[This will be the second of a series of posts on the Trinitarian views of the early church fathers, particularly focused on the way in which they view the relationship between the Father and Son. For the first, see here.]
Novatian was a third century early church father whose
impressive intellectual capacities facilitated his near rise to the office of
the bishop of Rome. Eusebius even records that his opponent Cornelius, who
eventually secured the episcopate, admitted he was “remarkable” and
“illustrious man,” a “defender of the doctrine of the Church,” though he clearly
thought little of his moral character (link).
While Jerome notes some of his letters which have apparently not survived, he
particularly mentions that his work On
the Trinity was “a great volume” and “a sort of epitome of the work of
Tertullian” (link), a
second century early church father credited as having coined the word “Trinity.”
It is to this work (link) I now turn.
In his first eight chapters, Novatian uses Scripture to carefully
and with appreciable nuance defend the doctrines of man as image of God,
creation, and divine simplicity, timelessness, immutability, incomprehensibility,
immanence, providence, accommodation, and perfection. On the whole, he is
remarkably efficient. Noteworthy exegetical conclusions include that Isaiah
45:22 and Mark 10:18 both apply to the Father and that the “I AM”
statements indicate divine immutability. These eight chapters each refer to the
Father, after which he begins chapter 9 by writing:
The same rule of truth teaches
us to believe, after the Father, also on the Son of God, Christ Jesus, the Lord
our God, but the Son of God—of that God who is both one and alone, to wit the
Founder of all things, as already has been expressed above. For this Jesus
Christ, I will once more say, the Son of this God, we read of as having been
promised in the Old Testament, and we observe to be manifested in the New,
fulfilling the shadows and figures of all the sacraments, with the presence of
the truth embodied. For as well the ancient prophecies as the Gospels testify
Him to be the son of Abraham and the son of David.
He then lists many passages in the Old Testament which
anticipate Christ and follows in chapter 10 with a refutation of Docetism. Here,
it is sufficient to note that he is clear in his affirmation that the Father is
“God who is both one and alone.” This is not to exclude divinity from Christ,
as he proceeds to extensively demonstrate from Scripture in chapters 11-22, but
from this prelude to his discussion of the Trinity there can already be seen an
indication that the Father is God in a peculiar sense. Indeed, in
chapter 16, Christ’s relationship with “the one true God” who sent Him – the
Father – is why He too is able “to be understood to be God”:
We must not then lean to one
side and evade the other side, because any one who should exclude one portion
of the truth will never hold the perfect truth.
For Scripture as much announces Christ as also God, as
it announces God Himself as man. It has as much described Jesus
Christ to be man, as moreover it has also described Christ the Lord to
be God. Because it does not set forth Him to be the Son of God only,
but also the Son of man; nor does it only say, the Son of man, but it
has also been accustomed to speak of Him as the Son of God. So that being
of both, He is both, lest if He should be one only, He could not be the other. For
as nature itself has prescribed that he must be believed to be a
man who is of man, so the same nature prescribes also that He
must be believed to be God who is of God; but if he should
not also be God when he is of God, no more should he be man
although he should be of man. And thus both doctrines would be
endangered in one and the other way, by one being convicted to have
lost belief in the other. Let them, therefore, who read that Jesus
Christ the Son of man is man, read also that this
same Jesus is called also God and the Son of God.
Just as the reason Jesus is man is that He is by nature
of man, so also the reason Jesus is God is that He is by nature of God. He is
able to be called man and God because He is by nature the Son of Man and Son of
God. He repeats this argument in chapter 21 when he says: “Christ is proved to
be not man only, because He was the son of man, but also God, because
He is the Son of God?” Thus, He is no more God-of-Himself than He is
man-of-Himself. And in chapter 18, in addition to adducing yet another proof of
the divinity of Christ, Novatian argues “He is of God, is rightly called God,
because He is the Son of God.” In context, he also touches on the subordination
of the Son to His Father:
What in the world is
the reason that we should hesitate to call Him God, who in so
many ways is acknowledged to be proved God? And if, moreover,
the angel meets with Hagar, Sarah's maid, driven from
her home as well as turned away, near the fountain of water in the way
to Shur; asks and learns the reason of her flight, and after
that offers her advice that she should humble herself; and,
moreover, gives her the hope of the name of mother, and pledges and
promises that from her womb there should be a numerous seed, and that she
should have Ishmael to be born from her; and with other things unfolds the
place of his habitation, and describes his mode of life;
yet Scripture sets forth this angel as
both Lord and God— for He would not have promised
the blessing of seed unless the angel had also
been God. Let them ask what the heretics can make of this
present passage. Was that the Father that was seen by Hagar or not?
