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having, to be known after the Son and with Him and to subsist from the Father. But the Son, knowing the Spirit who proceeds from the Father through Himself and with Himself, alone uniquely shining forth from the unbegotten light, has no communion with the Father or the Holy Spirit according to the particularity of the properties».
Do you see how the Holy Spirit stands in relation to both the Father and the Son, and what are the properties of the Son and of the Spirit? «Therefore He makes known to us», he says, «and manifests the Holy Spirit, through Himself and with Himself, the only-begotten Son of God, but He does not cause Him to proceed, so that He may not have communion in the particular property with the Father. For, he says, the Holy Spirit has His being as dependent on the cause of the Father, which is a property of the Father alone: «For all things», says the Theologian, «that the Father has, belong to the Son, except for causality». Who, then, from all time among the inspired theologians has been heard to assign the properties of each of the three persons of the one divinity to two, rather than keeping them unconfused? That causing to proceed is a property of the Father is clear: For, he says, (p. 142) the Spirit is dependent on His cause, whence He also proceeds, from whom He also has His subsistence; even if He is known after the Son and with Him.
Since the common properties in the most high and adorable Trinity exist equally in those to whom they are common, but being from the Father, according to the Latins, does not belong equally to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, for the one is begotten immediately from Him and from the Father alone, while the other proceeds mediately and not immediately, and not from the Father alone as they indeed think - if therefore according to them it does not belong equally, then being from the Father is not common to the Son and the Spirit; and if this is not common to them, then neither of them is from the Father at all. For whichever one exists from the Father, the other is excluded for not sharing, and both through each other. Thus you who think in the Latin way would escape none of the absurdities, just as neither would those who say the Son is from the Spirit, but by whatever arguments you attempt to escape, they too will use the same arguments and will prove to you through themselves that the swarm of absurdities is inescapable.
For if you will say that the Spirit is spoken of as numbered after the Son, which seems to you the most secure of arguments, though I would say it is no less fallacious than the others, they too will show you the Son, is He not spoken of after the Spirit, that is, with the Holy Spirit numbered before Him. But we, with the truth, will respond to both, saying, O you men, things do not lie in the order of names.
For if this were so, what prevents, by the same logic of co-enumeration and pre-enumeration being interchanged in Holy Scripture, that at one time they beget and project, and at another the same ones are begotten and projected? For neither do we call the Father a preliminary, (p. 144) or first cause in respect to the Spirit, as you do, and the Son second, even if the Father is called these things because He is the creative cause. And being so called from that, He is sometimes so named by theologians even when speaking about the uncreated things, just as He is also called Father because of the Son. But sometimes, when speaking about the things below, we name Him thus: for we do not worship the Father as first God, the Son as second, and the Holy Spirit as third, so that we always speak of the second after the first and the third after that, bringing under order by necessity things that are above order, just as all other things are.
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ἔχον, τό μετά τόν Υἱόν καί σύν αὐτῷ γνωρίζεσθαι καί ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός ὑφεστάναι. Ὁ δέ Υἱός τό ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός ἐκπορευόμενον Πνεῦμα δι᾿ ἑαυτόῦ καί μεθ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ γνωρίζων, μόνος μονογενῶς ἐκ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου φωτός ἐκλάμψας, οὐδεμίαν κατά τό ἰδιάζον τῶν γνωρισμάτων τήν κοινωνίαν ἔχει πρός τόν Πατέρα ἤ τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον».
Ὁρᾷς ὅπως ἔχει πρός τε τόν Πατέρα καί τόν Υἱόν τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον καί τίνα Υἱοῦ καί Πνεύματος τά γνωρίσματα; «Γνωρίζει τοίνυν ἡμῖν», φησί, «καί φανεροῖ τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον, δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ καί μεθ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ μονογενής Υἱός, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί καί ἐκπορεύει, ἵνα μή κοινωνίαν ἔχῃ κατά τό ἰδιάζον τῷ Πατρί. Τῆς γάρ τοῦ Πατρός, φησίν, αἰτίας ἐξημμένον ἔχει τό εἶναι τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον, ἥτις ἰδιότης μόνου τοῦ Πατρός ἐστι˙ «Πάντα γάρ», φησίν ὁ θεολόγος, «ὅσα ἔχει ὁ Πατήρ, τοῦ Υἱοῦ ἐστιν, ἄνευ τῆς αἰτίας». Τίς οὖν ἐκ τοῦ παντός αἰῶνος τῶν ἐνθέων θεολόγων τά ἴδια ἑκάστου τῶν τριῶν τῆς μιᾶς θεότητος προσώπων τοῖς δυσίν ἤκουσται προσνείμας, ἀλλά μή ἀσύγχυτα φυλάξας; Ὅτι δέ τοῦ Πατρός ἴδιον τό ἐκπορεύειν δῆλον˙ Τῆς γάρ αὐτοῦ, (σελ. 142) φησίν, αἰτίας ἐξῆπται τό Πνεῦμα, ὅθεν καί ἐκπορεύεται, παρ᾿ οὗ καί ὑφέστηκεν˙ εἰ καί μετά τόν Υἱόν καί σύν αὐτῷ γνωρίζεται.
