leah and Rachel, Jacob complained of the injustice of their father, and when he told them that he desired now to go and return into his own land, he moreover inter posed the authority of his dream; and at this time he says that the angel of God had said to him in a dream , Jacob, Jacob. And I said, says he, What is it? Lift up your eyes, said He, and see, the he-goats and the rams leaping upon the sheep, and the she-goats are black and white, and many-colored, and grizzled, and speckled: for I have seen all that Laban has done to you.

I am God , who appeared to you in the place of God , where you anointed for me there the standing stone, and there vowed a vow unto me: now therefore arise, and go forth from this land, and go unto the land of your nativity, and I will be with you. If the Angel of God speaks thus to Jacob, and the Angel himself mentions and says, I am God , who appeared unto you in the house of God , we see without any hesitation that this is declared to be not only an angel , but God also; because He speaks of the vow directed to Himself by Jacob in the place of God , and He does not say, in my place . It is then the place of God , and He also is God .

Moreover, it is written simply in the place of God , for it is not said in the place of the angel and God , but only of God ; and He who promises those things is manifested to be both God and Angel, so that reasonably there must be a distinction between Him who is called God only, and Him who is declared to be not God simply, but Angel also. Whence if so great an authority cannot here be regarded as belonging to any other angel , that He should also avow Himself to be God , and should bear witness that a vow was made to Him, except to Christ alone, to whom not as angel only, but as to God , a vow can be vowed; it is manifest that it is not to be received as the Father , but as the Son , God and Angel.

Moreover, if this is Christ, as it is, he is in terrible risk who says that Christ is either man or angel alone, withholding from Him the power of the divine name — an authority which He has constantly received on the faith of the heavenly Scriptures, which continually say that He is both Angel and God. To all these things, moreover, is added this, that in like manner as the divine Scripture has frequently declared Him both Angel and God , so the same divine Scripture declares Him also both man and God , expressing thereby what He should be, and depicting even then in figure what He was to be in the truth of His substance. For, it says, Jacob remained alone; and there wrestled with him a man even till daybreak.