Novatian — On the Trinity 26
XXVI. 1. But from this occasion, because Christ is proved by the sacred authorities of the divine writings to be not man only but also God, other heretics break out and plot to shake religion’s standing in Christ, wanting by this very point to show that Christ is God the Father, while he is asserted not man only but also put forward as God. 2. For they say: if one God is put forward, and Christ is God, then if Father and Christ are one God, Christ will be called Father. In which they err, not knowing Christ but approving a name’s sound; for they refuse that he be a second person after the Father, but want him the Father himself. 3. To whom a few things will be said. Who does not recognize the Son’s second person after the Father when he reads the Father saying to the Son: Let us make man unto our image and likeness, and afterward: And God made man, unto God’s image he made him? 4. Or when he holds: The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven? 5. Or when to Christ: You are my Son, today I have begotten you; ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance? 6. Or when: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand? 7. Or when the Gospel: And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father? 8. Or when: Father, glorify me with that glory which I had with you before the world was? 9. Or when: I came forth from the Father and have come; again I leave the world and go to the Father? 10. Or when: I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God?
11. Or when he has with the rest: But in your law it is written that the testimony of two is true; I testify about myself and the Father who sent me has testified about me? 12. Or when a voice is returned from heaven: I have both glorified and will glorify? 13. Or when Peter answers: You are the Son of the living God? 14. Or when the Lord himself approves this revelation’s sacrament and says that flesh and blood did not reveal it, but the Father who is in heaven? 15–20. And when everywhere both old and new testament’s divine Scripture shows him born from the Father, through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made, who has always obeyed the Father and obeys, always having power over all things, but as handed over, but as granted, but as allowed him by his own Father. 21. For what can be so clear that this one is not Father but Son than that he is set forth obedient to God the Father, lest if he be believed Father, Christ already be said subject to another God the Father?
Latin
XXVI. 1. Sed ex hac occasione, quia Christus non homo tantum, sed et Deus diuinarum literarum sacris auctoritatibus approbatur, alii haeretici erumpentes statum in Christo religionis concutere machinantur, hoc ipso Patrem Deum uolentes ostendere Christum esse, dum non homo tantum asseritur, sed et Deus promitur. 2. Sic enim inquiunt: si unus esse Deus promitur, Christus autem Deus, ergo, inquiunt, si Pater et Christus est unus Deus, Christus Pater dicetur. In quo errare probantur Christum non noscentes, sed sonum nominis approbantes; nolunt enim illum secundam esse personam post Patrem, sed ipsum Patrem. 3. Quibus quia facile respondetur, pauca dicentur. Quis enim non secundam Filii post Patrem agnoscat esse personam, cum legat dictum a Patre consequenter ad Filium: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram, et post haec relatum: Et fecit Deus hominem, ad imaginem Dei fecit illum? 4. Aut cum inter manus teneat: Pluit Dominus super Sodomam et Gomorram ignem et sulphur a Domino de caelo? 5. Aut cum ad Christum: Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te; postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes hereditatem tuam et possessionem tuam terminos terrae? 6. Aut cum etiam ille desideratus scriba ait: Dixit Dominus Domino meo: sede a dextris meis, donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum? 7. Aut cum Esaiae prophetias explicans inuenit positum sic: Haec dicit Dominus Christo meo Domino? 8. Aut cum legit: Non descendi de caelo ut faciam uoluntatem meam, sed uoluntatem eius qui misit me? 9. Aut dum inuenit positum: Quoniam qui me misit, maior me est? 10. Aut cum considerat scriptum: Eo ad Patrem meum et Patrem uestrum, Deum meum et Deum uestrum?
11. Aut quando habet cum ceteris collocatum: Sed in lege uestra scriptum est quia duorum testimonium uerum est; ego de me testificor et testificatus est de me qui me misit Pater? 12. Aut quando uox de caelo redditur: Et honorificaui et honorificabo? 13. Aut quando a Petro respondetur et dicitur: Tu es Filius Dei uiui? 14. Aut quando ab ipso Domino sacramentum huius reuelationis approbatur et dicitur: Beatus es, Simon Bariona, quoniam hoc tibi non reuelauit caro et sanguis, sed Pater meus qui in caelis est? 15. Aut quando ab ipso Christo exprimitur: Pater, clarifica me eo honore quo fui apud te antequam mundus fieret? 16. Aut cum ab eodem dicitur: Pater, sciebam quia semper me audis, uerum propter circumstantes dixi, ut credant quia tu me misisti? 17. Aut cum definitio regulae ab ipso Christo collocatur et dicitur: Haec est autem uita aeterna, ut sciant te unum et uerum Deum et quem misisti Iesum Christum. Ego te honorificaui super terram, opus perfeci quod dedisti mihi? 18. Aut cum item ab eodem asseritur et dicitur: Omnia mihi tradita sunt a Patre meo? 19. Aut cum sedere ad dexteram Patris et a prophetis et ab apostolis approbatur? 20. Et satis longum facio, si enisus fuero omnes omnino ad hanc partem uoces congregare, quandoquidem non tam ueteris quam etiam noui testamenti scriptura diuina ubique ostendat illum ex Patre natum, per quem facta sunt omnia et sine quo factum est nihil, qui oboedierit semper Patri et oboediat, semper habentem rerum omnium potestatem, sed qua traditam, sed qua concessam, sed qua a Patre proprio sibi indultam. 21. Quid enim tam euidens potest esse, hunc non Patrem esse, sed Filium, quam quod oboediens Patri Deo proponitur, ne si Pater esse credatur, alteri iam Deo Patri Christus subiectus esse dicatur?