Novatian — On the Trinity 17
XVII. 1. What if Moses follows this same rule of truth and handed this down to us at the beginning of his writings, that we may learn that all things were created and established through the Son of God, that is through God’s Word? For he says what John says, what the others say; indeed both John and the others are understood to have received from him what they say. 2. For if John says: All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made, and the prophet reports: I speak my works to the king, and Moses introduces God commanding that light first be made, heaven be firm, waters be gathered, dry land be shown, fruit according to seeds be called forth, animals be produced, lights in heaven and stars be set — he shows no one else then present with God to whom these works were commanded to be done, except him through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. 3. And if this is God’s Word — for my heart has belched a good word — he shows that in the beginning the Word was, and this Word was with the Father, that the Word moreover was God, that all things were made through him. But this Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, Christ namely the Son of God, whom, while afterward we receive as man according to the flesh and before the world’s founding we see as God’s Word and God, we deservedly both believe and hold Christ Jesus both God and man according to the arrangement of the old and new testament. 4. What if the same Moses introduces God saying: Let us make man unto our image and likeness, and below: And God made man, unto God’s image he made him, male and female he made them? If, as we have already taught, it is God’s Son through whom all things were made, then certainly it is God’s Son through whom man also was instituted, for whose sake all things were made.
5. But when God commands that man be made, he who makes man is reported to be God; but God’s Son makes man, namely God’s Word through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. But this Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Therefore Christ is God. Through Christ, then, man was made, as through God’s Son. But God made man unto God’s image. He who made man unto God’s image is therefore God. Christ is therefore God, so that deservedly neither does the old testament’s authority about Christ’s person waver, while it is propped by the new testament’s manifestation, nor is the new testament’s power cut off, while its truth rests on the same old testament’s roots. 6. From which those who presume Christ, Son of God and of man, to be man only, and not also God, act against both the old and the new testament, while they corrupt both the old and the new testament’s authority and truth. 7. What if the same Moses everywhere introduces God the Father immense and without end, not one enclosed by place, but one who encloses every place, nor one who is in a place, but rather one in whom every place is, containing all things and embracing all, so that deservedly he neither descends nor ascends, since he himself both contains and fills all things, and yet nonetheless introduces God descending to the tower which the sons of men were building, seeking to look and saying: Come and presently let us go down and confuse their tongues there, so that each may not hear his neighbor’s voice? Whom do they want here as God who descended to that tower and sought then to visit those men? God the Father? Then he is already enclosed by place. And how does he himself embrace all things? 8. Or does he mean an angel descending with angels and saying: Come and presently let us go down and confuse their tongues there? But in Deuteronomy we notice that God reported these things and that God said them, where it is set: When he scattered Adam’s sons, he set the nations’ bounds according to the number of God’s angels. Therefore neither did the Father descend, as the matter shows, nor did an angel command those things, as the matter proves. 9. It remains, then, that he descended of whom the apostle Paul says: He who descended is himself who ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things — that is, God’s Son, God’s Word. But God’s Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. This will be Christ. Christ will therefore be pronounced God.
Latin
XVII. 1. Quid si Moyses hanc eandem regulam ueritatis exsequitur et hoc in principio suarum nobis tradidit literarum, quo discamus omnia creata et condita esse per Dei Filium, hoc est per Dei uerbum? Id enim dicit quod Ioannes, quod ceteri, immo et Ioannes et ceteri ab hoc intelleguntur accepisse quod dicant. 2. Si enim Ioannes dicit: Omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil, prophetes autem refert: Dico ego opera mea regi, Moyses autem introducit praecipientem Deum ut lux fiat in primis, caelum firmetur, aquae congregentur, arida ostendatur, fructus secundum semina prouocetur, animalia producantur, luminaria in caelo atque astra ponantur, non alium ostendit tunc adfuisse Deo cui praeciperenter haec opera ut fierent, nisi eum per quem facta sunt omnia, et sine quo factum est nihil. 3. Ac si hic uerbum Dei est — nam eructauit cor meum uerbum bonum —, ostendit in principio uerbum fuisse et uerbum hoc apud Patrem fuisse, Deum praeterea uerbum fuisse, omnia per ipsum facta esse. Sed enim hoc uerbum caro factum est et habitauit in nobis, Christus scilicet Filius Dei, quem dum et postmodum secundum carnem hominem accipimus et ante mundi institutionem Dei uerbum et Deum uidemus, merito secundum institutionem ueteris et noui testamenti et Deum et hominem Christum Iesum et credimus et tenemus. 4. Quid si idem Moyses introducit dicentem Deum: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram, et infra: Et fecit Deus hominem, ad imaginem Dei fecit illum, masculum et feminam fecit eos? Si, ut iam docuimus, Dei Filius est per quem facta sunt omnia, utique Dei Filius est per quem etiam homo institutus est, propter quem facta sunt omnia.
5. Sed enim Deo praecipiente ut homo fiat, Deus refertur esse qui hominem facit; facit autem hominem Dei Filius, uerbum scilicet Dei per quem facta sunt omnia, et sine quo factum est nihil. Hoc autem uerbum caro factum est et habitauit in nobis. Ergo Christus est Deus. Per Christum igitur homo factus est, ut per Dei Filium. Sed Deus hominem ad imaginem Dei fecit. Deus est ergo qui fecit hominem ad imaginem Dei. Deus ergo Christus est, ut merito nec ueteris testamenti circa personam Christi uacillet auctoritas, dum noui testamenti manifestatione fulcitur, nec noui testamenti intercepta sit potestas, dum radicibus ueteris testamenti eiusdem nititur ueritas. 6. Ex quo qui Christum, Dei Filium et hominis, tantummodo praesumunt hominem, non et Deum, contra testamentum et uetus et nouum faciunt, dum et ueteris et noui testamenti auctoritatem ueritatemque corrumpunt. 7. Quid si idem Moyses ubique introducit Deum Patrem immensum atque sine fine, non qui loco cludatur, sed qui omnem locum cludat, nec eum qui in loco sit, sed potius in quo omnis locus sit, omnia continentem et cuncta complexum, ut merito nec descendat nec ascendat, quoniam ipse omnia et continet et implet, et tamen nihilominus introducit Deum descendentem ad turrem quam aedificabant filii hominum, considerare quaerentem et dicentem: Venite et mox descendamus et confundamus illic ipsorum linguas, ut non audiat unusquisque uocem proximi sui? Quem uolunt hic Deum descendisse ad turrem illam et homines tunc illos uisitare quaerentem? Deum Patrem? Ergo iam loco clauditur. Et quomodo omnia ipse complectitur? 8. Aut numquid angelum cum angelis dicit descendentem et dicentem: Venite et mox descendamus et confundamus illic ipsorum linguas? Sed enim in Deuteronomio animaduertimus rettulisse Deum haec Deumque dixisse, ubi ponitur: Cum disseminaret filios Adam, statuit fines gentium iuxta numerum angelorum Dei. Neque ergo Pater descendit, ut res indicat, neque angelus ista praecepit, ut res probat. 9. Superest ergo ut ille descenderit, de quo apostolus Paulus: Qui descendit, ipse est qui ascendit super omnes caelos, ut impleret omnia, hoc est Dei Filius, Dei uerbum. Verbum autem Dei caro factum est et habitauit in nobis. Hic erit Christus. Deus ergo pronuntiabitur Christus.