... thing, when, speaking of Christ, he declares, that “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature.” Not, as some suppose, that the nature of God is visible to some and invisible to others: for the apostle does not say “the image of God invisible” to men or “invisible” to sinners, but with unvarying constancy pronounces on the nature of God in these words: “the image of the invisible God.” Moreover, John, in his Gospel, when asserting that “no one hath seen God at any time,”[John 1:18] manifestly declares to all who are capable of understanding, that there is no nature to which God is visible: not as if, He were a being who was visible by nature, and merely escaped or baffled the view of a frailer creature, but because by the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 277, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen De Principiis. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

The God of the Law and the Prophets, and the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Same God. (HTML)

3. But as those who uphold this heresy are sometimes accustomed to mislead the hearts of the simple by certain deceptive sophisms, I do not consider it improper to bring forward the assertions which they are in the habit of making, and to refute their deceit and falsehood. The following, then, are their declarations. It is written, that “no man hath seen God at any time.”[John 1:18] But that God whom Moses preaches was both seen by Moses himself, and by his fathers before him; whereas He who is announced by the Saviour has never been seen at all by any one. Let us therefore ask them and ourselves whether they maintain that He whom they acknowledge to be God, and allege to be a different ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 460, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Chapter LXXI (HTML)

Jesus taught us who it was that sent Him, in the words, “None knoweth the Father but the Son;” and in these, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”[John 1:18] He, treating of Deity, stated to His true disciples the doctrine regarding God; and we, discovering traces of such teaching in the Scripture narratives, take occasion from such to aid our theological conceptions, hearing it declared in one passage, that “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all;” and in another, “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 622, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VII (HTML)

Chapter XXVII (HTML)

... opposes, we would be bound to quote his words, to adduce our own arguments, and to refute his. But if he brings forward opinions which he has either heard from no one, or if it be assumed that he has heard them, it must have been from those who are very simple and ignorant of the meaning of Scripture, then we need not undertake so superfluous a task as that of refuting them. For the Scriptures plainly speak of God as of a being without body. Hence it is said, “No man hath seen God at any time;”[John 1:18] and the First-born of all creation is called “the image of the invisible God,” which is the same as if it were said that He is incorporeal. However, we have already said something on the nature of God while examining into the meaning of the words, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 225, footnote 11 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)

Dogmatical and Historical. (HTML)

Against the Heresy of One Noetus. (HTML)

... am well pleased: hear ye Him?” Having received, then, all knowledge from the Father, the perfect Israel, the true Jacob, afterward did show Himself upon earth, and conversed with men. And who, again, is meant by Israel but a man who sees God? and there is no one who sees God except the Son alone, the perfect man who alone declares the will of the Father. For John also says, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”[John 1:18] And again: “He who came down from heaven testifieth what He hath heard and seen.” This, then, is He to whom the Father hath given all knowledge, who did show Himself upon earth, and conversed with men.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 48, footnote 5 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Gregory Thaumaturgus. (HTML)

Dubious or Spurious Writings. (HTML)

On the Trinity. (HTML)

Fragment from the Discourse. (HTML)

... and, furthermore, let us see whether it is in our power to ascertain in what manner thoughts are born of the heart, and words of the tongue, and the like. Now, if we can by no means apprehend things that are done in ourselves, how could it ever be that we should understand the mystery of the uncreated Creator, which goes beyond every mind? Assuredly, if this mystery were one that could be penetrated by man, the inspired John would by no means have affirmed this: “No man hath seen God at any time.”[John 1:18] He then, whom no man hath seen at any time,—whom can we reckon Him to resemble, so that thereby we should understand His generation? And we, indeed, without ambiguity apprehend that our soul dwells in us in union with the body; but still, who has ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 182, footnote 4 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Archelaus. (HTML)

The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes. (HTML)

Chapter V. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1475 (In-Text, Margin)

... and Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the Gospels, namely, that “a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” And how they can be bold enough to call God the maker and contriver of Satan and his wicked deeds, is a matter of great amazement to me. Yea, would that even this had been all the length to which they had gone with their silly efforts, and that they had not declared that the only-begotten Christ, who has descended from the bosom of the Father,[John 1:18] is the son of a certain woman, Mary, and born of blood and flesh and the varied impurities proper to women! Howbeit, neither to write too much in this epistle, nor to trespass at too great length upon your good nature,—and all the more so that I ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 205, footnote 10 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Archelaus. (HTML)

