Novatian — On the Trinity 19
XIX. 1. What if in another place we similarly read God set as an angel? For when Jacob complained to his wives Leah and Rachel about their father’s injustice and reported that he already longed to return to his own land, he also inserted the authority of his dream, in which time he reports that God’s angel said to him in a dream: Jacob, Jacob. And I, he says, said: What is it? Look, he says, with your eyes and see the he-goats and rams mounting the ewes and she-goats, variegated white and speckled and ashen-spotted. For I have seen all that Laban has done to you. I am the God who appeared to you in the place of God, where you anointed a stone to me and vowed a vow to me. Now then rise and go out from this land and go away into the land of your birth, and I will be with you. 2. If an angel of God speaks these things to Jacob, and this same angel is also God and Lord, and is reported to have appeared to him from God, and is called a place’s God by the same, and Jacob does not rashly or foolishly believe that he who says he is God’s angel is also God and Lord, the fact itself shows that this was not the Father — who never is called an angel — but the Son, who is both God and angel of the Father’s great counsel. 3. And if God is also an angel, it follows that Christ is both God and angel, so that the heretic who does not wish Christ to be God may at least, when he sees him called angel, be compelled to confess him also God. 4. And if the same angel who is God also appeared to Hagar in the wilderness, and Hagar called him God who saw her, and Scripture reports: And she called the name of the Lord who spoke with her: You God who saw me — who is this who is both angel and God, except Christ? 5. And if he also wrestled with Jacob and Jacob says: I have seen the Lord face to face, and yet no one has ever seen God the Father, this one who was seen is God the Son. 6. And if he also is the angel who spoke to Moses from the bush, and yet says: I am who I am, and Moses worshiped him as God, this is Christ. 7. Therefore in all these the Son is shown both angel and God, who was seen, while the Father was not seen.
8. A man, it says, wrestled with Jacob. If only a solitary man, who is this? From where? Why does he strive and wrestle with Jacob? What had come between? What had happened? What reason for so great a contest and so great a struggle? Why moreover is Jacob, who is found stronger for holding the man with whom he wrestled and asks a blessing from him whom he was detaining because the day-star was already rising, found to have asked for that reason, unless because this contest between Christ and Jacob’s sons was being prefigured, which in the Gospel is said to have been completed? 9. For against this man Jacob’s people wrestled, in which wrestling Jacob’s people is found more powerful, since it obtained the victory of its own iniquity against Christ, at which time because of the crime it committed it began to limp most heavily, uncertain and slippery in the walk of its own faith and salvation — which people, although found superior by condemning Christ, yet needs his mercy, yet needs his blessing. 10. But this man who wrestled with Jacob says: Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel will be your name. And if Israel is ‘a man seeing God’, the Lord elegantly showed that he who then wrestled with Jacob was not only man but also God. 11. Jacob was indeed seeing God with whom he wrestled, although he held his man in the wrestling. And so that no doubt could remain, he himself set the interpretation by saying: Because you have prevailed with God, and you are powerful with men. 12. For which cause this same Jacob, already understanding the force of the sacrament and perceiving the authority of him with whom he had wrestled, called the name of that place in which he wrestled ‘the vision of God’. 13. He further piled up reasons for stretching the interpretation toward God. For I have seen God face to face, he says, and my soul has been saved. But he saw God with whom he wrestled as with a man, yet held the man as a victor, while as an inferior he asked a blessing as from God. Thus he wrestled with God and with man. 14. And if this wrestling was prefigured there, but completed in the Gospel between Christ and Jacob’s people, in which although the people was found superior, it was found lesser while proved guilty — who will doubt to recognize Christ, in whom this figure of wrestling was fulfilled, as not man only but also God, since the figure of the wrestling itself seems to have proved that man also God? 15. And yet even after these things the same divine Scripture equally does not cease to call the angel God, to pronounce God an angel. 16. For when this same Jacob was about to bless Manasseh and Ephraim, Joseph’s sons, with hands placed crosswise over the boys’ heads, he says: The God who feeds me from my youth to this day, the angel who delivered me from all evils, bless the boys. 17. And he so far sets the same angel whom he had called God that at the end of his speech he singularly set the person of whom he was speaking by saying: let him bless these boys. 18. For if he had wanted another angel to be understood, he would have embraced two persons in the plural number; now he laid down the singular number of one person in the blessing, from which he wanted the same one to be understood as God and angel. 19. But God the Father cannot be taken, yet Christ can be taken as God and angel. Whom, as author of this blessing, Jacob also signified by placing crossed hands over the boys, as if Christ were their father, showing by placing hands the figure and future form of the passion. 20. Let no one, therefore, as he does not hesitate to call Christ an angel, so hesitate to pronounce him also God, when he understands that this same one was invoked as both God and angel in these boys’ blessing through the passion’s sacrament laid out in the figure of the hands.