For He is declared to be God. But far be it from us to call God the
Father an angel, lest He should be subordinate to another whose angel He
would be. But they will say that it was an angel. How then shall He
be God if He was an angel? Since this name is nowhere conceded
to angels, except that on either side the truth compels us into
this opinion, that we ought to understand it to have
been God the Son, who, because He is of God, is rightly
called God, because He is the Son of God. But, because He
is subjected to the Father, and the Announcer of the
Father's will, He is declared to be the Angel of Great
Counsel. Therefore, although this passage neither is suited to
the person of the Father, lest He should be called an angel,
nor to the person of an angel, lest he should be called God;
yet it is suited to the person of Christ that He should be
both God because He is the Son of God, and should be an angel because
He is the Announcer of the Father's mind. And the heretics ought
to understand that they are setting themselves against the Scriptures, in
that, while they say that they believe Christ to have been also
an angel, they are unwilling to declare Him to have been also God,
when they read in the Old Testament that He often came to visit
the human race. To this, moreover, Moses added the instance
of God seen of Abraham at the oak of Mature, when he
was sitting at the opening of his tent at noon-day. And nevertheless, although
he had beheld three men, note that he called one of them Lord;
and when he had washed their feet, he offers them bread baked on the
ashes, with butter and abundance of milk itself, and urges them that, being
detained as guests, they should eat. And after I this he hears also that he
should be a father, and learns that Sarah his wife should bring forth
a son by him; and acknowledges concerning the destruction of the people
of Sodom, what they deserve to suffer; and learns that God had
come down on account of the cry of Sodom. In which place, if they will
have it that the Father was seen at that time to have been received with
hospitality in company with two angels, the heretics have believed the
Father to be visible. But if an angel, although of the three angels one
is called Lord, why, although it is not usual, is an angel called God?
Unless because, in order that His proper invisibility may be restored to
the Father, and the proper inferiority be remitted to the angel,
it was only God the Son, who also is God, who was seen
by Abraham, and was believed to have been received with
hospitality.
A messenger is subordinate to the one on whose behalf he
relates a message. As Christ is the angel, He is subordinate to the Father or
subject to His will. Now, it is true that this is related to economic activity,
but the reason he is fit for this office has to do with the relations in the
immanent Trinity. The Son is suited to the position in question because He is
God’s Son, properly inferior in person though not in nature. The footnote to
this reference to the Son’s “proper inferiority” in Volume 5 of The Ante-Nicene Fathers appropriately says:
“The Nicene doctrine includes the subordination of the Son.” The
subordination of the Son is no more economic than the invisibility of the
Father who the Son images. And in chapter 22, Novatian uses Philippians 2 to
note He is not only the image of God but also the form of God:
If Christ had been only
man, He would have been spoken of as in the image of God,
not in the form of God. For we know that man was
made after the image or likeness, not after the form, of God. Who
then is that angel who, as we have said, was made in
the form of God? But neither do we read of
the form of God in angels, except because this one is
chief and royal above all — the Son of God, the Word of God, the
imitator of all His Father's works, in that He Himself works even as His
Father. He is — as we have declared — in the form of God the
Father. And He is reasonably affirmed to be in the form of God,
in that He Himself, being above all things, and having the divine power over
every creature, is also God after the example of the Father. Yet He
obtained, this from His own Father, that He should be both God of all and
should be Lord, and be begotten and made known from Himself
as God in the form of God the Father. He then,
although He was in the form of God, thought it not robbery that
He should be equal with God. For although He remembered that He
was God from God the Father, He never either compared or
associated Himself with God the Father, mindful that He was from
His Father, and that He possessed that very thing that He is, because the
Father had given it Him. Thence, finally, both before
the assumption of the flesh, and moreover after
the assumption of the body, besides, after the resurrection itself,
He yielded all obedience to the Father, and still yields it as
ever. Whence it is proved that He thought that the claim
of a certain divinity would be robbery, to wit, that of
equalling Himself with God the Father; but, on the other hand, obedient and
subject to all His rule and will, He even was contented to take on Him
the form of a servant — that is, to become man; and
the substance of flesh and body which, as it came to Him from
the bondage of His forefathers' sins according to His manhood,
He undertook by being born, at which time moreover He emptied
Himself, in that He did not refuse to take upon Him the frailty incident to
humanity.