The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes. (HTML)

Chapter XXXII. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1751 (In-Text, Margin)

... we have said concerning the devil contains no small measure of reason as well as of piety. For every creature, moreover, has its own order; and there is one order for the human race, and another for animals, and another for angels. Furthermore, there is but one only inconvertible substance, the divine substance, eternal and invisible, as is known to all, and as is also borne out by this scripture: “No man hath seen God at any time, save the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.”[John 1:18] All the other creatures, consequently, are of necessity visible,—such as heaven, earth, sea, men, angels, archangels. But if God has not been seen by any man at any time, what consubstantiality can there be between Him and those creatures? Hence we ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 223, footnote 2 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Archelaus. (HTML)

The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes. (HTML)

Chapter XLVII. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2017 (In-Text, Margin)

... sheep; nevertheless hereafter you will be introduced into the number of the same flock, as the voice of Jesus also intimates,—that Jesus, namely, who appeared in the form of man indeed, and yet was not a man. Archelaus said: Are you not, then, of opinion that He was born of the Virgin Mary? Manes said: God forbid that I should admit that our Lord Jesus Christ came down to us through the natural womb of a woman! For He gives us His own testimony that He came down from the Father’s bosom;[John 1:18] and again He says, “He that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me;” and, “I came not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me;” and once more, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And there are also ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 292, footnote 4 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Alexander of Alexandria. (HTML)

Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius. (HTML)

To Alexander, Bishop of the City of Constantinople. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2411 (In-Text, Margin)

4. But that the Son of God was not made “from things which are not,” and that there was no “time when He was not,” the evangelist John sufficiently shows, when he thus writes concerning Him: “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father.”[John 1:18] For since that divine teacher intended to show that the Father and the Son are two things inseparable the one from the other, he spoke of Him as being in the bosom of the Father. Now that also the Word of God is not comprehended in the number of things that were created “from things which are not,” the same John says, “All things were made by Him.” For he set forth His ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 297, footnote 5 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Alexander of Alexandria. (HTML)

Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius. (HTML)

Epistle Catholic. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2451 (In-Text, Margin)

... piety. But they will not prevail; for the truth prevails, and there is no communion betwixt light and darkness, no concord between Christ and Belial. For who ever heard such things? or who, now hearing them, is not astonished, and does not stop his ears that the pollution of these words should not touch them? Who that hears John saying, “In the beginning was the Word,” does not condemn those who say there was a time when He was not? Who that hears these words of the Gospel, “the only-begotten Son;”[John 1:18] and, “by Him were all things made,” will not hate those who declare He is one of the things made? For how can He be one of the things made by Him? or how shall He be the only-begotten who, as they say, is reckoned with all the rest, if indeed He is ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 356, footnote 1 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Methodius. (HTML)

Concerning Free-Will. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2829 (In-Text, Margin)

... he will find the same harmony of song. For the others sang beforehand the divine plan in a mystical manner; but these sing an interpretation of what has been mystically announced by the former. Oh, concordant harmony, composed by the Divine Spirit! Oh, the comeliness of those who sing of the mysteries of God! Oh, that I also may join in these songs in my prayer. Let us then also sing the like song, and raise the hymn to the Holy Father, glorifying in the Spirit Jesus, who is in His bosom.[John 1:18]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 377, footnote 5 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Methodius. (HTML)

From the Discourse on the Resurrection. (HTML)

Part III. (HTML)

A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words from the Same Discourse. (HTML)

... pained or suffering body. For neither can that which is incorporeal sympathize with a body, nor a body with that which is incorporeal, if, indeed, the soul should seem to be incorporeal, in accordance with what has been said. But if it sympathize with the body, as is proved by the testimony of those who appear, it cannot be incorporeal. Therefore God alone is celebrated, as the unbegotten, independent, and unwearied nature; being incorporeal, and therefore invisible; for “no man hath seen God.”[John 1:18] But souls, being rational bodies, are arranged by the Maker and Father of all things into members which are visible to reason, having received this impression. Whence, also, in Hades, as in the case of Lazarus and the rich man, they are spoken of as ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 477, footnote 1 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book VII. Concerning the Christian Life, and the Eucharist, and the Initiation into Christ (HTML)

