One must not dismiss lightly the question concerning the exact hour at which the women came to the tomb. For if Matthew says, In the evening of the sabbath, at the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Madgalene and other Mary came to see the tomb, what then does it mean that Mark says, And early in the morning on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb at the rising of the sun?^[1] The other two Gospels, Luke and John, do not disagree with Mark; Luke says early in the morning,^[2] and John says in the morning when it was still dark.^[3] Both statements are consistent with Mark’s declaration that it was early in the morning at the rising of the sun," that is, when the heavens in the east were brightening. But this doesn’t occur except when the sun is very close to rising, a phenomenon which customarily is called the dawn. Therefore Mark does not oppose John, who says when it was still dark, for as day is breaking the remaining shadows of darkness diminish only in proportion to the sun’s rising. And Luke’s phrase, early in the morning, need not be understood to imply that the sun had already appeared above the horizon but rather is the kind of expression we normally use when we want to signify that something must be done earlier. For when we say in the morning, lest we are understood to mean that the sun is already visible, we usually add very early, so that we will be understood to refer to the dawn.

Thus it is said in the evening of the sabbath, as if he had said in the night of the sabbath, that is, in the night which follows the day of the sabbath. Matthew’s words themselves, however, are sufficient, for he says, In the evening of the sabbath, at the dawn on the first day of the week. This would be impossible if we understood in the evening to signify only the first part of the night. For it is not the beginning of the night which dawns on the first day of the week but the night which begins to be terminated by the coming of the light. Now the end of the first part of the night is the beginning of the second part, but the end of the whole night is the light. Thus we cannot say that the evening is at the dawn of the first day of the week unless by evening we intend night, which the light brings to an end. In addition, it is divine Scripture’s customary way of distinguishing the whole from the part.^[4] Therefore by saying evening it signifies the whole night, the end of which is the dawn. Thus the women came to the tomb at dawn, and therefore they came at night, which is signified in Scripture by the designation of evening. For, as I have said, the whole night is included under that name. Therefore, in whatever part of the night they may have come, they came at night; even if they came at the very end of the night, the fact remains without a doubt that they came at night.

In the evening toward the dawn. Behold, with the Lord’s resurrection the evening does not grow dark, it becomes light. What was normally the beginning of night now becomes the break of day. In the evening of the sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week. Even as mortality is transformed into immortality, corruption into incorruption and flesh into the Word of God, the darkness is transformed into light, so that the night itself rejoices that it did not die but is transmuted. . . .

In the evening of the sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week. The sabbath rejoices that it now has a subservient effect. Under the yoke of the law the sabbath had become smugly apathetic and alienated from life-giving power. Through the primacy of the Lord’s Day the sabbath is now wonderfully awakened to works of divine power. To paraphrase the Lord: Is it not permitted to heal the sick on the sabbath, to give aid to the afflicted, sight to the blind and life to the dead?

The sacred authors of the Gospels did not say whether the Savior was raised after the sabbath, or when most of the night had passed, or at the dawn or when the sun had already begun to shine. Indeed, it would be contradictory for the authors to say that the same event transpired at different times. However, they did write that some of the women arrived at the tomb at one time and some of the women at another time, but not all at the same time—how could that be possible, since they came separately?—and that each of the women heard the angels say similar things regarding the Savior: He is risen, he is not here, without adding when his resurrection occurred. It follows that if the resurrection had taken place on that divine night, as all of the Evangelists aver and agree, no one has specified the hour. [That hour] is unknown to the entire world except for the God who was raised and for the Father—who alone knows the Son as he is known by the Son—and except for the Spirit, who searches everything, even the depths of God.^[1] . . .

