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We say that the name of Christ is pre-eminently seen from eternity with regard to the Only-begotten, being led to this understanding by the very significance of the name itself. For the confession of this name contains the teaching of the Holy Trinity, each of the persons believed in being appropriately manifested in this appellation. And lest we should seem to say something of our own accord, we will set forth the words of prophecy.

“Your throne,” it says, “O God, is for ever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” For in these words, through the throne, the saying signifies rule over all; and the scepter of uprightness explains the impartiality of the judgment; and the oil of gladness represents the power of the Holy Spirit, with which God is anointed by God, that is, the Only-begotten by the Father, because he loved righteousness and hated iniquity. If, then, there was ever a time when he was not a friend of righteousness and an enemy of iniquity, it would follow that he who is said to have been anointed for this reason, because he loved righteousness and hated iniquity, had at some point not been anointed. But if he is always a friend of righteousness (for he would never hate himself, being righteousness itself), he is clearly always also seen in the anointing. Therefore, just as 3,1.221 the righteous is not unrighteous, so also Christ could never be unanointed; and he who is never unanointed is absolutely always Christ. That the one anointing is the Father, and the anointing is the Holy Spirit, everyone would agree, at least everyone whose heart is not covered with the Jewish veil.

How then does he say that we say that Christ is not from the beginning? However, because we confess that Christ exists eternally, we do not on that account think that the flesh fashioned by him was always with him; but we know the same one to be both pre-eternal and Lord, and after the passion we again confess this same one, as Peter says to the Jews that “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” We say this, not as seeing a duality of Christs and Lords in the one, but because the Only-begotten God, being God by nature and Lord of the universe and king of all creation and maker of things that are and corrector of things that have fallen, endured with much long-suffering not to reject our nature, fallen through sin, from communion with him, but to receive it again into life. And he himself is the life. For this reason, at the end of human life, when our wickedness had already increased to the highest degree, so that nothing of evil might be left unhealed, he then accepts mingling with our lowly nature, and taking the human being into himself and himself being in the human being, as he says to the disciples that “I am in you and you are in me,” what he himself was, this he also made the one who was mingled with him; and he was always most highly exalted; for this reason he also highly exalted the lowly. For surely he who is highest above all did not still need 3,1.222 to be exalted. But the Word was Christ and Lord, and this is what he who was mingled and assumed into the divinity also becomes; for he who is Lord is not appointed again to lordship, but the form of the servant becomes Lord; for this reason also “One Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things,” is said. Christ likewise who before the ages was clothed with the glory of the Spirit (for this is what the anointing signifies through symbols) and after the passion, having adorned with the same anointing the human being united to him, makes him Christ; For “Glorify me,” he says, as if he said “anoint me,” “with the glory that I had with you before the world was.” And the glory which is seen before the world and before all creation and before all ages, with which the Only-begotten God is glorified, could not be, according to our account, anything other than the glory of the Spirit; for the account of piety hands down that the Holy Trinity alone is pre-eternal.

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Χριστοῦ ὄνομα διαφερόντως φαμὲν ἐξ ἀϊδίου περὶ τὸν μονογενῆ θεωρεῖσθαι, ὑπ' αὐτῆς τῆς τοῦ ὀνόματος ἐμφάσεως πρὸς τὴν ὑπόληψιν ταύτην χειραγωγούμενοι. τῆς γὰρ ἁγίας τριάδος διδασκαλίαν περιέχει ἡ τοῦ ὀνόματος τούτου ὁμολο γία, ἑκάστου τῶν πεπιστευμένων προσώπων ἐμφαινομένου τῇ προσηγορίᾳ ταύτῃ κατὰ τὸ πρόσφορον. καὶ ὡς ἂν μὴ παρ' ἑαυτῶν λέγειν τι δοκοίημεν, τὰ τῆς προφητείας παραθησό μεθα ῥήματα.

Ὁ θρόνος σου, φησίν, ὁ θεός, εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος· ῥάβδος εὐθύτητος ἡ ῥάβδος τῆς βασιλείας σου. ἠγάπησας δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἐμίσησας ἀνομίαν· διὰ τοῦτο ἔχρισέ σε ὁ θεός, ὁ θεός σου ἔλαιον ἀγαλλιάσεως παρὰ τοὺς μετόχους σου. ἐν τούτοις γὰρ διὰ μὲν τοῦ θρόνου τὴν ἐπὶ πάντων ἀρχὴν διασημαίνει ὁ λόγος· ἡ δὲ ῥάβδος τῆς εὐθύ τητος τὸ ἀδέκαστον ἑρμηνεύει τῆς κρίσεως· τὸ δὲ τῆς ἀγαλ λιάσεως ἔλαιον τὴν τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος παρίστησι δύναμιν, ᾧ χρίεται παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ θεός, τουτέστι παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ὁ μονογενής, ἐπειδὴ ἠγάπησε δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἐμίσησεν ἀδικίαν. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἦν ποτε, ὅτε οὐκ ἦν φίλος τῆς δικαιοσύνης, ἐχθρὸς δὲ τῆς ἀδικίας, ἀκόλουθον ἦν τὸ μηδὲ κεχρῖσθαί ποτε λέγειν τὸν διὰ τοῦτο κεχρῖσθαι λεγόμενον, ὅτι ἠγάπησε δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἐμίσησεν ἀδικίαν. εἰ δὲ πάντοτε φίλος δικαιοσύνης (οὐ γὰρ ἄν ποτε ἑαυτὸν μισήσειεν, αὐτὸς δικαιοσύνη ὤν), πάντοτε δηλονότι καὶ ἐν τῷ χρίσματι θεωρεῖται. ὥσπερ οὖν 3,1.221 ὁ δίκαιος οὐκ ἄδικος, οὕτως οὐδὲ ἄχριστος ἂν εἴη ποτὲ ὁ Χριστός· ὁ δὲ μηδέποτε ἄχριστος, ἀεὶ πάντως Χριστός· ὅτι τοίνυν ὁ χρίων ἐστὶν ὁ πατήρ, τὸ δὲ χρῖσμα τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμά ἐστι, πᾶς τις ἂν σύνθοιτο ὅ γε μὴ κεκαλυμμένος τὴν καρδίαν τῷ Ἰουδαϊκῷ προκαλύμματι.