Sec. III.—On the Instruction of Catechumens, and Their Initiation into Baptism (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3531 (In-Text, Margin)

XLIII. After this he comes to the water, and blesses and glorifies the Lord God Almighty, the Father of the only begotten God;[John 1:18] and the priest returns thanks that He has sent His Son to become man on our account, that He might save us; that He has permitted that He should in all things become obedient to the laws of that incarnation, to preach the kingdom of heaven, the remission of sins, and the resurrection of the dead. Moreover, he adores the only begotten God Himself, after His Father, and for Him, giving Him thanks that He undertook to die ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 316, footnote 4 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)

The Clementine Homilies. (HTML)

Homily XVI. (HTML)

The Unbegotten and the Begotten Necessarily Different from Each Other. (HTML)

... self-begotten.” And Simon said: “Is it not the same on account of its origin?” And Peter said: “He who is not the same in all respects as some one, cannot have all the same appellations applied to him as that person.” And Simon said: “This is to assert, not to prove.” And Peter said: “Why, do you not see that if the one happens to be self-begotten or unbegotten, they cannot be called the same; nor can it be asserted of him who has been begotten that he is of the same substance as he is who has begotten him?[John 1:18] Learn this also: The bodies of men have immortal souls, which have been clothed with the breath of God; and having come forth from God, they are of the same substance, but they are not gods. But if they are gods, then in this way the souls of all ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 49, footnote 1 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

The Diatessaron of Tatian. (HTML)

The Diatessaron. (HTML)

Section IV. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 303 (In-Text, Margin)

[1][John 1:18] No man hath seen God at any time; the only Son, God, which is in the bosom of his Father, he hath told of him.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 83, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

Augustin explains for what the Son of God was sent; but, however, that the Son of God, although made less by being sent, is not therefore less because the Father sent Him; nor yet the Holy Spirit less because both the Father sent Him and the Son. (HTML)

The Sender and the Sent Equal. Why the Son is Said to Be Sent by the Father. Of the Mission of the Holy Spirit. How and by Whom He Was Sent. The Father the Beginning of the Whole Godhead. (HTML)

... consubstantial, and co-eternal with the Father, and yet to have been sent as Son by the Father. Not because the one is greater, the other less; but because the one is Father, the other Son; the one begetter, the other begotten; the one, He from whom He is who is sent; the other, He who is from Him who sends. For the Son is from the Father, not the Father from the Son. And according to this manner we can now understand that the Son is not only said to have been sent because “the Word was made flesh,”[John 1:18] but therefore sent that the Word might be made flesh, and that He might perform through His bodily presence those things which were written; that is, that not only is He understood to have been sent as man, which the Word was made but the Word, too, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 98, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

In reply to the argument alleged against the equality of the Son from the apostle’s words, saying that Christ is the ‘power of God and the wisdom of God,’ he propounds the question whether the Father Himself is not wisdom. But deferring for a while the answer to this, he adduces further proof of the unity and equality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that God ought to be said and believed to be a Trinity, not triple (triplicem). And he adds an explanation of the saying of Hilary—Eternity in the Father, Appearance in the Image, and Use in the Gift. (HTML)

What is Said of the Father and Son Together, and What Not. (HTML)

... Son together, as though both were one Word (for He is the Word in the same way as He is the Image, but the Father and Son are not both together the Image, but the Son alone is the Image of the Father: just as He is also the Son of the Father, for both together are not the Son). But in that which is added, “And the Word was with God,” there is much reason to understand thus: “The Word,” which is the Son alone, “was with God,” which is not the Father alone, but God the Father and the Son together.[John 1:18] But what wonder is there, if this can be said in the case of some twofold things widely different from each other? For what are so different as soul and body? Yet we can say the soul was with a man, that is, in a man; although the soul is not the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 435, footnote 11 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4186 (In-Text, Margin)