As for the expression after the sabbath, it does not refer to the evening which follows the setting of the sun at the end of the sabbath, for Matthew did not use the singular opse sabbatou but the plural opse sabbatōn. The Jews were accustomed to call the entire week sabbata. Thus the Evangelists call the first day opse sabbatōn when they mean the first day of the week. We also use a colloquial expression when we call the second and third days of the week the second and third of the sabbata. Matthew then did not say opse sabbatou, that is, the evening of the sabbath, because he did not intend to denote the evening of that very day. Rather, he used opse sabbatōn so as to indicate that it was very late and well after the end of the week. Similarly, I think, we are in the habit of saying you came opse tou kairou [well after the time], opse tēs hōras [well after the hour], opse tēs chreias [well after the need] not in order to indicate the evening or the time after the setting of the sun but in order to suggest that the person arrived too late for the event. In a similar fashion, opse sabbatōn means that the women arrived very late and well after the end of the week. Now each week ends at the setting of the sun after the sabbath.

The apostles are preceded in ministry by women, who follow the men by gender and the disciples by order.^[1] The apostles are not thereby made masters by these women. These women are bringing to the sepulcher the form and appearance of women, but they together symbolize the wholeness of the Lord’s churches. Mary and Mary: one as herself, and herself as the other. Mary, the single maternal name of Christ, is duplicated in two women.^[2] Here is symbolized the church coming from two peoples yet made into one from two peoples—that is, from the Gentiles and the Jews. For the first shall be last and the last shall be first.^[3]

After the resurrection the angel appeared. But for what purpose did he come? To roll back the stone. Why? To attest to the women of the resurrection so that they might believe. The women themselves had earlier witnessed him in the sepulcher. Now they behold an empty tomb. This is why the angel rolled the stone away and why an earthquake took place: that they might be thoroughly aroused and awakened to the resurrection.

An angel descended and rolled back the stone. He did not roll back the stone to provide a way of escape for the Lord but to show the world that the Lord had already risen. He rolled back the stone to help his fellow servants believe, not to help the Lord rise from the dead. He rolled back the stone for the sake of faith, because it had been rolled over the tomb for the sake of unbelief. He rolled back the stone so that he who took death captive might hold the title of Life. Pray, brothers, that the angel would descend now and roll away all the hardness of our hearts and open up our closed senses and declare to our minds that Christ has risen, for just as the heart in which Christ lives and reigns is heaven, so also the heart in which Christ remains dead and buried is a grave. May it be believed that just as he died, so was he transformed. Christ the man suffered, died and was buried; as God, he lives, reigns, is and will be forever.

According to Matthew, the angel sat upon the stone which had been rolled from the tomb, whereas Mark says that upon entering the tomb the women were astounded to see a young man sitting on the right, dressed in a white robe.^[1] This discrepancy would be troubling unless we understand that Matthew remained silent concerning that angel whom they saw when they entered the tomb and Mark remained silent concerning that angel whom they saw sitting on the stone outside the tomb. If this be the case, the women saw two angels and heard from them about Jesus progressively; first from the one who sat on the stone outside the tomb and then from the one whom they saw sitting on the right when they entered the tomb. They went into the tomb then because they had been exhorted to do so by the angel sitting outside, when he said, Come and see where the Lord was placed.^[2] Upon entering, as it is written, they saw and heard similar things from the angel sitting on the right side of the tomb, who is mentioned by Mark but ignored by Matthew.

If this explanation fails to satisfy, we certainly ought to understand that when they entered the tomb they were in some sort of walled enclosure which, it is reasonable to believe, had been established as a secured location in front of the rock from which the tomb was cut. According to this scenario, the angel whom they saw sitting on the right side of the tomb would have been in the same space as the angel who Matthew says was sitting on the stone which, at the time of the earthquake, had been rolled back from the entrance to the tomb, that is, from the sepulcher cut from the rock.

His appearance, says the Evangelist, was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. The brightness of his countenance is distinguished from the brilliance of his clothing. His face is compared with lightning from heaven and his garment to snow falling upon the earth. Listen to the prophet as he says, Praise the Lord from the earth, you fire, hail and snow!^[1] In the angel’s face, then, heaven’s brilliance adapts to nature. His clothing symbolizes the grace of human fellowship, and the appearance of this angel as he speaks is so tempered that physical eyes can withstand the peaceful brilliance of his raiment. As they look upon the lightning of his appearance, they tremble and revere the messenger of their Maker.