Πῶς οὖν ἡμᾶς φησι λέγειν μὴ ἐξ ἀρχῆς εἶναι τὸν Χριστόν; οὐ μήν, ἐπειδὴ Χριστὸν ἀϊδίως εἶναι ὁμολογοῦ μεν, ἤδη καὶ τὴν παρ' αὐτοῦ πλασθεῖσαν σάρκα πάντοτε περὶ αὐτὸν ἐννοοῦμεν· ἀλλ' οἴδαμεν τὸν αὐτὸν καὶ προαιώνιον [τε] καὶ κύριον καὶ μετὰ τὸ πάθος πάλιν τὸν αὐτὸν τοῦτον ὁμολογοῦμεν, καθώς φησι πρὸς τοὺς Ἰουδαίους ὁ Πέτρος ὅτι Κύριον καὶ Χριστὸν αὐτὸν ἐποίησεν ὁ θεός, τοῦτον τὸν Ἰησοῦν ὃν ὑμεῖς ἐσταυρώσατε. τοῦτο δέ φαμεν οὐχ ὡς δυάδα Χριστῶν καὶ κυρίων περὶ τὸν ἕνα βλέποντες, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τῇ φύσει θεὸς ὢν ὁ μονογενὴς θεὸς καὶ τοῦ παντὸς κύριος καὶ βασιλεὺς πάσης κτίσεως καὶ ποιητὴς τῶν ὄντων καὶ διορθωτὴς τῶν διαπεπτωκότων, ἤνεγκεν ἐν πολλῇ μακροθυμίᾳ τὸ καὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν φύσιν ἐξ ἁμαρτίας δια πεσοῦσαν μὴ ἀπώσασθαι τῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν κοινωνίας, ἀλλὰ πάλιν εἰς τὴν ζωὴν παραδέξασθαι. αὐτὸς δέ ἐστιν ἡ ζωή· διὰ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τέλει τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου βίου ἤδη τῆς κακίας ἡμῶν πρὸς τὸ ἀκρότατον αὐξηθείσης, ὡς ἂν μηδὲν ἀθερά πευτον τῆς πονηρίας ὑπολειφθείη, τότε δέχεται τὴν πρὸς τὸ ταπεινὸν ἡμῶν τῆς φύσεως ἐπιμιξίαν καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐν ἑαυτῷ λαβὼν καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ γενόμενος, καθώς φησι πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς ὅτι Ἐγὼ ἐν ὑμῖν καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐν ἐμοί, ὅπερ αὐτὸς ἦν, τοῦτο καὶ τὸν ἀνακραθέντα ἐποίησεν· αὐτὸς δὲ ἦν ἀεὶ ὑπερύψιστος· διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὸ ταπεινὸν ὑπερύψωσεν· οὐ γὰρ δὴ ὁ ὑπὲρ πᾶν ὕψιστος ἔτι τοῦ ὑψωθῆναι 3,1.222 ἐδέετο. Χριστὸς δὲ καὶ κύριος ὁ λόγος ἦν, τοῦτο καὶ ὁ ἐμμιχθείς τε καὶ ἀναληφθεὶς ἐν τῇ θεότητι γίνεται· οὐ γὰρ ὁ ὢν κύριος ἀναχειροτονεῖται πάλιν εἰς κυριότητα, ἀλλ' ἡ τοῦ δούλου μορφὴ κύριος γίνεται· διὸ καὶ Εἷς κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα, λέγεται Χριστὸς ὡσαύτως ὁ πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων τὴν δόξαν τοῦ πνεύματος περικείμενος (τοῦτο γὰρ σημαίνει διὰ συμβόλων ἡ χρῖσις) καὶ μετὰ τὸ πάθος τὸν ἑνωθέντα αὐτῷ ἄνθρωπον τῷ αὐτῷ χρίσματι καλλωπίσας Χριστὸν ποιεῖ· ∆όξασόν με γάρ, φησίν, ὡσανεὶ χρῖσον ἔλεγε, τῇ δόξῃ, ἣν εἶχον παρὰ σοὶ πρὸ τοῦ τὸν κόσμον εἶναι. ἡ δὲ προκόσμιος καὶ πρὸ πάσης κτίσεως καὶ πρὸ πάντων αἰώνων θεωρουμένη δόξα, ᾗ ὁ μονογενὴς θεὸς ἐνδοξάζεται, οὐκ ἂν ἄλλη τις εἴη κατὰ τὸν ἡμέτερον λόγον παρὰ τὴν δόξαν τοῦ πνεύματος· μόνην γὰρ προαιώνιον τὴν ἁγίαν τριάδα ὁ τῆς εὐσεβείας παραδίδωσι λόγος.