... meaning. For how can it be said that He will not utterly take His mercy from Christ? Has the Saviour of the body committed aught of sin either in Heaven or in earth, “who sitteth even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us”? Yet it is from Christ: but from His members, His body which is the Church. For in this sense He speaks of it as a great thing that He will not take away His mercies from Him, supposing us not to recognise the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father;[John 1:18] for there the Man is not counted for His Person, but the One Person is God and Man. He therefore does not utterly take His mercies from Him, when He takes not His mercy from His body, His members, in which, even while He was enthroned in Heaven, He ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 543, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4968 (In-Text, Margin)

10. But this is put off, this will be granted afterwards: what is there now? “From the womb I have begotten Thee, before the morning star.” What is here? If God hath a Son, hath He also a womb? Like fleshly bodies, He hath not; for He hath not a bosom either; yet it is said, “He who is in the bosom of the Father, hath declared Him.”[John 1:18] But that which is the womb, is the bosom also: both bosom and womb are put for a secret place. What meaneth, “from the womb”? From what is secret, from what is hidden; from Myself, from My substance; this is the meaning of “from the womb;” for, “Who shall declare His generation?” Let us then understand the Father saying unto the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 471, footnote 4 (Image)

Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon

The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. (HTML)

Homilies on 1 Timothy. (HTML)

1 Timothy 6:13-16 (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1312 (In-Text, Margin)

“Whom no man hath seen nor can see.” As, indeed, no one hath seen the Son, nor can see Him.[John 1:14-18]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 2, page 4, footnote 3 (Image)

Socrates: Church History from A.D. 305-438; Sozomenus: Church History from A.D. 323-425

The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

Division begins in the Church from this Controversy; and Alexander Bishop of Alexandria excommunicates Arius and his Adherents. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 125 (In-Text, Margin)

... them; endeavoring to blend falsehood with truth, and that which is impious with what is sacred. But they shall not prevail, for the truth must triumph; and ‘light has no fellowship with darkness, nor has Christ any concord with Belial.’ Who ever heard such blasphemies? or what man of any piety is there now hearing them that is not horror-struck, and stops his ears, lest the filth of these expressions should pollute his sense of hearing? Who that hears John saying, ‘In the beginning was the Word,’[John 1:18] does not condemn those that say, ‘There was a period when the Word was not’? or who, hearing in the Gospel of ‘the only-begotten Son,’ and that ‘all things were made by him,’ will not abhor those that pronounce the Son to be one of the things made? ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 36, footnote 4 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

The Epistle of Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria to Alexander, Bishop of Constantinople. (HTML)

... establish this insane doctrine they insult the Scriptures, and bring forward what is said in the Psalms of Christ, ‘ Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.’ Now that the Son of God was not created out of the non-existent, and that there never was a time in which He was not, is expressly taught by John the Evangelist, who speaks of Him as ‘ the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father[John 1:18].’ This divine teacher desired to show that the Father and the Son are inseparable; and, therefore, he said, ‘that the Son is in the bosom of the Father.’ Moreover, the same John affirms that the Word of God is not classed among things created out of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 166, footnote 5 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. (HTML)

The Immutable. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1009 (In-Text, Margin)

Orth. —But the Lord said again, “Not that any man hath seen the Father save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.” Wherefore the evangelist plainly exclaims, “No man hath seen God at any time,”[John 1:18] and confirms the word of the Lord, for he says, “The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him,” and the great Moses, when he desired to see the invisible nature, heard the Lord God saying, “There shall no man see me and live.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 319, footnote 4 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)

To John the Œconomus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2078 (In-Text, Margin)

... ever, amen.” Here he says that He who according to the flesh derived His descent from the Jews is eternal God and is praised by the right minded as Lord of all created things. The same teaching is given us in the Apostle’s words to the excellent Titus “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Here he calls the same both Saviour, and great God, and Jesus Christ. And in another place he writes, “In the kingdom of Christ and of God.”[John 1:18] Moreover the chorus of the angels announced to the shepherds “Unto you is born this day in the city of David…Christ the Lord.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 321, footnote 13 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)