For what intent and purpose does the angel say to the women, Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus? First to deliver them from dread and then to announce to them the resurrection. He addresses them personally: I know you seek Jesus who was crucified. By this he treated them with great honor. To be afraid is not for you but for those that crucified Jesus. The contrast here is between the extreme punishment that awaits those who dared to crucify Jesus and the freedom from fear for those who, having repented, sought after him. It was both by his words and by his appearance that the angel brought them deliverance from fear. The brightness of his appearance was such as to bring good news. He went on to say, I know that you seek Jesus the crucified. Note that he is not ashamed to call him the crucified. For it is chiefly by his crucifixion that he blesses.

The angel mentions the name of Jesus, alludes to his cross, speaks about his Passion and refers to his death. He then proclaims his resurrection and confesses his lordship. After all the punishment and after the sepulcher, the angel heralds the Lord, speaks of his subjection and sees that the full offense of the Passion has been transmuted into the glory of the resurrection. How could anyone judge that God was lessened by becoming human? Or believe that his power was demeaned by the Passion? Or think that his sovereignty was diminished by his servanthood? The angel speaks worthily of the crucified one. He shows the very place where the Lord’s body was laid, lest someone else and not he is believed to have risen from the dead.

The Lord rises in the same flesh. He brings back the wounds, takes on again the holes from the nails and bears witness by his very body with the signs of his resurrection, which were the ravages of his suffering. If so, how could anyone imagine that he might return in some other body? How could anyone fail to believe that he will return in his own flesh? It is fanciful to think that the servant would by chance disdain his own flesh. Rest assured, my friend, when you arise from the dead it will be you in your own body. Otherwise it would not be you if you should rise in the flesh of another.

So the angel became an evangelist and herald of the resurrection to the women. Do not seek, he says, the one who always lives, who in his own nature is life, among the dead. He is not here, that is, dead and in the tomb, but he has been raised. He has become a way of ascent to immortality not only for himself but also for us. For this reason he made himself nothing and put on our likeness, that by the grace of God, just as the blessed Paul says, he might taste death on behalf of all.^[1] And so he has become the death of death.

What evidence demonstrates that he has risen? As he said—that is, the event is known on the testimony of the angelic visitor. And if you refuse to believe the angel, then remember Jesus’ own words, and you will not hesitate to believe me. The evidence, however, is further presented: Come and see the place where he lay. For this purpose the angel had rolled away the stone: that they might see the evidence of his resurrection.

He calls upon them not only to behold the evidence but to attest it further to others: Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. The angel here is preparing the women to take the good news to the other disciples. They are to tell of the evidence that made them believe—the empty tomb. Furthermore, he is going before you to Galilee. He says this to relieve them from anxieties and the fear of danger, that their faith not be hindered.

The angel goes on to say, Go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen; and behold, he goes before you into Galilee; you will see him there. The angel here sends not merely the women but the church in the two women. He sends the one so that by sending her he may spread the news far and wide. Here the angel is sending the bride to the bridegroom.

Why with fear and great joy? They had seen an amazing event. It was beyond all their expectations. The tomb had been empty where they had just before seen him laid. The angel led them to the tomb that they might become witnesses both of his tomb and his resurrection. It is evident that no one could have stolen his body, when so many soldiers were sitting nearby him. Hence he raised up himself. For this reason they rejoiced and stood in awe. The women received the reward of continuing with him. They were first to see and gladly declare not only what had been said to them but also what they themselves had seen.

It may be asked how Mark could say, And going out, they fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid,^[1] whereas Matthew says, They departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, running to tell his disciples. The apparent discrepancy between the two accounts is resolved if we understand that the women dared to say nothing either to the angels (that is, to respond to what they had heard from them) or to the guards whom they had seen lying on the ground. For the joy of which Matthew speaks is not opposed to the fear which Mark recounts. We ought to understand that both fear and joy were at once awakened in their minds, even if Matthew had failed to speak of fear. But the question is settled when he says, They departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy.