The Son did not grasp at the “claim of a certain divinity” –
that is, that which is proper to the Father alone – because such would have
been a robbery. Rather, the Son was always “mindful that He was from His
Father, and that He possessed that very thing that He is, because the Father
had given it Him.” Accordingly, He is neither autotheos nor aseity.
In chapters 23-28, Novatian concerns himself with refuting heretics
on opposite extremes: those who think these Scriptures prove the Son is the
Father, those who think the Son is not human, and those who think the Son is
not God. In chapter 26, he again emphasizes the obedience, subjection, and
derivation of the eternally begotten Son to and from the Father:
And I should have enough to do
were I to endeavour to gather together all the passages whatever on this side; since
the divine Scripture, not so much of the Old as also of the New
Testament, everywhere shows Him to be born of the Father, by whom all
things were made, and without whom nothing was made, who always has obeyed and obeys the
Father; that He always has power over all things, but as delivered, as granted,
as by the Father Himself permitted to Him. And what can be so evident proof that
this is not the Father, but the Son; as that He is set forth as
being obedient to God the Father, unless, if He be believed to
be the Father, Christ may be said to be subjected to
another God the Father?
He makes very similar points in the next chapter:
He is therefore the Son,
not the Father: for He would have confessed that He was the Father
had He considered Himself to be the Father; and He declares that He was
sanctified by His Father. In receiving, then, sanctification from the Father,
He is inferior to the Father. Now, consequently, He who is inferior to
the Father, is not the Father, but the Son; for had He been the Father,
He would have given, and not received, sanctification. Now, however, by
declaring that He has received sanctification from the Father, by the very
fact of proving Himself to be less than the Father, by receiving
from Him sanctification, He has shown that He is the Son, and not the
Father. Besides, He says that He is sent: so that by that obedience wherewith
the Lord Christ came, being sent, He might be proved to
be not the Father, but the Son, who assuredly would have sent had He
been the Father; but being sent, He was not the Father, lest the Father
should be proved, in being sent, to be subjected to another God.
It is evident Novatian considered that the economic and
immanent Trinity are related, for the Father cannot be sent by the Son, nor can
the Father be sanctified by the Son. The Son obeys, is less than, and is
inferior to the Father. But again, this is strictly a comparison of the
relations between persons, not of the natures of the persons. After a brief
chapter on the Holy Spirit, Novatian fittingly concludes his treatise by
considering how monotheism can be true if in Scripture both the Father and Son are
called God. After citing numerous Scriptures demonstrating this to be the case,
he concludes chapter 30 with several useful analogies to put heretics on the
defensive:
And in the first place, we must
turn the attack against them who undertake to make against us the charge of
saying that there are two Gods. It is written, and they cannot deny it,
that there is one Lord. What, then, do they think
of Christ? — that He is Lord, or that He is not Lord at
all? But they do not doubt absolutely that He is Lord; therefore, if
their reasoning be true, here are already two Lords. How, then, is
it true according to the Scriptures, there is one Lord?
And Christ is called the one Master. Nevertheless we
read that the Apostle Paul also is a master. Then, according to
this, our Master is not one, for from these things we conclude that
there are two masters. How, then, according to the Scriptures, is one
our Master, even Christ? In the Scriptures there is
one called good, even God; but in the
same Scriptures Christ is also asserted to be good. There
is not, then, if they rightly conclude, one good, but even two good.
How, then, according to the scriptural faith, is there said to be only
one good? But if they do not think that it can by any means interfere with
the truth that there is one Lord, that Christ also
is Lord, nor with the truth that one is our Master, that Paul also
is our master, or with the truth that one is good,
that Christ also is called good; on the same reasoning, let them
understand that, from the fact that God is one, no obstruction arises
to the truth that Christ also is declared to be God.