To John the Œconomus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2125 (In-Text, Margin)

And after the immortality and incorruptibility of His body He called Himself Son of Man, naming Himself from the nature which was seen, inasmuch as the divine nature is indeed invisible to angels, as the Lord Himself had said “No one hath seen God at any time.”[John 1:18] And to the great Moses He said “There shall no man see me and live.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 443, footnote 3 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)

The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus, in Reply to Jerome's Letter to Pammachius. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

Explanation of Origen's words “The Son does not see the Father.” (HTML)

... of God over that of the human body. Consider whether the Apostle does not say the same thing when he speaks thus of Christ: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature.” The nature of God is not, as some think, visible to some and not to others, for the Apostle does not say The image of God who is invisible to men, or to sinners; but he speaks quite distinctly of the nature of God in itself, where he says “The image of the invisible God.” John also says in his Gospel,[John 1:18] “No man hath seen God at any time,” by which he distinctly declares: to all who can understand, that there is no being to whom God is visible; not as if he were naturally visible and, like a being of attenuated substance, escaped and eluded our ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 26, footnote 2 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Heathen. (Contra Gentes.) (HTML)

Contra Gentes. (Against the Heathen.) (HTML)

Part III (HTML)

The Presence of the Word in nature necessary, not only for its original Creation, but also for its permanence. (HTML)

But though He is Word, He is not, as we said, after the likeness of human words, composed of syllables; but He is the unchanging Image of His own Father. For men, composed of parts and made out of nothing, have their discourse composite and divisible. But God possesses true existence and is not composite, wherefore His Word also has true Existence and is not composite, but is the one and only-begotten God[John 1:18], Who proceeds in His goodness from the Father as from a good Fountain, and orders all things and holds them together. 2. But the reason why the Word, the Word of God, has united Himself with created things is truly wonderful, and teaches us that the present order of things is none otherwise ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 382, footnote 15 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse II (HTML)

Texts Explained; Sixthly, Proverbs viii. 22, Continued. Our Lord not said in Scripture to be 'created,' or the works to be 'begotten.' 'In the beginning' means in the case of the works 'from the beginning.' Scripture passages explained. We are made by God first, begotten next; creatures by nature, sons by grace. Christ begotten first, made or created afterwards. Sense of 'First-born of the dead;' of 'First-born among many brethren;' of 'First-born of all creation,' contrasted with 'Only-begotten.' Further interpretation of 'beginning of ways,' and 'for the works.' Why a creature could not redeem; why redemption was necessary at all. Texts which contrast the Word and the works. (HTML)

... because of His condescension to the creation and His making the many His brethren. Certainly, those two terms being inconsistent with each other, one should say that the attribute of being Only-begotten has justly the preference in the instance of the Word, in that there is no other Word, or other Wisdom, but He alone is very Son of the Father. Moreover, as was before said, not in connection with any reason, but absolutely it is said of Him, ‘The Only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father[John 1:18];’ but the word ‘First-born’ has again the creation as a reason in connection with it, which Paul proceeds to say, ‘for in Him all things were created.’ But if all the creatures were created in Him, He is other than the creatures, and is not a ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 439, footnote 3 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse IV (HTML)

Since the Word is from God, He must be Son. Since the Son is from everlasting, He must be the Word; else either He is superior to the Word, or the Word is the Father. Texts of the New Testament which state the unity of the Son with the Father; therefore the Son is the Word. Three hypotheses refuted--1. That the Man is the Son; 2. That the Word and Man together are the Son; 3. That the Word became Son on His incarnation. Texts of the Old Testament which speak of the Son. If they are merely prophetical, then those concerning the Word may be such also. (HTML)

16. If then the Son too were a work, well might God begin to be a Father towards Him as others; but if the Son is not a work, then ever was the Father and ever the Son. But if the Son was ever, He must be the Word; for if the Word be not Son, and this is what a man waxes bold to say, either he holds that Word to be Father or the Son superior to the Word. For the Son being ‘in the bosom of the Father[John 1:18],’ of necessity either the Word is not before the Son (for nothing is before Him who is in the Father), or if the Word be other than the Son, the Word must be the Father in whom is the Son. But if the Word is not Father but Word, the Word must be external to the Father, since it is the Son who is ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 442, footnote 3 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse IV (HTML)

