De sancta trinitate DE SACROSANCTA TRINITATE LIBER

 All beings are either created or uncreated. If, then, they are created, they are also by all means changeable. For those things whose being began from

 is the Divine. And how is that which moves not also circumscribed by place? 77.1125 The Divine alone, therefore, is motionless, moving all things thro

 CHAPTER 5.

 the doctrines and of each heresy the useful part remains, from the Jewish conception, the unity of nature and from Hellenism, only the distinction i

 Whom saying to be before all ages, we show that His generation is without time and without beginning. For the Son of God was not brought from non-bein

 Man, it is clear, begets in a contrary way, being subject to generation and corruption and flux and multiplication, and being clothed in a body, and h

 And this too must be known, that the name of fatherhood and sonship and procession was not transferred from us to the blessed Godhead but on the cont

 but the mode of difference, not at all. At the same time are both the begetting of the Son from the Father, and the procession of the Holy Spirit. The

 likeness, but identity), and the one impulse of the motion. For there is one essence, one goodness, one power, one will, one energy, 77.1144 one autho

 the illumination of the ray is imparted to us, and this is what illuminates us, and is participated in by us. But the Son we call neither of the Spiri

 we accomplish most honorable things by our own hands. By right hand, His aid in favorable circumstances, from the fact that we too use the right han

 This Son and Word of God the Father, through whom the Father created all creation, as through his own wisdom and power (for he is the wisdom and power

 sinning is of the will, or it also comes upon us against our will from inattention. Rather, even inattention itself is a sin, or at least the beginnin

 He slept, He conversed, just as we do, but was in every way without sin. This is beyond us. For who among us could be found entirely blameless in thin

 wills in Christ and willing according to both wills, and working according to both energies, is one and the same God-man not divided into God specif

 Principal will, the willing, which is natural will, as has been shown. Will is also said of the thing willed which in humans is hypostatic, not the s

 CHAPTER 22.

 he was conversant with and, The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works and, Therefore your God has anointed you with the oil of gla

 Of these things said of Christ in a human manner, whether in words or in deeds, there are six modes. For some of them were done and said according to

 of the consummation of the age and such like things. For as God, He is with us. But the things befitting His humanity, as, They took hold of His feet

 identity, and their mutual indwelling. In this sense we can say of Christ: This our God was seen upon the earth, and dwelt among men and, This man is

Whom saying to be before all ages, we show that His generation is without time and without beginning. For the Son of God was not brought from non-being into being, the radiance of glory, the character of the Father's hypostasis, the living wisdom and power, the Word in-hypostasis, the essential and perfect and living image of the invisible God; but He was always with the Father and in Him, eternally and without beginning begotten of Him. For the Father never was, when the Son was not 77.1133; but at the same time Father, at the same time Son, who was begotten of Him; for a Father without a Son would not be called so. And if He was without having a Son, He was not a Father; and if after these things He had a Son, after these things He became a Father, not being a Father before this, and He was changed from not being a Father into becoming a Father; which is more grievous than any blasphemy. For it is impossible to say that God is bereft of His natural fruitfulness. And fruitfulness is to beget from oneself, that is, from one's own essence, one who is like in nature. Therefore, concerning the generation of God, it is impious to say that time intervened, or that the existence of the Son came to be after the Father. For from Him, that is, from the nature of the Father, we say is the generation of the Son. And if we do not grant from the beginning that the Son co-exists with the Father, begotten of Him, we introduce a change in the Father's hypostasis; because not being a Father, He later became a Father. For creation, even if it came to be after these things, yet it is not from the essence of God, but was brought from non-being into being by His will and power; and a change does not touch the nature of God. For generation is the bringing forth of the one begotten from the essence of the begetter, like in essence; but creation and making is the coming to be of that which is created and made from without, and not from the essence of the creator and maker, being altogether unlike in essence. Therefore, in the case of the only impassible and unalterable and unchanging God who is always the same, both begetting and creating are without passion. For being by nature impassible and without flux, as simple and uncompounded, it is not His nature to undergo passion or flux either in begetting or in creating; nor does He need any co-operation. But generation, being without beginning and eternal, is a work of nature, and proceeds from His essence, so that the begetter might not undergo change, and so that there might not be a first God and a later God, and that He might not receive an addition; but creation, being in God a work of will, is not co-eternal with God; since it is not the nature of that which is brought from non-being into being to be co-eternal with the one who is without beginning and always existing. Just as, therefore, man and God do not create in the same way (for man brings nothing from non-being into being; but what he makes, he makes from pre-existing matter, not only by willing, but also by forethinking, and forming in his mind an image of what is to be, and then also by working with his hands and undergoing toil and labor, and often even failing, the undertaking not turning out as he wishes; but God, by only willing, brought all things from non-being into being); so also God and man do not beget in the same way. For God, being timeless and without beginning and impassible and without flux and bodiless and alone without end, begets timelessly and without beginning and impassibly and without flux, and without union. And His incomprehensible generation has neither beginning nor end. And without beginning, because of His immutability; without flux, because of His impassibility and bodilessness. Without union, both because He is again bodiless and because He is the one 77.1136 only God, in need of no other; and without end and without ceasing, because He is without beginning and timeless, and without end, and always the same. For that which is without beginning is without end; but that which is without end by grace is not in every case without beginning, like the angels. Therefore the ever-existing God begets His own Word, who is perfect, without beginning and without end, so that God, who has a nature and existence superior to time, might not beget in time; but the