The events during which the small band of women first saw the Lord, were greeted by him, fell to their knees and were commanded to announce the good news to the apostles reverse the order present at the beginning of the world. The gender through which death entered the world would also be the first to receive the glory, vision, fruit and news of the resurrection. The guards, who had seen everything, spurned the glory of the resurrection when they accepted a bribe to lie about the theft of Christ’s body.^[1] They sold their silence regarding the resurrection in exchange for the honor and pleasure of this world, for its honor is in money.

Two different feelings occupied the minds of the women: fear and joy. Fear came from the magnitude of the miracle they had witnessed and joy from their desire for the resurrection. Nevertheless both feelings impelled their steps. They continued on to the apostles so that through them the seed of faith would be scattered.

And behold, Jesus met them, saying ‘Hail!’ They who sought him out and ran to him deserved to be the first to meet the risen Lord and to hear him say, Hail. Thus it happened that Eve’s curse was undone by these women. ^[1] JESUS MET THEM.PETER CHRYSOLOGUS: While they were going, the Lord met them and said, Hail! When he meets them, he does not frighten them with his power but comes before them with the ardor of his love. He does not startle them with his authority but greets them warmly. He binds them by the covenant of the bridegroom, not by the right of the ruler. He honors them with the love of a brother. He greets them with a gracious salutation. At one time he had said to his disciples, Salute no one on the road.^[1] So why is it that here along the way this visitor is so quick to salute them? He does not wait to be recognized. He does not demand to be understood. He does not allow himself to be questioned. Rather, he extends this greeting immediately, enthusiastically. He did this because the force of his love overcomes and surpasses all. Furthermore, by doing so Christ himself greets the church. He makes its very heart to be his own and thus receives its body into his own, as the apostle says, And he is the head of the body, the church.^[2] This greeting itself evidently shows that the full figure of the church abides in these women. They are contrasted with those disciples whom Christ scolds who were wavering over the resurrection. He quells their fears by showing his side and the deep holes from the nails.^[3] By taking food,^[4] he now restores their faith. ^[5]

After they had departed with fear and joy, Jesus met them, saying, Hail! They ran to him with great joy and gladness. They took hold of his feet. Thus they received by his touch an irrefutable proof of his resurrection, with full personal assurance of it. And they worshiped him.

What does he then say? Do not be afraid. Again, Jesus himself casts out their fear, making room for faith: Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. Note well how he himself sends good tidings to his disciples by these women. He thereby brings honor to women, as I have so often said, honor to that sex which is most prone to be dishonored. Through these women he brings good hope and the healing of that which was diseased.

Some among you may desire to be like these faithful women. You too may wish to take hold of the feet of Jesus. You can, even now. You can embrace not only his feet but also his hands and even his sacred head. You too can today receive these awesome mysteries with a pure conscience. You can embrace him not only in this life but also even more fully on that day when you shall see him coming with unspeakable glory, with a multitude of the angels. If you are so disposed, along with him, to be compassionate, you shall hear not only these words, All hail! but also those others: Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world.^[1]

The earthquake occurred for the sake of the soldiers, in order to terrify them and that they might bear testimony to all that had taken place. This in fact occurred. They reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. The testimony came from the guards themselves. As such it was free from suspicion.

Some of these signs were displayed publicly to the world, others privately to those present on the spot. Some of these events were displayed publicly for the world that was in darkness. Some were displayed privately, as the appearance of the angel. So truth shines forth, proclaimed even by its adversaries. For when the guards came forward to attest these actual events, the priests gave them money, so that they might pretend that a fraud had occurred. Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’

How could they have stolen him? O most foolish of all men! They can’t even lie plausibly! The conspicuousness of the truth highlights their falsehood. For indeed what they said after the bribe was extremely farfetched. Their falsehood did not even have the ring of plausibility.

For how, I ask, could the disciples have stolen him? They were poor and unlearned. They were hiding out at this time, not even venturing to show themselves.