Since the Word is from God, He must be Son. Since the Son is from everlasting, He must be the Word; else either He is superior to the Word, or the Word is the Father. Texts of the New Testament which state the unity of the Son with the Father; therefore the Son is the Word. Three hypotheses refuted--1. That the Man is the Son; 2. That the Word and Man together are the Son; 3. That the Word became Son on His incarnation. Texts of the Old Testament which speak of the Son. If they are merely prophetical, then those concerning the Word may be such also. (HTML)

23. For if simply, when made Man, He has become Son, the becoming Man is the cause. And if the Man is cause of His being Son, or both together, then the same absurdities result. Next, if He is first Word and then Son, it will appear that He knew the Father afterwards, not before; for not as being Word does He know Him, but as Son. For ‘No one knoweth the Father but the Son.’ And this too will result, that He has come afterwards to be ‘in the bosom of the Father[John 1:18],’ and afterwards He and the Father have become One; and afterwards is, ‘He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.’ For all these things are said of the Son. Hence they will be forced to say, The Word was nothing but a name. For neither is it He who is in us with ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 457, footnote 6 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia. (De Synodis.) (HTML)

On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia. (De Synodis.) (HTML)

History of Arian Opinions. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3506 (In-Text, Margin)

... Father, as is lawful. Thus there is a Triad, not in equal glories. Not intermingling with each other are their subsistences. One more glorious than the other in their glories unto immensity. Foreign from the Son in essence is the Father, for He is without beginning. Understand that the Monad was; but the Dyad was not, before it was in existence. It follows at once that, though the Son was not, the Father was God. Hence the Son, not being (for He existed at the will of the Father), is God Only-begotten[John 1:18], and He is alien from either. Wisdom existed as Wisdom by the will of the Wise God. Hence He is conceived in numberless conceptions: Spirit, Power, Wisdom, God’s glory, Truth, Image, and Word. Understand that He is conceived to be Radiance and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 102, footnote 2 (Image)

Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises. (HTML)

Against Eunomius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Gregory then makes an explanation at length touching the eternal Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (HTML)

... excellent always belonged to It. For if He was not always what He now is, He certainly changed either from the better to the worse or from the worse to the better, and of these assertions the impiety is equal either way, whichever statement is made concerning the Divine nature. But in fact the Deity is incapable of change and alteration. So, then, everything that is excellent and good is always contemplated in the fountain of excellency. But “the Only-begotten God, Who is in the bosom of the Father[John 1:18] ” is excellent, and beyond all excellency:—mark you, He says, “Who is in the bosom of the Father,” not “Who came to be” there.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 104, footnote 8 (Image)

Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises. (HTML)

Against Eunomius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

He next skilfully confutes the partial, empty and blasphemous statement of Eunomius on the subject of the absolutely existent. (HTML)

... “only” and “not only,” between “God” and “no God,” between “true” and “untrue.” If it is with respect to idols that they make their distinction of phrases, we too agree. For the name of “deity” is given, in an equivocal sense, to the idols of the heathen, seeing that “all the gods of the heathen are demons,” and in another sense marks the contrast of the one with the many, of the true with the false, of those who are not Gods with Him who is God. But if the contrast is one with the Only-begotten God[John 1:18], let our sages learn that truth has its opposite only in falsehood, and God in one who is not God. But inasmuch as the Lord Who is the Truth is God, and is in the Father and is one relatively to the Father, there is no room in the true doctrine for ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 125, footnote 4 (Image)

Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises. (HTML)

Against Eunomius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

He thus proceeds to a magnificent discourse of the interpretation of “Mediator,” “Like,” “Ungenerate,” and “generate,” and of “The likeness and seal of the energy of the Almighty and of His Works.” (HTML)

