De Spiritu Sancto (Orat. 31)

῾Ως ἔγωγε πολλὰ διασκεψάμενος πρὸς ἐμαυτὸν τῇ φιλοπραγμοσύνῃ τοῦ νοῦ, καὶ πανταχόθεν τὸν λόγον εὐθύνας, καὶ ζητῶν εἰκόνα τινὰ τοῦ τοσούτου πράγματος, οὐκ ἔσχον ᾧ τινὶ χρὴ τῶν κάτω τὴν θείαν φύσιν παραβαλεῖν. κἂν γὰρ μικρά τις ὁμοίωσις εὑρεθῇ, φεύγει τὸ πλεῖον, ἀφέν με κάτω μετὰ τοῦ ὑποδείγματος. ὀφθαλμόν [*](1 ἔπι] ἐκ ‘Reg. Cypr.’ || 5 μὴ] + τα be2 || 7 παραδειχθωσιν ‘Reg. Cypr.’ || 9 τὸ μεν...το ’δε] τὼ μεν...τω ’δε ‘tres Colb.’ 31. 10 om πρὸς εμαιυτον ‘Reg. a’ || 12 om του d || 13 παραβαλεῖν] παραλαβεῖν b || 14 om γὰρ b || φεύγει] + με cdfg || 15 πλεῖον] πλέον cde2f || om με df) [*](1. ἔμψυχοι] ‘vivid,’ ‘striking.’) [*](ib. τὰς ἐπὶ τῶν ῥ. μ.] ‘the texts in so many words.’ In § 29 they for the most part only given allusively. What Gr. means by ἐπὶ τῶν ῥ may be seen in iii 17.) [*](2. ὅσα δὲ κἀνταῦθα] i.e. as well as in the case of the Son. See iii 18.) [*](3. δίδοσθαι] e.g. Luke xi 13 ἀποστ., Luke xxiv 49, Gal. iv 6 μερίς., Heb. ii 4; χάρισμα, 2 Tim. i 6; δώρημα (δωρεά), John iv 10, Acts viii 20; ἐμφύς., John xx 22; ἐπαγγ. Luke xxiv 49, Acts i 4 ; ὑπερέντευξις (cp. iv 14), Rom. viii 26.) [*](6. ἀνενεκτέον] from ἀναφέρω, ‘must be referred to the primal Cause, in order that it may be shewn from whom He proceeds.’) [*](7. παραδεχθῶσιν] the correlative to παραδίδοσθαι ; ‘that men might not receive the polytheistic doctrine of three separate Sources, or First Principles.’) [*](9. τὸ μὲν τῷ προσώπῳ] lit. ‘it counts for the same in impiety, whether you join like Sabellius, or disjoin like the Arians, — the former in the person, the latter in the natures.’ Gr. seems instinctively to say τῷ προσώπῳ, not τοῖς προσώποις, because Sabellianism reduces the persons to one, — if indeed any personality can be said to remain.) [*](31. Illustrations of the doctrine of the Trinity are wholly inadequate ; like mouth, spring, and stream.) [*](10. ὡς ἔγ. π.] ‘How many things!’) [*](11. πανταχόθεν] Cp. πολυπρ. ii 9.) [*](ib. πανταχόθεν] where the English mode of thought would have expected πανταχόσε.) [*](13. ᾦ τινὶ χρὴ τῶν κ.] ‘to what earthly thing I might compare.’) [*](14. τὸ πλεῖον] ‘the the most improtant part escapes me, leaving me below with my illustration.’) [*](15. ὀφθαλμόν] The context makes it unquestionable that Elias is right in interpreting the word to mean what is called ὀπή in James iii 11, — the ‘mouth’ out of which the spring issues. No other example of this usage seems to be known; but Gr.’s own language in his poem about the Holy Ghost (iii 60) leaves no room for doubt. He there rejects the same comparison of πόρος, πηγή, ποταμὸς μέγας, ἐν τε ῥέεθρον. It is just possible that Gr. was aware that an ‘eye’ is the ordinary word in Hebrew for a spring; but in any case the metaphor is so natural that it is prob. an accident that we do not find it oftener.)