Remember that a mandated seal had been placed upon the tomb. How could it be ignored that there were many watchmen, soldiers and Jewish authorities stationed around the sepulcher? These very authorities were already suspicious of just such a thing happening! They themselves had sought to prevent this very contingency! They were anxious to avoid just this!

Further, for what motive might these poor disciples have stolen the body? That they might feign the doctrine of the resurrection? On what premise might it have entered into their minds to pretend such a thing? These were men were hiding out to simply stay alive.

And how could they have removed the huge stone that had made the burial secure? Even if they had somehow moved it, how could they have escaped the observation of so many? The premise is implausible. They would not have attempted such a desperate move. Such a venture would have proved fruitless.

In fact, the disciples were themselves quite afraid; they were far from bold. The evidence shows that they had all rushed away from Jesus the moment they saw him seized. If then at that time they did not dare so much as to stand their ground when they saw him alive, how when he was dead could they have had the courage to withstand such a number of soldiers? Do you think they might have escaped notice? How could they have burst through the circle of defenders? It would have taken many hands to remove such a great stone that had sealed the tomb.

They were correct in saying earlier that the last fraud will be worse than the first.^[1] They were in effect making this declaration against themselves. After so much violent conduct they ought to have repented, but rather they strove to outdo their former lunacies, feigning absurd fictions. When he was alive, they purchased his blood. When he was dead and risen again, they again by money were striving to undermine the evidence of his resurrection.

Among these misdeeds, we find the priests bribing people and, what is worse, deceiving them by pointing falsely to the misdeeds of others. Meanwhile they were putting a price on sin. They paid money to cover up their manipulations. They buy out Judas who betrayed his Lord. They compensate with money the blood of the Savior of the world. They try to shut up faith in the empty tomb by purchasing silence. With petty theft they deal in the greater crime of denying the resurrection. They gave a sum of money to the soldiers and said, ‘Tell people, His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.’ So they took the money and did as they were directed; and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. Among the Christians too. What they covered up with gold in Judea would shine brightly and intensely over the whole world. The disciples received Christ; they did not steal him. You purchased treachery, but you did not steal the truth. Christ rose from the dead. You lost money.

The guards acknowledged the miracle, returned to the city quickly and described to the chief priest what they had witnessed. Those who should have turned, repented and sought out the resurrected Jesus continued instead in their wickedness. They converted the money which had been given to the temple into a bride for their falsehood, just as they had earlier given thirty pieces of silver to Judas, the betrayer. Everyone therefore who diverts the offerings given to the temple or to the church for other purposes, namely, the satisfaction of his own will, is like these scribes and chief priests who purchased a lie and bought the blood of the Savior.

See how their own actions trap them everywhere in their own devices. For if they had not come to Pilate or asked for the guard, they would have been more able to act in this impudent fashion. But as it was, they did ask for a guard. Indeed, as though they were laboring to shut their own mouths, they took these precautions themselves. If the disciples did not even have the fortitude to watch with him for an hour while he prayed, even when he scolded them, how would they then have had the strength to venture upon such a desperate enterprise? Don’t be foolish. If the disciples had any thought of stealing his body, they would have done so before he was buried and sealed in the tomb. They would have acted before a guard was placed at the tomb on the first night, when it might have been done in greater security and with less danger. . . . But remember on that night none of the disciples were present at the tomb. They were scattered in hiding!

This seems to me to be the last appearance in Galilee, when he sent them out to baptize. And if some doubted, herein again admire the Evangelists’ truthfulness. Even up to the last day, they were determined not to conceal even their own shortcomings. Nevertheless even these are assured by what they see.

Jesus approached them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.’ This authority was given to one who had just been crucified, buried in a tomb, laid dead and afterwards had arisen. Authority was given to him in both heaven and earth so that he who once reigned in heaven might also reign on earth through the faith of his believers.

‘Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ First they teach all nations; then they baptize those they have taught with water, for the body is not able to receive the sacrament of baptism before the soul has received the truth of the faith. They were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit so that the three who are one in divinity might also be one in giving themselves. The name of the Trinity is the name of the one God.