Ἐπεί δέ τά κοινά ἐπί τῆς ἀνωτάτω καί προσκυνητῆς Τριάδος ἐπίστης ἔνεστιν, οἷς ἐστι κοινά, τό δέ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός εἶναι κατά τούς Λατίνους οὐκ ἐπίσης πρόσεστι τῷ Υἱῷ καί τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, ὁ μέν γάρ προσεχῶς ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγέννηται καί ἐκ μόνου τοῦ Πατρός, τό δέ ἐμμέσως καί οὐ προσεχῶς ἐκπορεύεται καί οὐκ ἐκ μόνου τοῦ Πατρός ὥς γε αὐτοί φρονοῦσιν - εἰ οὖν κατ᾿ αὐτούς οὐκ ἐπίσης πρόσεστιν, οὐδέ κοινόν Υἱῷ καί Πνεύματι τό εἶναι ἐκ Πατρός˙ εἰ δέ μή κοινόν τοῦτ᾿ἔστιν αὐτοῖς, οὐδ᾿ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός ὅλως οὐδέτερον αὐτῶν. Θάτερον γάρ ὁποιονοῦν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός ὑπάρχον, θάτερον ἐκβάλλεται μή κοινωνοῦν, καί δι᾿ ἀλλήλων ἀμφότερα. Οὕτως οὐδέν ἄν διαφύγοις τῶν ἀτόπων ὁ λατινικῶς φρονῶν, ὥσπερ οὐδ᾿ οἱ ἐκ τοῦ Πνεύματος εἰπόντες τόν Υἱόν, ἀλλ᾿ οἷς ἄν ἐπιχειρήσῃς διαφεύγειν, τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐπιχειρήμασι κἀκεῖνοι χρήσονται καί σοι δι᾿ ἑαυτῶν ἄφυκτον ἀποδείξουσι τόν τῶν ἀτόπων ἑσμόν.
Εἰ γάρ ὅτι μετά τόν Υἱόν λέγεται τό Πνεῦμα ὑπαριθμούμενον ἐρεῖς, ὅ σοι δοκεῖ τῶν ἐπιχειρημάτων ἀσφαλέστερον, ὡς ἔγωγ᾿ ἄν φαίην οὐχ ἧττον τῶν ἄλλων σφαλερόν, κἀκεῖνοί σοι τόν Υἱόν δείξουσιν, ἔστιν οὐ λεγόμενον μετά τό Πνεῦμα, προαριθμουμένου δηλαδή τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος. Ἀμφοτέροις δέ ἡμεῖς μετά τῆς ἀληθείας ἀντεροῦμεν λέγοντες, οὐκ ἐν τῇ τάξει τῶν ὀνομάτων, ὦ οὗτοι, κεῖνται τά πράγματα.
Εἰ γάρ τοῦτο, τί κωλύει κατά τόν αὐτόν λόγον τῆς συναριθμήσεώς τε καί προαριθμήσεως ἐπαλαττομένης παρά τῇ θείᾳ Γραφῇ, ποτέ μέν γεννᾶν τε καί προβάλλειν, ποτέ δέ τά αὐτά γεννᾶσθαί τε καί προβάλλεσθαι; Οὐδέ γάρ προκαταρκτικόν , (σελ. 144) οὐδέ πρῶτον αἴτιον ἐπί τοῦ Πνεύματος, ὡς ὑμεῖς, τόν Πατέρα λέγομεν, δεύτερον δέ τόν Υἱόν, εἰ καί διά τό δημιουργικόν αἴτιον ταῦτα καλεῖται ὁ Πατήρ. Κἀκεῖθεν οὕτω κεκλημένος, ἔσθ᾿ ὅτε παρά τῶν θεολόγων οὕτως ὀνομάζεται καί περί τῶν ἀκτίστων τόν λόγον ποιουμένων, ὥσπερ καί Πατήρ διά τόν Υἱόν καλεῖται. Ἀλλ᾿ ἔσθ᾿ ὅτε καί περί τῶν κάτω ποιούμενοι τούς λόγους, οὕτω τοῦτον ὀνομάζομεν˙ οὐδέ γάρ πρῶτον μέν Θεόν τόν Πατέρα σέβομεν, δεύτερον δέ τόν Υἱόν, τρίτον δέ τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον, ἵν᾿ ἀεί τό δεύτερον μετά τό πρῶτον λέγωμεν καί μετ᾿ αὐτό τό τρίτον, ὑπό τάξιν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἄγοντες τά ὑπεράνω τάξεως, ὥσπερ καί τῶν ἄλλων πάντων.