There is said to be one God, one Lord, one Master, and only
one who is good, and yet in other places, other persons are also said to be
God, Lord, master, and good. So even if there were a problem for monotheists, these
other examples would pose a problem for Sabellians, tritheists, and other
heretics too which, if they were to solve those cases, would solve the case
for monotheists. The final chapter contains Novatian’s own solution, reproduced
here in full:
Thus God the Father,
the Founder and Creator of all things, who only knows no
beginning, invisible, infinite, immortal, eternal, is one
God; to whose greatness, or majesty, or power, I would not say nothing can be
preferred, but nothing can be compared; of whom, when He willed it, the Son,
the Word, was born, who is not received in the sound of the stricken
air, or in the tone of voice forced from the lungs, but is acknowledged in
the substance of the power put forth by God, the mysteries of
whose sacred and divine nativity neither an apostle has learned,
nor prophet has discovered, nor angel has known, nor
creature has apprehended. To the Son alone they are known, who has known the
secrets of the Father. He then, since He was begotten of the Father, is
always in the Father. And I thus say always, that I may show Him not to be
unborn, but born. But He who is before all time must be said to have
been always in the Father; for no time can be assigned to Him who is
before all time. And He is always in the Father, unless the Father be
not always Father, only that the Father also precedes Him — in
a certain sense — since it is necessary — in some degree — that
He should be before He is Father. Because it is essential that
He who knows no beginning must go before Him who has a
beginning; even as He is the less as knowing that He is in Him,
having an origin because He is born, and of like nature with the
Father in some measure by His nativity, although He has a beginning in that He
is born, inasmuch as He is born of that Father who alone has no beginning.
He, then, when the Father willed it, proceeded from the Father, and He who
was in the Father came forth from the Father; and He who was in the Father
because He was of the Father, was subsequently with the Father,
because He came forth from the Father — that is to say, that
divine substance whose name is the Word, whereby all things were
made, and without whom nothing was made. For all things are after Him, because
they are by Him. And reasonably, He is before all things, but after
the Father, since all things were made by Him, and He proceeded from Him
of whose will all things were made.
Assuredly God proceeding
from God, causing a person second to the Father as
being the Son, but not taking from the Father that characteristic that He
is one God. For if He had not been born — compared with Him who was
unborn, an equality being manifested in both — He would make two unborn beings,
and thus would make two Gods. If He had not been begotten — compared with Him
who was not begotten, and as being found equal — they not being begotten,
would have reasonably given two Gods, and thus Christ would have been
the cause of two Gods. Had He been formed without beginning as
the Father, and He Himself the beginning of all things as is
the Father, this would have made two beginnings, and consequently would
have shown to us two Gods also. Or if He also were not the Son, but the
Father begetting from Himself another Son, reasonably, as compared with
the Father, and designated as great as He, He would
have caused two Fathers, and thus also He would
have proved the existence of two Gods. Had He been
invisible, as compared with the Invisible, and declared equal, He would
have shown forth two Invisibles, and thus also He would have proved them
to be two Gods. If incomprehensible, if also whatever
other attributes belong to the Father, reasonably we say, He
would have given rise to the allegation of two Gods, as these people
feign. But now, whatever He is, He is not of Himself, because He is not unborn;
but He is of the Father, because He is begotten, whether as being
the Word, whether as being the Power, or as being the Wisdom, or as being
the Light, or as being the Son; and whatever of these He is, in that He is not
from any other source, as we have already said before, than from the Father,
owing His origin to His Father, He could not make a disagreement in the
divinity by the number of two Gods, since He gathered His beginning by being
born of Him who is one God. In which kind, being both as well
only-begotten as first-begotten of Him who has no beginning, He is
the only one, of all things both Source and Head. And therefore He
declared that God is one, in that He proved Him to be from
no source nor beginning, but rather the beginning and source of all things.