‘Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.’ What a marvelous sequence this is. He commanded the apostles first to teach all nations and then to baptize them in the sacrament of faith and then, after faith and baptism, to teach them to observe all that he had commanded. Lest we think these commandments of little consequence or few in number, he added all that I have commanded you, so that those who were to believe and be baptized in the Trinity would observe everything they had been taught.

What does he finally say to them when he sees them? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He is still speaking to them according to his humanity, for they had not yet received the Spirit which was able to raise them to higher things. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age. He gives them one charge with a view toward teaching and another charge concerning his commandments. He makes no mention of the future of the Jews. He does not scold Peter for his denial or any one of the others for their flight. Having put into their hands a summary of Christian teaching, which is expressed in the form of baptism, he commands them to go out into the whole world.

After that, because he had enjoined on them great things, to raise their courage he reassures them that he will be with them always, even to the end of the world. Now do you see the relation of his glory to his previous condescension? His own proper power is again restored. What he had said previously was spoken during the time of his humiliation.

He promised to be not only with these disciples but also with all who would subsequently believe after them. Jesus speaks to all believers as if to one body. Do not speak to me, he says, of the difficulties you will face, for I am with you, as the one who makes all things easy. Remember that this is also said repeatedly to the prophets in the Old Testament. Recall Jeremiah objecting that he is too young and Moses and Ezekiel shrinking from the prophet’s office.^[1] I am with you is spoken to all these people.

Observe the excellence of those who were sent out into the whole world. Others who were called found ways of excusing themselves. But these did not beg off.

Jesus reminds his disciples of the consummation of all things. He seeks to draw them further on, that they may not look at the present dangers only but also at the good things to come that last forever. He is in effect saying, These difficult things that you will undergo are soon to be finished with this present life. For this world will come to an end. But the good things you are to enjoy are immortal, as I have often told you before. Having invigorated and roused their minds by the remembrance of that coming day, he sent them out. Those who live faithfully, with good works, should strangely desire that day even as those who lack good works should fear it.

So let us not fear and shudder. Let us repent while there is opportunity. Let us rise out of our sins. We can by grace, if we are willing.

[Y]ou baptize this way: Having first said all these things, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water. But if you don’t have living [i.e. running] water, baptize in other water; and if you cannot baptize in cold, then baptize in warm. But if you have not either, pour water three times on the head in the name of Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment of God, conceived in the womb of Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Spirit. He was born and baptized, that by his passion he might purify the water.

Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judaea, in the times of Tiberius Caesar; and that we reasonably worship him, as he is the Son of the true God himself, and holding him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove. For they proclaim our madness to consist in this, that we give to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all; for they do not discern the mystery herein, to which, as we make it plain to you, we pray you to give heed.

It is the attribute of God, of the most high and almighty and of the living God, not only to be everywhere, but also to see and hear all; for he can in no way be contained in a place. . . . The three days before the stars were created are types of the Trinity: God, his Word, and his Wisdom.

The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit.

We, as we always have done (and more especially since we have been better instructed by the Paraclete, who indeed leads men into all truth), believe that there is only one God, but under the following dispensation, or oikonomia , as it is called, that this one and only God has a Son, his Word, who proceeded from himself, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. We believe he was sent by the Father into the Virgin, and was born of her—being both man and God, the Son of Man and the Son of God, and was called by the name of Jesus Christ; we believe he suffered, died, and was buried, according to the Scriptures, and, after he was raised again by the Father and taken back to heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead; and that this one God also sent from heaven, according to his own promise, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. This rule of faith has come down to us from the beginning of the gospel, even before any of the older heretics.

And at the same time the mystery of the divine economy is safeguarded, for the unity is distributed in a Trinity. Placed in order, the three are the Father, Son, and Spirit. They are three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in being, but in form; not in power, but in kind; of one being, however, and one condition and one power, because he is one God of whom degrees and forms and kinds are taken into account in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Bear always in mind that this is the rule of faith I profess; by it I testify that the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit are inseparable from each other, so you will know in what sense this is said. My assertion is that the Father is one, and the Son one, and the Spirit one, and that they are distinct from each other. This statement is taken in a wrong sense by every uneducated and perversely disposed person, as if it meant a diversity, or implied a separation among the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit.

