Chapter 14.—The Word of God is in All Things Equal to the Father, from Whom It is.

23. The Word of God, then, the only-begotten Son of the Father, in all things like and equal to the Father, God of God, Light of Light, Wisdom of Wisdom, Essence of Essence, is altogether that which the Father is, yet is not the Father, because the one is Son, the other is Father. And hence He knows all that the Father knows; but to Him to know, as to be, is from the Father, for to know and to be is there one. And therefore, as to be is not to the Father from the Son, so neither is to know. Accordingly, as though uttering Himself, the Father begat the Word equal to Himself in all things; for He would not have uttered Himself wholly and perfectly, if there were in His Word anything more or less than in Himself. And here that is recognized in the highest sense, “Yea, yea; nay, nay.”983    Matt. v. 37 And therefore this Word is truly truth, since whatever is in that knowledge from which it is born is also in itself and whatever is not in that knowledge is not in the Word. And this Word can never have anything false, because it is unchangeable, as He is from whom it is. For “the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do.”984    John v. 19 Through power He cannot do this; nor is it infirmity, but strength, by which truth cannot be false. Therefore God the Father knows all things in Himself, knows all things in the Son; but in Himself as though Himself, in the Son as though His own Word which Word is spoken concerning all those things that are in Himself. Similarly the Son knows all things, viz. in Himself, as things which are born of those which the Father knows in Himself, and in the Father, as those of which they are born, which the Son Himself knows in Himself. The Father then, and the Son know mutually; but the one by begetting, the other by being born. And each of them sees simultaneously all things that are in their knowledge, in their wisdom, in their essence: not by parts or singly, as though by alternately looking from this side to that, and from that side to this, and again from this or that object to this or that object, so as not to be able to see some things without at the same time not seeing others; but, as I said, sees all things simultaneously, whereof there is not one that He does not always see.

24. And that word, then, of ours which has neither sound nor thought of sound, but is of that thing in seeing which we speak inwardly, and which therefore belongs to no tongue; and hence is in some sort like, in this enigma, to that Word of God which is also God; since this too is born of our knowledge, in such manner as that also is born of the knowledge of the Father: such a word, I say, of ours, which we find to be in some way like that Word, let us not be slow to consider how unlike also it is, as it may be in our power to utter it.

CAPUT XIV.

23. Verbum Dei per omnia aequale Patri de quo est. Verbum ergo Dei Patris unigenitus Filius, per omnia Patri similis et aequalis, Deus de Deo, lumen de lumine, sapientia de sapientia, essentia de essentia; est hoc omnino quod Pater, non tamen Pater; quia iste Filius, ille Pater. Ac per hoc novit omnia quae novit Pater: sed ei nosse de Patre est, sicut esse. Nosse enim et esse ibi unum est . Et ideo Patri sicut esse non est a Filio, ita nec nosse. Proinde tanquam se ipsum dicens Pater genuit Verbum sibi aequale per omnia. Non enim se ipsum integre perfecteque dixisset, si aliquid minus aut amplius esset in ejus Verbo quam in ipso. Ibi summe illud agnoscitur, Est, est; Non, non (Matth. V, 37). Et ideo Verbum hoc vere veritas est: quoniam quidquid est in ea scientia de qua genitum est, 1077 et in ipso est; quod autem in ea non est, nec in ipso est. Et falsum habere aliquid hoc Verbum nunquam potest: quia immutabiliter sic se habet, ut se habet de quo est. Non enim potest Filius a se facere quidquam, nisi quod viderit Patrem facientem (Joan. V, 19). Potenter hoc non potest, nec est infirmitas ista, sed firmitas, qua falsa esse non potest veritas. Novit itaque omnia Deus Pater in se ipso, novit in Filio: sed in se ipso tanquam se ipsum, in Filio tanquam Verbum suum, quod est de his omnibus quae sunt in se ipso. Omnia similiter novit et Filius, in se scilicet, tanquam ea quae nata sunt de iis quae Pater novit in se ipso: in Patre autem, tanquam ea de quibus nata sunt, quae ipse Filius novit in se ipso. Sciunt ergo invicem Pater et Filius: sed ille gignendo, iste nascendo. Et omnia quae sunt in eorum scientia, in eorum sapientia, in eorum essentia, unusquisque eorum simul videt; non particulatim aut singillatim, velut alternante conspectu hinc illuc, et inde huc, et rursus inde vel inde in aliud atque aliud, ut aliqua videre non possit nisi non videns alia: sed, ut dixi, simul omnia videt, quorum nullum est quod non semper videt.

24. Verbum autem nostrum illud quod non habet sonum neque cogitationem soni, sed ejus rei quam videndo intus dicimus, et ideo nullius linguae est; atque inde utcumque simile est in hoc aenigmate illi Verbo Dei, quod etiam Deus est, quoniam sic et hoc de nostra nascitur, quemadmodum et illud de scientia Patris natum est: nostrum ergo tale verbum, quod invenimus esse utcumque illi simile, quantum sit etiam dissimile sicut a nobis dici potuerit, non pigeat intueri.