Ὃν πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων λέγοντες, δείκνυμεν ὅτι ἄχρονος καὶ ἄναρχος αὐτοῦ ἡ γέννησις. Οὐ γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι παρήχθη ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, τὸ ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης, ὁ χαρακτὴρ τῆς τοῦ Πατρὸς ὑποστάσεως, ἡ ζῶσα σοφία καὶ δύναμις, ὁ Λόγος ὁ ἐνυπόστατος, ἡ οὐσιώδης καὶ τελεία καὶ ζῶσα εἰκὼν τοῦ ἀοράτου Θεοῦ· ἀλλὰ ἀεὶ ἦν σὺν τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ ἀϊδίως καὶ ἀνάρχως ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννημένος. Οὐ γὰρ ἦν ποτε ὁ Πατὴρ, ὅτε οὐκ ἦν 77.1133 ὁ Υἱός· ἀλλ' ἅμα Πατὴρ, ἅμα Υἱὸς ὁ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννημένος· Πατὴρ γὰρ ἐκτὸς Υἱοῦ οὐκ ἃν κληθείη. Εἰ δὲ ἦν μὴ ἔχων Υἱὸν, οὐκ ἦν Πατήρ· καὶ εἰ μετὰ ταῦτα ἔσχεν Υἱὸν, μετὰ ταῦτα ἐγένετο Πατὴρ μὴ ὢν πρὸ τούτου Πατὴρ, καὶ ἐτράπη ἐκ τοῦ μὴ εἶναι Πατὴρ εἰς τὸ γενέσθαι Πατήρ· ὅπερ πάσης βλασφημίας ἐστὶ χαλεπώτερον. Ἀδύνατον γὰρ τὸν Θεὸν εἰπεῖν ἔρημον τῆς φυσικῆς γονιμότητος. Ἡ δὲ γονιμότης, τὸ ἐξ αὑτοῦ, ἤγουν ἐκ τῆς ἰδίας οὐσίας, ὅμοιον κατὰ φύσιν γεννᾷν. Ἐπὶ μὲν οὖν τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ γεννήσεως ἀσεβὲς λέγειν χρόνον μεσιτεῦσαι, ἢ μετὰ τὸν Πατέρα τὴν τοῦ Υἱοῦ γενέσθαι ὕπαρξιν. Ἐξ αὐτοῦ γὰρ, ἤγουν τῆς τοῦ Πατρὸς φύσεώς φαμεν τὴν τοῦ Υἱοῦ γέννησιν. Καὶ εἰ μὴ ἐξ ἀρχῆς δῶμεν τὸν Υἱὸν συνυπάρχειν τῷ Πατρὶ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννημένον, τροπὴν τῆς τοῦ Πατρὸς ὑποστάσεως παρεισάγομεν· ὅτι μὴ ὢν Πατὴρ, ὕστερον ἐγένετο Πατήρ. Ἡ γὰρ κτίσις, εἰ καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα γέγονεν, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐκ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐσίας, ἐκ δὲ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι βουλήσει καὶ δυνάμει αὐτοῦ παρήχθη· καὶ οὐχ ἅπτεται τροπὴ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ φύσεως. Γέννησις μὲν γάρ ἐστι, τὸ ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ γεννῶντος προ[σ]άγεσθαι τὸ γεννώμενον, ὅμοιον κατ' οὐσίαν· κτίσις δὲ καὶ ποίησις, τὸ ἔξωθεν, καὶ οὐκ ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ κτίζοντος καὶ ποιοῦντος γίνεσθαι τὸ κτιζόμενον καὶ ποιούμενον, ἀνόμοιον παντελῶς κατ' οὐσίαν. Ἐπὶ μὲν οὖν τοῦ μόνου ἀπαθοῦς καὶ ἀναλλοιώτου καὶ ἀτρέπτου καὶ ἀεὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχοντος Θεοῦ, καὶ τὸ γεννᾷν καὶ τὸ κτίζειν ἀπαθές. Φύσει γὰρ ὢν ἀπαθὴς καὶ ἄῤῥευστος, ὡς ἁπλοῦς καὶ ἀσύνθετος, οὐ πέφυκεν ὑπομένειν πάθος ἢ ῥεῦσιν οὔτε ἐν τῷ γεννᾷν, οὔτε ἐν τῷ κτίζειν· οὐδέ τινος συνεργείας δεῖται. Ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν γέννησις, ἄναρχος καὶ ἀΐδιος, φύσεως ἔργον οὖσα, καὶ ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας αὐτοῦ προάγουσα, ἵνα τροπὴν ὁ γεννῶν μὴ ὑπομείνῃ, καὶ ἵνα μὴ Θεὸς πρῶτος, καὶ Θεὸς ὕστερος εἴη, καὶ προσθήκην δέξηται· ἡ δὲ κτίσις ἐπὶ Θεοῦ θελήσεως ἔργον οὖσα, οὐ συναΐδιός ἐστι τῷ Θεῷ· ἐπεὶ οὐ πέφυκε τὸ ἐκ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι παραγόμενον, συναΐδιον εἶναι τῷ ἀνάρχῳ καὶ ἀεὶ ὄντι. Ὥσπερ τοίνυν οὐχ ὁμοίως ποιεῖ ἄνθρωπος καὶ Θεὸς (ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἄνθρωπος οὐδὲν ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι παράγει· ἀλλ' ὅπερ ποιεῖ, ἐκ προϋποκειμένης ὕλης ποιεῖ, οὐ θελήσας μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ προεπινοήσας, καὶ ἐν τῷ νῷ ἀνατυπώσας τὸ γενησόμενον, εἶτα καὶ χερσὶν ἐργασάμενος καὶ κόπον ὑπομείνας καὶ κάματον, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ἀστοχήσας, μὴ ἀποβάντος καθὰ βούλεται τοῦ ἐπιτηδεύματος· ὁ δὲ Θεὸς, θελήσας μόνον, ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι τὰ πάντα παρήγαγεν)· οὕτως οὐδὲ ὁμοίως γεννᾷ Θεὸς καὶ ἄνθρωπος. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ Θεὸς ἄχρονος ὢν καὶ ἄναρχος καὶ ἀπαθὴς καὶ ἄῤῥευστος καὶ ἀσώματος καὶ μόνος ἀτελεύτητος, ἀχρόνως καὶ ἀνάρχως καὶ ἀπαθῶς καὶ ἀῤῥεύστως γεννᾷ, καὶ ἐκτὸς συνδυασμοῦ. Καὶ οὔτε ἀρχὴν ἔχει ἡ ἀκατάληπτος αὐτοῦ γέννησις, οὔτε τέλος. Καὶ ἀνάρχως μὲν διὰ τὸ ἄτρεπτον· ἀῤῥεύστως δὲ, διὰ τὸ ἀπαθὲς καὶ ἀσώματον. Ἑκτὸς δὲ συνδυασμοῦ, διά τε τὸ ἀσώματον πάλιν καὶ ἕνα 77.1136 μόνον εἶναι Θεὸν ἀπροσδεῆ ἐτέρου· ἀτελευτήτως δὲ καὶ ἀκαταπαύστως, διά τε τὸ ἄναρχον καὶ ἄχρονον, καὶ ἀτελεύτητον, καὶ ἀεὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχον. Τὸ γὰρ ἄναρχον, ἀτελεύτητον· τὸ δὲ χάριτι ἀτελεύτητον, οὐ πάντως ἄναρχον, ὥσπερ οἱ ἄγγελοι. Γεννᾷ τοίνυν ὁ ἀεὶ ὢν Θεὸς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ Λόγον, τέλειον ὄντα ἀνάρχως καὶ ἀτελευτήτως, ἵνα μὴ ἐν χρόνῳ τίκτῃ Θεὸς, ὁ χρόνου ἀνωτέραν ἔχων τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὴν ὕπαρξιν· ὁ δὲ