... and the express Image of His person.” What, after these have thus spoken, are the words of our ventriloquist? “The seal,” quoth he, “of the energy of the Almighty.” He makes Him third after the Father, with that non-existent energy mediating between them, or rather moulded at pleasure by non-existence. God the Word, Who was in the beginning, is “the seal of the energy”:—the Only-begotten God, Who is contemplated in the eternity of the Beginning of existent things, Who is in the bosom of the Father[John 1:18], Who sustains all things, by the word of His power, the creator of the ages, from Whom and through Whom and in Whom are all things, Who sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and hath meted out heaven with the span, Who measureth the water in the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 34, footnote 8 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

Concerning the Unity of God.  On the Article, I Believe in One God.  Also Concerning Heresies. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 832 (In-Text, Margin)

... and cannot eat all the supply of fruits, wouldst thou have me go away altogether hungry? I praise and glorify Him that made us; for it is a divine command which saith, Let every breath praise the Lord. I am attempting now to glorify the Lord, but not to describe Him, knowing nevertheless that I shall fall short of glorifying Him worthily, yet deeming it a work of piety even to attempt it at all. For the Lord Jesus encourageth my weakness, by saying, No man hath seen God at any time[John 1:18].

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 46, footnote 14 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

The Father. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1006 (In-Text, Margin)

11. We believe then In One God the Father the Unsearchable and Ineffable, Whom no man hath seen, but the Only-begotten alone hath declared Him[John 1:18]. For He which is of God, He hath seen God: whose face the Angels do alway behold in heaven, behold, however, each according to the measure of his own rank. But the undimmed vision of the Father is reserved in its purity for the Son with the Holy Ghost.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 51, footnote 2 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

On the Words, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of All Things Visible and Invisible. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1059 (In-Text, Margin)

1. To look upon God with eyes of flesh is impossible: for the incorporeal cannot be subject to bodily sight: and the Only begotten Son of God Himself hath testified, saying, No man hath seen God at any time[John 1:18]. For if according to that which is written in Ezekiel any one should understand that Ezekiel saw Him, yet what saith the Scripture? He saw the likeness of the glory of the Lord; not the Lord Himself, but the likeness of His glory, not the glory itself, as it really is. And when he saw merely the likeness of the glory, and not the glory itself, he fell to ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 64, footnote 9 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

On the Words, the Only-Begotten Son of God, Begotten of the Father Very God Before All Ages, by Whom All Things Were Made. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1240 (In-Text, Margin)

3. Our Lord Jesus Christ erewhile became Man, but by the many He was unknown. Wishing, therefore, to teach that which was not known, He called together His disciples, and asked them, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? —not from vain-glory, but wishing to shew them the truth, lest dwelling with God, the Only-begotten of God[John 1:18], they should think lightly of Him as if He were some mere man. And when they answered that some said Elias, and some Jeremias, He said to them, They may be excused for not knowing, but ye, My Apostles, who in My name cleanse lepers, and cast out devils, and raise the dead, ought not to be ignorant of Him, through whom ye do ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 307, footnote 4 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Third Theological Oration.  On the Son. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3526 (In-Text, Margin)

... believe in and to teach the Deity of the Son from their great and lofty utterances. And what utterances are these? These: God—The Word—He That Was In The Beginning and With The Beginning, and The Beginning. “In the Beginning was The Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” and “With Thee is the Beginning,” and “He who calleth her The Beginning from generations.” Then the Son is Only-begotten: The only “begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, it says, He hath declared Him.”[John 1:18] The Way, the Truth, the Life, the Light. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life;” and “I am the Light of the World.” Wisdom and Power, “Christ, the Wisdom of God, and the Power of God.” The Effulgence, the Impress, the Image, the Seal; “Who being ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 9, footnote 15 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

Issue joined with those who assert that the Son is not with the Father, but after the Father.  Also concerning the equal glory. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 807 (In-Text, Margin)

... Begotten, and of the equality of His glory with the Father? We ask them to listen to the Lord Himself, distinctly setting forth the equal dignity of His glory with the Father, in His words, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;” and again, “When the Son cometh in the glory of his Father;” that they “should honour the Son even as they honour the Father;” and, “We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father;” and “the only begotten God which is in the bosom of the Father.”[John 1:18] Of all these passages they take no account, and then assign to the Son the place set apart for His foes. A father’s bosom is a fit and becoming seat for a son, but the place of the footstool is for them that have to be forced to fall.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 9, footnote 15 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