τινα, καὶ πηγήν, καὶ ποταμὸν ἐνενόησα, καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἄλλοι, μὴ τῷ μὲν ὁ πατήρ, τῇ δὲ ὁ υἱός, τῷ δὲ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἀναλόγως ἔχη. ταῦτα γὰρ οὔτε χρόνῳ διέστηκεν, οὔτε ἀλλήλων ἀπέρρηκται τῇ συνεχείᾳ· κἂν δοκεῖ πὼς τρισὶν ἰδιότησι τέμνεσθαι. ἀλλ’ ἔδεισα, πρῶτον μὲν ῥύσιν τινὰ θεότητος παραδέξασθαι στάσιν οὐκ ἔχουσαν· δεύτερον δὲ μὴ τὸ ἓν τῷ ἀριθμῷ διὰ τῆς εἰκασίας ταύτης εἰσάγηται. ὀφθαλμὸς γάρ, καὶ πηγή, καὶ ποταμὸς ἕν ἐστιν ἀριθμῷ, διαφόρως σχηματιζόμενα.

Πάλιν ἥλιον ἐνεθυμήθην, καὶ ἀκτῖνα, καὶ φῶς. ἁλλὰ κἀνταῦθα δέος, πρῶτον μὲν μὴ σύνθεσίς τις ἐπινοῆται τῆς ἀσυνθέτου φύσεως, ὥσπερ ἡλίου καὶ τῶν ἐν ἡλίῳ· [*](1 καὶ αλλοι] om καὶ d1 ‘Or. Ι’ || 2 τῆ ’δε] τὼ ’δε de || 3 ἄη] ἔχει b ‘Reg. a et b’ || 4 κὰν] καὶ g || δοκει] δοκὴ b ‘Reg. a’ || 5 τρισὶν] τισιν g || 8 ἀριθμῶ] τὼ ἀριθμῶ e2 32. 10 παλιν] η πάλιν ‘tres Reg.’) [*](1. καἰ γὰρ καἰ ἄλλοι] Elias suggests the Clementine passage which is given by Cotelierp. 528 (ed. 1672). Cp. Tert. adv. Prax. 8.) [*](2. μὴ τῷ μέν] ‘to to see whether.’) [*](3. ταῦτα γὰρ κτλ.] The mouth, the spring, and the stream are not divided by time, nor is their continuity with each other severed; and yet the three have eacli their special characteristics.) [*](5. ῥύσιν] ‘an incessant waste, or dissipation, of Godhead.’ as in § 30.) [*](8. ἐν ἐστιν ἀριθμῶ They are not really three distinct things, Gr. thinks ; they are only various forms or phases of the same thing, and therefore they are inadequate to express the Trinity, which is essentially three in number.) [*](32. So with sun, ray, and light ; or with the flickering sunshine reflected from water upon a wall.) [*](10. ἤλιον κτλ] Cp. Tert. adv. Prax. 8.) [*](11. κἀνταῦθα δέος] This illustration likewise had its dangers. It might have suggested that the Trinity is a Trinity by some kind of composition or combination, such as the science of Gr.’s time between the su itself and the ray and the light which were ‘in’ the sun. Cp. Or. xliv 4. And secondly there was the opposite danger of suggesting that the Father alone has true positive being, while the Son and Spirit are but faculties of His, without personal subsistence, such being in Gr.’s view the character the ray and the light.)

