Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Gregory Thaumaturgus/Acknowledged Writings/A Declaration of Faith/A Declaration of Faith

by Gregory Thaumaturgus

Part I.—Acknowledged Writings.

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A Declaration of Faith.^[1]

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There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image:^[2] perfect Begetter of the perfect Begotten, Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, Only of the Only,^[3] God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity, Efficient Word,^[4] Wisdom comprehensive^[5] of the constitution of all things, and Power formative^[6] of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible of Incorruptible, and Immortal of Immortal and Eternal of Eternal.^[7] And there is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence^[8] from God, and being made manifest^[9] by the Son, to wit to men:^[10] Image^[11] of the Son, Perfect Image of the Perfect;^[12] Life, the Cause of the living; Holy Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader,^[13] of Sanctification; in whom is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, who is through all. There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged.^[14] Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude^[15] in the Trinity;^[16] nor anything superinduced,^[17] as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son;^[18] but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abideth ever.^[19]

Footnotes

1. The title as it stands has this addition: “which he had by revelation from the blessed John the evangelist, by the mediation of the Virgin Mary, Parent of God.” Gallandi, Veterum Patrum Biblioth., Venice, 1766, p. 385. [Elucidation, p. 8, infra.]
2. χαρακτῆρος ἀϊδίου.
3. μόνος ἐκ μόνου .
4. λόγος ἐνεργός.
5. περιεκτική.
6. ποιητική.
7. ἀΐδιος ἀϊδίου.
8. ὕπαρξιν.
9. πεφηνός.
10. The words δηλαδὴ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις are suspected by some to be a gloss that has found its way into the text.
11. εἰκών.
12. So John of Damascus uses the phrase, εἰκὼν τοῦ Πατρὸς ὁ Υἱὸς, καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ, τὸ Πνεῦμα, the Son is the Image of the Father, and the Spirit is that of the Son, lib. 1, De fide orthod., ch. 13, vol. i. p. 151. See also Athanasius, Epist. 1 ad Serap.; Basil, lib. v. contra Eunom.; Cyril, Dial., 7, etc.
13. χορηγός.
14. ἀπαλλοτριουμένη. See also Gregory Nazianz., Orat., 37, p. 609.
15. δοῦλον.
16. Gregory Nazianz., Orat., 40, p. 668, with reference apparently to our author, says: Οὐδὲν τῆς Τριάδος δοῦλον, οὐδὲ κτιστον, οὐδὲ ἐπείσακτον, ἤκουσα τῶν σοφῶν τινος λέγοντος—In the Trinity there is nothing either in servitude or created, or superinduced, as I heard one of the learned say.
17. ἐπείσακτον.
18. In one codex we find the following addition here: οὔτε αὔξεται μονὰς εἰς δυάδα, οὐδὲ δυὰς εἰς τριάδα—Neither again does the unity grow into duality, nor the duality into trinity; or = Neither does the condition of the one grow into the condition of the two, nor that of the two into the condition of the three.
19. [See valuable note and Greek text in Dr. Schaff’s History, vol. ii. p. 799.]