Issue joined with those who assert that the Son is not with the Father, but after the Father.  Also concerning the equal glory. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 807 (In-Text, Margin)

... Begotten, and of the equality of His glory with the Father? We ask them to listen to the Lord Himself, distinctly setting forth the equal dignity of His glory with the Father, in His words, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;” and again, “When the Son cometh in the glory of his Father;” that they “should honour the Son even as they honour the Father;” and, “We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father;” and “the only begotten God which is in the bosom of the Father.”[John 1:18] Of all these passages they take no account, and then assign to the Son the place set apart for His foes. A father’s bosom is a fit and becoming seat for a son, but the place of the footstool is for them that have to be forced to fall.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 11, footnote 12 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

In how many ways “Through whom” is used; and in what sense “with whom” is more suitable.  Explanation of how the Son receives a commandment, and how He is sent. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 836 (In-Text, Margin)

... the grace wrought by Him to usward a detraction from His glory? Is it not truer to say that the recital of His benefits is a proper argument for glorifying Him? It is on this account that we have not found Scripture describing the Lord to us by one name, nor even by such terms alone as are indicative of His godhead and majesty. At one time it uses terms descriptive of His nature, for it recognises the “name which is above every name,” the name of Son, and speaks of true Son, and only begotten God,[John 1:18] and Power of God, and Wisdom, and Word. Then again, on account of the divers manners wherein grace is given to us, which, because of the riches of His goodness, according to his manifold wisdom, he bestows on them that need, Scripture designates Him ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 18, footnote 2 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

That they who deny the Spirit are transgressors. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 943 (In-Text, Margin)

... is vain; to every man that sets aside the Spirit, that his faith in the Father and the Son will be useless, for he cannot even hold it without the presence of the Spirit. For he who does not believe the Spirit does not believe in the Son, and he who has not believed in the Son does not believe in the Father. For none “can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost,” and “No man hath seen God at any time, but the only begotten God which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”[John 1:18]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 28, footnote 7 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

In what manner in the confession of the three hypostases we preserve the pious dogma of the Monarchia.  Wherein also is the refutation of them that allege that the Spirit is subnumerated. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1092 (In-Text, Margin)

... The majesty is not cloven in two, nor the glory divided. The sovereignty and authority over us is one, and so the doxology ascribed by us is not plural but one; because the honour paid to the image passes on to the prototype. Now what in the one case the image is by reason of imitation, that in the other case the Son is by nature; and as in works of art the likeness is dependent on the form, so in the case of the divine and uncompounded nature the union consists in the communion of the Godhead.[John 1:18] One, moreover, is the Holy Spirit, and we speak of Him singly, conjoined as He is to the one Father through the one Son, and through Himself completing the adorable and blessed Trinity. Of Him the intimate relationship to the Father and the Son is ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 138, footnote 5 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To his Brother Gregory, concerning the difference between οὐσία and ὑπόστασις. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2029 (In-Text, Margin)

... befalls us, is an operation, of the Grace which worketh in us all things, as the apostle says, “But all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will.” If we ask, if the supply of good things which thus comes to the saints has its origin in the Holy Ghost alone, we are on the other hand guided by Scripture to the belief that of the supply of the good things which are wrought in us through the Holy Ghost, the Originator and Cause is the Only-begotten God;[John 1:18] for we are taught by Holy Scripture that “All things were made by Him,” and “by Him consist.” When we are exalted to this conception, again, led by God-inspired guidance, we are taught that by that power all things are brought from non-being into ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 274, footnote 2 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To the same, in answer to another question. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2957 (In-Text, Margin)

3. And the following counter question may also be put to them. “No man hath seen God at any time, the Only-begotten which is in the bosom hath declared him.”[John 1:18] What of the Father did the Only-begotten Son declare? His essence or His power? If His power, we know so much as He declared to us. If His essence, tell me where He said that His essence was the being unbegotten? When did Abraham worship? Was it not when he believed? And when did he believe? Was it not when he was called? Where in this place is there any testimony in Scripture to Abraham’s comprehending? When did the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 73, footnote 18 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

Book IV (HTML)