δεύτερον δὲ μὴ τὸν πατέρα μὲν οὐσιώσωμεν, τἄλλα δὲ μὴ ὑποστήσωμεν, ἀλλὰ δυνάμεις θεοῦ ποιήσωμεν ἐνυπαρχούσας, οὐχ ὑφεστώσας, — οὔτε γὰρ ἀκτίς, οὔτε φῶς, ἄλλος ἥλιος, ἀλλ’ ἡλιακαί τινες ἀπόρροιαι, καὶ ποιότητες οὐσιώδεις — καὶ ἅμα τὸ εἶναι καὶ τὸ μὴ εἶναι τῷ θεῷ δῶμεν ἐν τούτοις, ὅσον ἐκ τοῦ ὑποδείγματος, ὃ καὶ τῶν εἰρημένων ἀτοπώτερον. ἤκουσα δέ τινος καὶ τοιοῦτον ὑπογράφοντος λόγον, — μαρμαρυγήν τινα ἡλιακὴν τοίχῳ προσαστράπτουσαν, καὶ περιτρέμουσαν ἐξ ὑδάτων κινήσεως, ἢν ἡ ἀκτὶς [*](5 θέω] + μόνω τὼ πατρὶ ‘Reg. a’: + μόνω ‘duo Coisl.’ || 6 ειρημενων] προειρημένων ‘duo Coisl.’ || 9 η ἀκτὶς] om η cd1f) [*](2. ἐνυπαρχούσας] Existing only in Him, as attributes of His. The word is freq. in this sense in Aristtle.) [*](3. ἄλλος ἥλιος] This, ace. to Gr., would be necessary to make the illustration complete. Cp. § 14, and § 30 ἄλλον θεόν. The ray is not the equal of the luminous body which gives it off; whereas in the Trinity there is, as it were, a sun giving off a sun.) [*](4. ἡλιακαί τ. ἀπόρρ.] ‘solar effluences’; Gr. will not even ἡλίου ἀπόρρ., because it might suggest that, once flowing forth, the effluence has some kind of independent existence, whereas his point is that the ray and the light are but properties of the sun. This is further brought out by the addition καὶ ποιότ. οὖσ’. ‘and essential qualities.’ By οὐσιώδεις Gr. seems from the context to mean ’belonging to the nature of the sun.’ Elsewhere, the word is used in a way that would give an almost opposite meaning ; e.g. Or. xli 11 οὐκέτι ἐνεργείᾳ παρὸν ὡς πρότερον, οὐσιωδῶς δέ, ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις, συγγινόμενον ; Cyr. Hier. Cat. Myst. iii 1 πνεύματος ἁγίου οὐσιώδης ἐπιφοίτησις. Ace. to these examples, ποιότητες οὐσιώδεις would rather mean ‘real, substantive qualities.’ In order to suit context, we should then have to understand οὐσιώδεις to have something of a concessive force, ‘qualities after all, however real and substantive.’) [*](5. καὶ ἄμα τὸ εἶναι κτλ.] The gloss μόνῳ τῷ πατρί gives the right direction for understanding the passage: it means that if we are content with the illustration, we attribute τὸ εἶναι only to the Father, and withhold it from the Son and Spirit. Ἐν τούτοις = in the Persons so conceived of. Thus to ‘God’ (in the sense of ὅλος θεός iv 6) we should ‘attribute at the same time existence and non-existence.’) [*](7. ἤκουσα δέ τινος] ‘I once heard a man offering the following It is unknown who the man was.) [*](8. μαρμαρυγήν τινα] The illustration, tration, though attractive to the poetical imagination of Gr., is not immediately clear. It seems at first as if the trinity were the sunbeam, the water, and the wall, which combine to produce the παλμός, the dancing and quivering reflexion. The point, however, appears to lie rather in the junction of unity with multiplicity (the number three being for the moment lost sight of) displayed in the vibrations of the sunbeam.) ὑπολαβοῦσα διὰ τοῦ ἐν μέσῳ ἀέρος, εἶτα σχεθεῖσα τῷ ἀντιτύπῳ, παλμὸς ἐγένετο καὶ παράδοξος. ἄττει γὰρ πολλαῖς καὶ πυκναῖς ταῖς κινήσεσιν, οὐχ ἓν οὖσα μᾶλλον ἢ πολλά, οὐδὲ πολλὰ μᾶλλον ἢ ἕν, τῷ τάχει τῆς συνόδου καὶ τῆς διαστάσεως, πρὶν ὄψει κρατηθῆναι, διαδιδράσκουσα.

Ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ τοῦτο θέσθαι δυνατὸν ἐμοί, δι’ ἓν μέν, ὅτι τὴν μὲν τὸ κινῆσαν καὶ πάνυ δῆλον· θεοῦ δὲ οὐδὲν πρεσβύτερον, ἵν ᾖ τι τὸ τοῦτον κεκινηκός. αὐτὸς μὲν γὰρ πάντων αἰτία, αἰτίαν δὲ πρεσβυτέραν οὐκ ἔχει. δεύτερον δέ, ὅτι κἀνταῦθα τῶν αὐτῶν ὑπόνοια, συνθέσεως, χύσεως, ἀστάτου καὶ οὐ παγίας φύσεως, ὧν οὐδὲν ἐννοητέον περὶ θεότητος. καὶ ὅλως οὐδὲν ἔστιν ὅ μοι τὴν διάνοιαν ἵστησιν ἐπὶ τῶν ὑποδειγμάτων θεωροῦντι τὸ φανταζόμενον, πλὴν [*](1 σχεθεισα] χεθεισα ῾El.’ 33. 6 τουτο] τουτω ag ‘tres Colb.’ || 11 ἐννοητέον] cetera desunt in a) [*](1. ὑπολαβοῦσα] ῾assuming,’ ῾catching.’) [*](ib. διὰ τοῦ ἐν μ. ἀέρος] ῾by means of the intervening air.’ Ace. Gr.’s theory, it is the air the water and the wall which communicates to the sunbeam the motion of the water. Cp. ii 12, 13, 22.) [*](ib. σχεθεῖσσ τῷ ἀντ’.] ῾arrested by the resisting substance.’ Cp. ii 26 ἀντιτυπούμεναι.) [*](2. παλμὸς ἐγ. καἰ παράδ.] ῾becomes (gnom. aor.) α quivering that quite surprises you.’) [*](ib. ἄττει] = ἀίσσει, ῾vibrates.’) [*](33. It is α misleading comparison. We do best to content ourselves with the few words given us by revelation for our guidance, and so to press on through life, endeavouring to bring all to join in worshipping Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in one Godhead.) [*](6. θέσθαι] ῾to lay down as my own.’) [*](7. τὴν μὲν τὸ κ.] ῾it is very clear what moves the sumbeam.’ contrasted phrase would strictly have run θεὸν δὲ οὐδὲν κινεῖ οὐδόν ἐστι τὸ κινοῦν).) [*](10. τῶν αὐτῶν ὑπ’.] ῾there is a suspicion (or perh. a notion) of the same things.’ things’ as in the case former illustrations.) [*](ib. χύσεως] might seem to be in favour of Elias’ reading above. But the point of the illustration there does not lie in that word, whether χεθ. be read, or σχέθ’. Χύσις represents the ῾shedding,’ whether of light or of water, which implies dissipation.) [*](11. ἀστάτου] repeats the στάσιν οὐκ ἔχουσαν of § 31. Cp. Poem. iii 64 οὔτε τις ἐξ ὑδάτων κινήμασιν ἡλιακοῖσι μαρμαρυγή, τοίχοισι περίτρομος, ἀστατέουσα, πρὶν πελάσαι φεύγουσα, πάρος φυγέειν πελάουσα. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἄστατός ἐστι θεοῦ φύσις, ἠὲ μούσα ἠὲ πάλιν συνιοῦσα· τὸ δ’ ἐμπεδόν ἐστι θεοῖο.) [*](12. τὴν διάνοιαν ἵστησιν] ῾nothing to satisfy my mind (lit. which brings it to a stop) when I contemplate illustrations the image which I form.’)

εἴ τις ἕν τι λαβὼν τῆς εἰκόνος, ὑπ’ εὐγνωμοσύνης τὰ λοιπὰ ῥίψειε. τέλος οὖν ἔδοξέ μοι κράτιστον εἶναι τὰς μὲν εἰκόνας χαίρειν ἐᾶσαι καὶ τὰς σκιάς, ὡς ἀπατηλὰς καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας πλεῖστον ἀποδεούσας, αὐτὸν δὲ τῆς εὐσεβεστέρας ἐννοίας ἐχόμενον, ἐπ’ ὀλίγων ῥημάτων ἱστάμενον, ὁδηγῷ τῷ πνεύματι χρώμενον, ἢν ἐντεῦθεν ἔλλαμψιν ἐδεξάμην, ταύτην εἰς τέλος διαφυλάσσοντα, ὡς γνησίαν κοινωνὸν καὶ συνόμιλον, τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦτον διαπορεύεσθαι διατέμνοντα, καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους πείθειν εἰς δύναμιν προσκυνεῖν πατέρα, καὶ υἱόν, καὶ πνεῦμα ἅγιον, τὴν μίαν θεότητά τε καὶ δύναμιν· ὅτι αὐτῷ πᾶσα δόξα, τιμή, κράτος, εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων· Ἀμήν.

[*](8 διαπορεύεσθαι] διαπορθμεύεσθαι e || 9 om διατέμνοντα ῾tres Colb.’ : τεμνοντα d1 (ut videtur) || 11 καὶ] + βασίλειαν καὶ ῾Reg. a’ || 12 om αἰώνων ce)[*](1. ὑπ’ εὐγνωμοσύνης] The rhythm is in favour of joining these words to those which follow ; ῾have the good sense to throw the rest away.’ For the use of the prep. cp. iv 7.)[*](4. τῆς ἅλ’. πλ. ἀποδεούσας] ῾quite inadequate to express the truth.’)[*](ib. τῆς ἐύς. ἐνν. ἐχόμενον] ῾clinging to the most reverent of views.’ Cp. iv 15 sub fin.)[*](5. ἐπ’ ὀλίγων ῥ’. ἴστ’.] ῾satisfied with a few (not with few) words. The clause is contrasted with ἵστησιν ἐπὶ τῶν ὑποδειγμάτων θ. above. ῾A few words’ of Scripture are all that we have to go upon.)[*](6. ἐντεῦθεν] = ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος.)[*](8. διαπ. διατέμνοντα] ῾to journey through this world, cleaving my way as I go? There is a ref. to the usual expression τέμνειν ὁδόν. Gr. alludes to the difficulties that beset a faith which will not acquiesce in poor substitutes for knowledge.)