St. Dionysius, 259-268

ST. DIONYSIUS 259-268

The Trinity and the Incarnation¹

[Fragment from epistle (2) against the Tritheists and Sabellians, about the year 260]

48. (1) Now assuredly it is just to preach against those who destroy the one power which is the most sacred teaching of the Church of God, dividing and rending it into some three powers and distinct substances and three deities. For I have heard that some who preach and explain the divine word among you are teachers of this belief; yet they, so to speak, are diametrically opposed to the opinion of Sabellius.

For the latter blasphemes when he says that the Son himself is the Father and the reverse: the former indeed in a certain measure proclaim three gods, when they divide the sacred unity into three different substances altogether distinct from one another. For it is necessary that the divine Word be united to the God of all, and that the Holy Spirit abide in God and dwell in Him: and thus the divine Trinity is reduced to and gathered into one, as it were, into a certain head, that is into the omnipotent God of all. For foolish Marcion's doctrine which divides and separates the monarchy into three principles is surely diabolical; moreover, it is not of the true disciples of Christ or of those to whom the teaching of the Savior is pleasing. For these know well that the Trinity is indeed proclaimed in divine Scripture, moreover, that three gods are taught neither in the Old nor in the New Testament.

49. (2) But none the less they should be blamed who think that the Son is a work, and that the Lord was made just as one of those things which were actually created; since divine statements bear witness that He was begotten, as is proper and fitting, not created or made.

It is therefore not a trifling, but a very great irreverence to say that the Lord was made in some way. For if the Son was made, there was a time when He did not exist; and yet He always was, if He undoubtedly is, as He himself declares, in the Father [John 14:10 f.]. Moreover, and if Christ is the word, the wisdom, and the power (for the divine Scriptures teach that Christ is [John 1:14; I Cor. 1:24], as you yourselves know), surely these are the powers of God. Wherefore, if the Son was made, there was a

[Footnote continued from previous page:] that he holds the succession of PETER on which the foundations of the Church have been laid . . . is not fired with any zeal against the heretics, granting to them no scant power of grace, but the greatest, so that he says and declares positively that they through the sacrament of baptism wash away the uncleanness of the old man and forgive the old deadly sins and make sons of God by heavenly regeneration and retrieve for eternal life by the sanctification of the divine bath." [CSEL III 2, 821; ML 3, 1169 A].