Latin
XIX. 1. Quid si et alio in loco similiter legimus Deum angelum positum? Nam cum apud uxores suas Liam atque Rachel Iacob de patris illarum iniquitate quereretur et cum referret quod iam in terram propriam remeare et reuerti cuperet, somnii quoque sui interponebat auctoritatem, quo tempore refert sibi angelum Dei per somnium dixisse: Iacob, Iacob. Et ego, inquit, dixi: Quid est? Aspice, inquit, oculis tuis et uide hircos et arietes ascendentes super oues et capras uariatos albos et uarios et cinericios et aspersos. Vidi enim quaecumque tibi Laban fecit. Ego sum Deus qui uisus sum tibi in loco Dei, ubi unxisti mihi illic stantem lapidem et uouisti mihi illic uotum; nunc ergo surge et proficiscere de terra hac et uade in terram natiuitatis tuae, et ero tecum . 2. Si angelus Dei loquitur haec ad Iacob atque ipse angelus infert dicens: Ego sum Deus qui uisus sum tibi in loco Dei, non tantummodo hunc angelum, sed et Deum positum sine ulla haesitatione conspicimus, quique sibi uotum refert ab Iacob destinatum esse in loco Dei et non dicit 'in loco meo'. Est ergo locus Dei, est et hic Deus. 3. Sed enim ibi simpliciter est in loco Dei positum, neque enim dictum est 'in loco angeli et Dei', sed tantummodo 'Dei', hic autem qui ista promittit Deus atque angelus esse perhibetur, ut merito distinctio sit inter eum qui tantummodo Deus dicitur et inter eum qui non Deus simpliciter, sed et angelus pronuntiatur. 4. Ex quo si nullius alterius angeli potest hic accipi tanta auctoritas, ut Deum quoque se esse fateatur et uotum sibi factum esse testetur, nisi tantummodo Christi, cui non quia angelo tantum, sed quia Deo uotum uoueri potest, manifestum est non Patrem accipi posse, sed Filium Deum et angelum. 5. Hic autem si Christus est, sicuti est, uehementer periclitatur qui aut hominem Christum aut angelum tantummodo dicit subtracta illi diuini nominis potestate, quam ex scripturarum caelestium fide frequenter accepit, quae illum et angelum frequenter et Deum dicunt. 6. His omnibus etiam illud accedit ut, quomodo illum et angelum frequenter et Deum posuit scriptura diuina, sic illum et hominem ponat et Deum, exprimens eadem scriptura diuina quod erat futurus et depingens iam tum in imagine quod habebat esse in substantiae ueritate. 7. Remansit enim, inquit, Iacob solus et luctabatur homo cum eo usque in mane; et uidit quoniam non potest aduersus eum et tetigit latitudinem femoris Iacob, cum in eum luctaretur et ipse cum eo, et dixit ei: dimitte me, ascendit enim lucifer. Et ille dixit: Non te dimittam, nisi me benedixeris. Et dixit: Quod est nomen tuum? Et ille dixit: Iacob. Dixitque ei: Non uocabitur iam nunc nomen tuum Iacob, sed Israel erit nomen tuum, quia inualuisti cum Deo, et cum hominibus potens es. Et adhuc adicit: Et uocauit Iacob nomen loci illius 'uisio Dei'. Vidi enim Deum facie ad faciem, et salua facta est anima mea. Ortusque est ei sol, mox transiuit uisionem Dei, ipse uero claudicabat femore suo.
