Chapter 1 #

¹ What should be said to those who, reading in the Gospel the words: “The Father is greater than I”, interpret it in such a way that they blasphemously claim the Son is inferior in divinity?

² Response: According to the authority of all the Scriptures, there are two births in Christ. The first is from the Father, without beginning, as we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. The one who was in the beginning contains within Himself all beginning. The second birth is from the Mother, having a beginning, as we read in Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”, which is interpreted: “God with us”—that is, Majesty hidden in human frailty. As we read in the Gospel of John: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”—“among us,” that is, in the frailty of our human body.

³ On the Generation of the Virgin Mary: “And the gate was shut, and it was not opened,” as if someone were to ask why it was not opened. The answer is added: “Because the Lord passed through it”. The closed gate symbolizes the seal of modesty—the integrity of her immaculate flesh. For she, who was sanctified even more by her conception, was not violated in childbirth.

⁴ On the Twofold Nature of Christ as Both God and Man: “And the two shall become one flesh”, that is, God and man united in one Christ. The Apostle commands this to be understood of Christ and the Church, which is Christ’s body, as he says: “And the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I am speaking about Christ and the Church”.

⁵ He explains this clearly in his letter to the Romans: “The patriarchs are theirs, and from them, according to the flesh, came the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever”. Here, the Apostle affirms Christ’s human flesh but immediately declares his divine nature, calling him “God over all.” The Son’s majesty is revealed so perfectly that nothing greater could be said even of the Father. For if Christ had a beginning, he would not be “over all” but merely among all, as part of creation, which exists within the bounds of time. However, because Christ is equal to the Father, he is bound by no law of time or age.

⁶ The Apostle also preaches the twofold birth and dual nature of Christ to the Philippians, saying: “Who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant”. The books of both the Old and New Testaments are filled with these truths.

⁷ Likewise, the eminent prophet Job declares: “And in my flesh, I will see God”. This is a prophecy concerning the time when the divinity of Christ would be clothed in the form of our human flesh.

⁸ Since, as we have already said, “the Word became flesh”, it is clear that there are two united in one flesh: man and God. At times, the man speaks to the Father; at times, God speaks. At times, he is visible through his mother; at times, he is invisible through his Father. Consider the words of the man. In the Gospel, he himself says: “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”. Yet let this poor Son of Man reveal the riches of his divine glory when he says: “All that the Father has is mine”. In saying “all,” he leaves nothing out—there is nothing that he does not possess from the Father. “All” signifies the power, substance, and majesty of the one divinity.

⁹ Who would not tremble to call him lesser, when he, as the true and faithful witness, declares himself equal to the Father in every way? As the Evangelist proclaims concerning him: “For this reason, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God”. Likewise, the Apostle writes to the Philippians: “He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped”—that is, the equality of divinity, which the rebellious angel sought to seize by force, but which Christ possesses by nature.

¹⁰ Therefore, when you believe Him as He declares Himself lesser in the substance of man, also believe Him when He professes Himself equal in the substance of divinity. Let the Son of Man speak: “The Father is greater than I”. Let the Son of God speak: “I and the Father are one”. As man, He hungers; as God, with five loaves, He satisfies five thousand who hunger by the service of His creation. As man, He hangs on the cross; as God, He brings the thief from the cross into paradise with the words that proclaim His works throughout the world: “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise”.

¹¹ At the time when the Lord’s body was in the tomb, His soul was in hell (the realm of the dead), while His divinity was in paradise and in heaven, encompassing all things within Himself by the surpassing immensity of His majestic power. He is said to be lesser according to His humanity when He is seized, scourged, crucified, dies, and is buried. According to His divinity, by the power of the resurrection, He is exalted into the heavens. As man, He endures death; as God, He triumphs over death. Following this rule, at times He is poor, at times rich; at times lesser, at times equal; at times Lord, at times servant.

¹² Therefore, let Him be believed to be lesser than the Father when the Creator of angels is made a little lower than the angels, as we read in the eighth Psalm: “You have made him a little lower than the angels”. Let Him be considered lesser than the Father when He is described as having taken the form of a servant, when He is found to be younger than His mother, and when He says of Himself in the twenty-first Psalm: “They have pierced my hands and my feet; they have counted all my bones”. Thus, that He is called lesser than the Father according to the flesh and according to His humanity is declared by countless testimonies of Scripture.

¹³ Regarding His divinity, the Apostle says to Titus: “The grace of God our Saviour has appeared”, and again: “as we await the blessed hope and the appearance of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ”.