For we do not say, as the heretics suppose, that some part of the substance of God was converted into the Son, or that the Son was procreated by the Father out of things non-existent, or beyond his own substance, so that there once was a time when he did not exist.

[P]utting away all corporeal conceptions, we say that the Word and wisdom was begotten out of the invisible and incorporeal without any corporeal feeling, as if it were an act of the will proceeding from understanding. Nor, seeing that he is called the Son of (his) love, will it appear absurd if he is also called the Son of (his) will. No, John also indicates that “God is Light,” and Paul also declares that the Son is the splendor of everlasting light. As light could not exist without splendor, neither can the Son exist without the Father; for he is called the “express image of his person,” and the Word and Wisdom. How, then, can it be asserted that there once was a time when he was not the Son? For that is to say that there was once a time when he was not the Truth, nor the wisdom, nor the life, although in all these he is judged to be the perfect essence of God the Father; for these things cannot be severed from him, or even separated from his essence. And although these qualities are many in understanding, yet in their nature and essence they are one, and in them is the fullness of divinity. This expression we employ—“that there never was a time when he did not exist”—is to be understood with a caveat. For these very words “when” or “never” have a meaning that relates to time, whereas statements regarding Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are to be understood as transcending all time, all ages, and all eternity.

The Logos alone of this God is from God himself; wherefore also the Logos is God, being the substance of God. Now the world was made from nothing; therefore it is not God.

For Scripture announces Christ as God, as it announces God himself as man. It has described Jesus Christ as man, as it has described Christ the Lord as God. It does not set him forth as the Son of God only, but also the Son of man; nor only as the Son of man, but it has been accustomed to speak of him as the Son of God. Being of both, he is both, lest if he should be only one, he could not be the other. For as nature has prescribed that he must be believed to be a man who is of man, so nature prescribes that he must be believed to be God who is of God; but if he should not also be God when he is of God, then he should not be man although he is of man. And thus both doctrines would be endangered in one or the other way, by one being convicted to have lost belief in the other. Let them, therefore—who read that Jesus Christ the Son of man is man—read also that this same Jesus is also called God and the Son of God.

Now truly it would be just to take issue with those who destroy the monarchy by dividing and rending it, the most august announcement of the Church of God, into three powers, and distinct substances, and three deities. For I have heard that some who preach and teach the word of God among you are teachers of this opinion, who indeed are diametrically opposed—so to speak—to the opinion of Sabellius. For he blasphemes in saying that the Son himself is the Father, and vice versa; but these in a certain manner announce three gods, in that they divide the holy unity into three different substances, absolutely separated from one another.

For it is essential that the divine Word should be united to the God of all, and that the Holy Spirit should abide and dwell in God; and thus that the divine Trinity should be gathered into one, as if into a certain head—that is, the omnipotent God of all. . . . It is not a trifling, but a very great impiety, to say that the Lord was in any way made with hands. For if the Son was made, there was a time when he was not; but he always was, if, as he himself declares, he is in the Father. . . . If the Son was made, there was a time when these were not in existence; and thus there was a time when God was without these things, which is utterly absurd.

That admirable and divine unity must not be separated into three divinities, nor must the dignity and eminent greatness of the Lord be diminished by having the name of creation applied to it, but we must believe in God the Father omnipotent, and in Christ Jesus his Son, and in the Holy Spirit. Moreover, that the Word is united to the God of all, because he says, “I and the Father are one” and “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.” Thus the doctrine of the divine Trinity will be maintained in its integrity.

There is one God. . . . There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Therefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; or anything added on, as if at some former period it was nonexistent, 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; but the same Trinity abides ever without variation and without change.