Moreover, the Son does nothing of His own will, nor does anything of His
own determination; nor does He come from Himself, but obeys all His
Father's commands and precepts; so that, although birth proves Him to be a
Son, yet obedience even to death declares Him
the minister of the will of His Father, of whom He is. Thus
making Himself obedient to His Father in all things, although He also
is God, yet He shows the one God the Father by
His obedience, from whom also He drew His beginning. And thus He could not
make two Gods, because He did not make two beginnings, seeing that from Him who
has no beginning He received the source of His nativity before
all time. For since that is the beginning to other creatures which is
unborn — which God the Father only is, being beyond a beginning of
whom He is who was born — while He who is born of Him reasonably comes from Him
who has no beginning, proving that to be the beginning from which He
Himself is, even although He is God who is born, yet He shows Him to
be one God whom He who was born proved to be without a
beginning. He therefore is God, but begotten for this special result, that
He should be God. He is also the Lord, but born for this very purpose
of the Father, that He might be Lord. He is also an Angel, but
He was destined of the Father as an Angel to announce the
Great Counsel of God. And His divinity is thus declared, that it may not
appear by any dissonance or inequality of divinity to have caused two
Gods. For all things being subjected to Him as the Son by the Father,
while He Himself, with those things which are subjected to Him, is subjected to
His Father, He is indeed proved to be Son of His Father; but He is
found to be both Lord and God of all else. Whence, while
all things put under Him are delivered to Him who is God, and all things
are subjected to Him, the Son refers all that He has received to
the Father, remits again to the Father the whole authority of His
divinity. The true and eternal Father is manifested as the
one God, from whom alone this power of divinity is sent forth, and also
given and directed upon the Son, and is again returned by
the communion of substance to the
Father. God indeed is shown as the Son, to whom the divinity is
beheld to be given and extended. And still, nevertheless, the Father
is proved to be one God; while by degrees in reciprocal transfer
that majesty and divinity are again returned and reflected as sent by the Son
Himself to the Father, who had given them; so that reasonably God the
Father is God of all, and the source also of His Son Himself whom He
begot as Lord. Moreover, the Son is God of all else,
because God the Father put before all Him whom He begot. Thus the Mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus,
having the power of every creature subjected to Him by His own Father, inasmuch
as He is God; with every creature subdued to Him, found at one with His
Father God, has, by abiding in that condition that He moreover was heard, briefly proved God His
Father to be one and only and true God.
It’s difficult to summarize what is quite an articulate
summary in itself, much more in a writer who was without much historic
precedent for the doctrine. But to summarize anyway, Scripture manifests the
Father to be the “one and only and true God” for the following reasons: the
Father is the sole individual without a beginning in either a logical or
chronological sense. He is the source of the Son who is immanently subject or
subordinate to Him; that is, the Father has given the Son all He is and has,
including divinity - the Son is from the Father, not from Himself. Therefore, He
does nothing of His own will or determination but rather obeys the
will, commands, and precepts of His Father. That which the Son is and does
redounds to the Father whose majesty, greatness, and power is incomparable. Thus:
“God proceeding from God, causing a person second
to the Father as being the Son, but not taking from the Father that
characteristic that He is one God.” And though He does not receive His
Fathers’ properties of invisibility, beginning, etc., yet the Son is God, for
He is eternally in and with His Father as the divine and begotten Son. He is
logically caused, not chronologically, and in all this Novatian anticipates the
arguments of Arius and his followers.
Is Novatian correct in all aspects? Undoubtedly not. And what questionable language he used must be understood in its original context, not read into from our own. But his
Trinitarian peers recognized this to certainly be a first-class treatise of the time, and even now Novatian’s understanding far surpasses that of most Christians. Can
it be imagined that so ardent an admirer of the man who was the first to call the
“Trinity” by name and so remarkable an expositor of Scripture was really a closet
Unitarian? If not, then who can deny that Trinitarianism is perfectly compatible
with the subordination of the Son and monarchy of the Father in the immanent
Trinity?
13 comments:
Great article and summary Ryan! I intend to come up with some good analysis that focus on Justin and Ireneaus, they teach the same fundamental doctrine. I have briefly made some quotes on Clark Forum on Facebook, but Sean is again ignoring all these historical facts and keep making assessment that is so contrary to history.
Well, he is having a rough time explaining Athanasius' thoughts on his blog, so that doesn't surprise me.