¹⁴ It is an immense sacrilege that He, whom the very truth proclaims to be the great God, should be declared lesser by the blasphemies of faithless men. For even Thomas the Apostle, in the Gospel of John, when he recognized the body of the crucified man by the marks of the nails after the resurrection, confessed by apostolic and evangelical authority the God who was hidden within the man, saying: “My Lord and my God!”.

¹⁵ If one has faith, it is clear why Christ is sometimes described as lesser and sometimes as equal to the Father in the sacred writings. As He Himself says of Himself: “I am the First and the Last”. Recognize without doubt that He who is the First cannot have any who precede Him. Likewise, “I am the Alpha and the Omega”. Just as no letter comes before Alpha, so too there is none prior to the Son of God, for He is God.

Chapter 2 #

¹ What shall we say to those who declare with reckless impiety that the Holy Spirit is a lesser god, or—what is even more blasphemous—claim that He is ministerial rather than divine?

² Response: How can He be called a creature, when He is clearly proven to be the Creator of the Lord in relation to Mary, as we read: “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary”? For Christ was conceived not from the substance of the Holy Spirit, but by His power; not by generation, but by command and blessing. And just as He was sent by the Father, so too was He sent by the Holy Spirit for the redemption of our wickedness, as the Lord Himself declares through Isaiah: “The Father sent me, and His Spirit”. If the Holy Spirit is believed to be lesser, how can the Son testify that He was sent by the Holy Spirit, just as He was sent by the Father?

³ The Holy Spirit Himself spoke through the apostles and burned with inspiration in the prophets. As the blessed Apostle Peter declares in his epistle: “No prophecy ever came by human will, but men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”.

⁴ Likewise, the Saviour says to His disciples in the Gospel of Matthew: “It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you”. Similarly, David, filled with the Holy Spirit, and the One speaking through him, proclaims clearly: “I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me”. When, therefore, the vessels of God—inebriated with the Holy Spirit—speak and declare: “Thus says the Lord God” or “The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken”, it is evident that this Lord God is indeed the Holy Spirit.

⁵ And in his letter to the Corinthians, [Paul] clearly shows that God is the Holy Spirit when he says: “You are the temple of God”. And he immediately teaches who this God is by saying: “The Holy Spirit dwells in you.” Therefore, the God of the temple and the Holy Spirit who dwells in the temple are one and the same person.

⁶ And in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter clearly affirms the divinity of the Holy Spirit when he says to Ananias: “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to men but to God”. What could be more evident? Here, Ananias is said to have made a vow to God, yet he is accused of lying to the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit were not God, the offense of sacrilegious deceit would not have been directed toward him.

⁷ Likewise, in his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle says: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? Glorify God in your body”. Indeed, they are instructed to glorify and bear God in their bodies, the very God whose temples they are said to be.

Chapter 3 #

¹ What shall we answer to those who say: “The Father must be prior, since He is named first in baptism”?

² Response: The Holy Spirit is also first, for without Him, it is not enough to name the First. Moreover, neither number nor order applies to the One who is, in the substance of the Three, one and alone.

Chapter 4 #

¹ What shall we answer to those who, with impious words, blaspheme by saying: “The Holy Spirit is not God because He has performed nothing as God”?

² Response: Let us see whether nothing of divinity appears in His works. First of all, the forgiveness of sins is not granted unless the Holy Spirit is invoked. And because sins cannot be forgiven without the Holy Spirit, we should also recognize that it is clearly stated: “No one can forgive sins except God alone”. Therefore, when you see Him as the one who restores humanity, do not doubt that He is also its Creator.

³ He himself first created man without sin, and afterward, as the Recreator, freed man from the bonds of sin together with the Father and the Son. See how the Apostle, in his letter to the Corinthians, celebrates the works and powers of the Holy Spirit, saying: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses”.

⁴ And how can we say that the Spirit is a mere minister, when He exercises the miracles of so many gifts by His own will and sovereign authority? Concerning Him, under the distinction of the Trinity, we read through the prophet: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth”.

⁵ The prophet says, “by the breath of his mouth”, not “by the work of his hands”, so that you may recognize that He proceeds from the very substance of the Father. Hence, it is said: “The Spirit who proceeds from the Father”. “By the breath of his mouth all their host” refers to the powers of the heavens—that is, the angels, dominions, thrones, and principalities—who, just as they were created by the Father and the Son, were likewise created by the Holy Spirit, as the truth proclaims.

⁶ Therefore, it would be a monstrous sacrilege to call Him a creature, whom you recognize as the Creator of the entire heavenly host. According to this, in the distinct properties of the three and the number of persons, acknowledge one power, one glory, and one nature. Otherwise, you may either deny the Son or the Holy Spirit along with the Jews and the Patripassians, who reject the three persons, or you may be found guilty, along with the pagans, of believing in three gods, thereby denying the one substance.