8. Homo, inquit, luctabatur cum Iacob. Si homo solitarius, quis est iste? Vnde est? Quare cum Iacob contendit atque luctatur? Quid intercesserat? Quid factum fuerat? Quae ratio contentionis istius tantae tantique certaminis? Quare praeterea Iacob, qui ad tenendum hominem cum quo luctabatur fortior inuenitur et benedictionem ab eo quem detinebat postulat, quia iam lucifer oritur, ideo postulasse reperitur, nisi quoniam praefigurabatur contentio haec inter Christum et filios Iacob futura, quae in euangelio dicitur perfecta? 9. Contra hunc enim hominem colluctatus est populus Iacob, in qua colluctatione potentior populus est Iacob repertus, quippe cum aduersus Christum iniquitatis suae uictoriam sit consecutus, quo in tempore propter facinus quod admisit incessu fidei propriae et salutis claudicare grauissime incertus et lubricus coepit, qui quamuis superior damnando Christum repertus, eget tamen ipsius misericordia, eget tamen ipsius benedictione. 10. Sed enim hic homo qui cum Iacob luctatus est, Non, inquit, uocabitur etiam nunc nomen tuum Iacob, sed Israel erit nomen tuum. Ac si Israel est homo 'uidens Deum', eleganter ostendebat Dominus quod non tantum homo esset qui colluctabatur tunc cum Iacob, sed et Deus. 11. Videbat utique Deum Iacob cum quo colluctabatur, quamuis hominem ipsius in colluctatione retineret. Et ut nulla adhuc posset esse dubitatio, interpretationem ipse posuit dicendo: Quia inualuisti cum Deo, et cum hominibus potens es. 12. Ob quam causam hic idem Iacob, intellegens iam uim sacramenti et peruidens auctoritatem eius cum quo luctatus fuisset, nomen loci illius in quo colluctatus est uocauit 'uisionem Dei'. 13. Superstruxit praeterea causas ad interpretationem Dei porrigendam. Vidi enim, inquit, Deum facie ad faciem, et salua facta est anima mea. Vidit autem Deum cum quo colluctatus est quasi cum homine, sed et hominem quidem quasi uictor tenuit, benedictionem autem quasi a Deo ut inferior postulauit. Ita cum Deo et cum homine colluctatus fuit. 14. Ac si colluctatio haec ibi quidem praefigurata est, in euangelio autem inter Christum et populum Iacob perfecta est, in qua quamuis populus superior inuentus sit, minor repertus est dum nocens comprobatus est, quis dubitabit Christum, in quo haec colluctationis figura completa est, non hominem tantum, sed et Deum agnoscere, quandoquidem hominem illum et Deum etiam figura ipsa colluctationis uideatur comprobasse? 15. Et tamen etiam post haec aeque non cessat eadem scriptura diuina angelum Deum dicere, Deum angelum pronuntiare. 16. Nam cum Manassen atque Ephrem, filios Ioseph, benedicturus esset hic ipse Iacob, transuersis super capita puerorum manibus collocatis, Deus, inquit, qui pascit me a iuuentute mea usque in hunc diem, angelus cui liberauit me ex omnibus malis, benedicat pueros. 17. Vsque adeo autem eundem angelum ponit quem Deum dixerat, ut singulariter in exitu sermonis sui posuerit personam de qua loquebatur dicendo: benedicat pueros hos. 18. Si enim alterum angelum uoluisset intellegi, plurali numero duas personas complexus fuisset; nunc unius personae singularem numerum in benedictione deposuit, ex quo eundem Deum atque angelum intellegi uoluit. 19. Sed enim Deus Pater accipi non potest, Deus autem et angelus Christus accipi potest. Quem ut huius benedictionis auctorem etiam transuersas super pueros manus Iacob ponendo significauit, quasi pater illorum esset Christus, ex quo manus poneret figuram et formam futuram passionis ostendens. 20. Nemo igitur Christum sicut angelum non dubitat dicere, ita etiam Deum haesitet pronuntiare, cum hunc eundem in puerorum horum benedictionem per sacramentum passionis digestum in figura manuum et Deum et angelum intellegat inuocatum fuisse.