Sean always mispresent the things we said. I expressed to him my assessment about a possible shift from early Athanasius to post-exile Athanasius from the old view to a somewhat ambigous view which can possibly be understood as numerical unity.
He then twisted my word, as if I said, Athanasius always teaches the same thing as Sean does, this is something so contrary to the general teaching of Athanasius. In his blog, the latest response he posted to refute you, is the passage contains the phrase "one essence from one essence"
Looking forward for your coming post on Part III.
P.S. if you can, try to locate Basil's Letter 300, Whiston's account indicated Basil said the following in 300th letter (I am quoting on memory):"One thing cannot be consubstantial with itself, it has to be two things to be consubstantial with each other."
The only thing I can find that sounds close to that is in what is regarded as spurious correspondence between Basil and Apollinarius, the relevant parts of which can be read on pgs. 337-341 here. Basil allegedly asks Apollinarius what "substance" and "consubstantial" mean in regards to how to apply them to the Son and Father, and Apollinarius replies:
"Substance is called one not in number alone, as you say, and as to its being confined to a single sphere, but also in a special manner, as when two men and any other person are united by class; so that in this sense both two and more are the same in substance, just as all we men are Adam, being one, and David is the son of David, as being the same as David his father; just as you rightly say that the Son is the same in substance as the Father. For not otherwise would the Son be God, since God the Father is confessed as one and only; just as, no doubt, there is both one Adam, the first of the human race, and one David, the first of a race of kings."
Does that sound like what you read? If so, it's Apollinarius, not Basil, who would have written it, and even that is questionable.
Ryan,
I have vouched a lots of Whiston's patristic quotations, so far I found no problem and I highly trust his honesty and character.
That is not what he quoted, he said it is in the 300th letter of Basil and my quote from memory is very close to the original.
Ryan: This is Miss Mary from The Fighting Fundamental Forums (remember me and Objective Truth?) I was wondering if you are on face book? And is there a way I can share your articles on face book? I used to have your email but lost, that is why I am asking you here.
Mary Elizabeth Palshan
Sure. How are you? I believe I'm the only Ryan Hedrich on facebook.
To share a post, I believe all you have to do is paste the link of the particular blog post to your status, wait for the image to show, erase the link (or you can leave it), type whatever else you want to say about it, and then post. That's it.
Ryan: I will friend you on FB. I have some things to ask you about by PM. It is so good to see you again. I also see you follow Helms Deep--awesome blog!
See you on FB. :)
Hi Ryan,
Tried to send you an email via your blog profile, but it was returned as undeliverable. Could you forward me your email, or reply online?
Thanks!
Veritas Christos et Ecclesiae
veritaschristos@gmaildotcom
It seems clear here that Novatian was a Unitarian, if I'm reading this correctly. It also seems clear that he believed there was a time when Jesus did not exist (as a person). One thing which seems ambiguous at times is the use of the word "God." It seems that he is calling Jesus "God" to mean that Jesus has divinity which is borrowed from God, not that he is the same God as the Father. It seems to be that he believed Jesus and the Father to be 2 persons and in fact also 2 separate beings, with Jesus deriving his nature from the Father and consequently also being finite, visible, and not the one true God. Thus, he seems to indicate that the Father is the one true God, but Jesus has divinity as well and therefore can also be called "God" due to being divine and having an origin directly from God. Then again..."it seems" was used a lot there in my comment...
The reason why it can only be said to "seem" Novatian is saying different things is that several statements he makes can be interpreted in different ways. Clearly, it is different from current mainstream Reformed formulations - to what extent is difficult to say.
From the few posts I've read I haven't gotten a clear picture of what kind of Christology and Trinitology (Trinitology?) you hold to. Do you adhere to a belief that "God" is 3 persons in 1 being? (In this case, I think it's definitely necessary to define what you mean by the word "God." Is God an essence? A being? A person? 3 persons? Do you mind to give a brief explanation or just post a link to a post where you've already explained your views? Thanks and take care.
I haven't written anything on Trinitarianism in a while because I am rechecking my views. But as to what they have been, see these two posts:
http://unapologetica.blogspot.com/2012/09/drake-sheltons-triadology-summary.html
http://unapologetica.blogspot.com/2013/02/behind-closed-doors.html
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