All those Catholic expounders of the divine Scriptures, both Old and New, whom I have been able to read, who have written before me about the Trinity, who is God, have purposed to teach, according to the Scriptures, this doctrine, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit intimate a divine unity of one and the same substance in an indivisible equality; and therefore that they are not three Gods, but one God: although the Father has begotten the Son, so he who is the Father is not the Son; and the Son is begotten by the Father, so he who is the Son is not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but rather the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. He is also co-equal with the Father and the Son, and he belongs to the unity of the Trinity.

Hymns, with Revelation and the Psalms of God [Patrick] sings, and expounds them to edify God’s people. This law he holds in the Trinity of the sacred name and teaches one being in three persons.

I bind to myself today the strong power of an invocation of the Trinity—the faith of the Trinity in unity, the Creator of the universe.

[T]here is no other God, nor has there been before now, nor will there be hereafter, except God the Father unbegotten, without beginning, from whom is all beginning, upholding all things, and his Son Jesus Christ, whom we also confess to have been with the Father always—before the world’s beginning. . . . Jesus Christ is the Lord and God in whom we believe . . . and who has poured out the Holy Spirit on us abundantly . . . whom we confess and adore as one God in the Trinity of the sacred name.

I praise you for all things, I bless you, I glorify you, along with the everlasting and heavenly Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, with whom, to you, and the Holy Spirit, be glory both now and to all coming ages. Amen.

[S]ome opportunity must be given for reviewing [the statements of heretics], with a view to the instruction and protection of various persons; even if only so that it does not seem that each perversion of the truth is condemned without examination, and simply prejudged; especially in the case of this heresy, which supposes that it possesses the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in only one God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the very same Person. As if in this way one were not all, in that all are of one, by unity of substance; while the mystery of the dispensation that distributes the unity into a Trinity is still guarded, placing in their order the three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in substance, but in form; not in power, but in aspect; yet of one substance.

Bear always in mind that this is the rule of faith I profess; by it I testify that the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit are inseparable from each other, so you will know in what sense this is said. My assertion is that the Father is one, and the Son one, and the Spirit one, and that they are distinct from each other. This statement is taken in a wrong sense by every uneducated and perversely disposed person, as if it meant a diversity, or implied a separation among the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit.

Thus, after the death of Zephyrinus, supposing that he had obtained [the position] he so eagerly pursued, [Pope Callistus] excommunicated Sabellius for not entertaining orthodox opinions.

And I should have enough to do were I to endeavor to gather together all the passages [of the kind in the previous quotation] . . . since the divine Scripture, not so much of the Old as also of the New Testament, everywhere shows him to be born of the Father, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made, who always has obeyed and obeys the Father; that he always has power over all things, but as delivered, as granted, as the Father himself permitted to him. And what can be stronger proof that this is not the Father, but the Son, as that the Son is obedient to God the Father, unless, if he be believed to be the Father, Christ may be said to be subjected to another God the Father?

But some treat the Holy Trinity in an awful manner, when they confidently assert that there are not three Persons, and introduce [the idea of] a person devoid of subsistence. We reject Sabellius, who says that the Father and the Son are the same, for he believes that the Father is the one who speaks, and the Son is the Word that abides in the Father, and becomes manifest at the time of the creation, and thereafter reverts to God on the fulfilling of all things. The same affirmation he makes also of the Spirit. We renounce this, because we believe that three Persons—namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are declared to possess the one Godhead: For the one divinity showing itself according to nature in the Trinity establishes the oneness of its nature.

But if they say, “How can there be three Persons, but one divinity?,” we shall make this reply: That there are indeed three Persons, because there is one person of God the Father, and one of the Lord the Son, and one of the Holy Spirit; yet there is only one divinity, because . . . there is one substance in the Trinity.

Now truly it would be just to take issue with those who destroy the monarchy by dividing and rending it, the most august announcement of the Church of God, into three powers, and distinct substances, and three deities. For I have heard that some who preach and teach the word of God among you are teachers of this opinion, who indeed are diametrically opposed—so to speak—to the opinion of Sabellius. For he blasphemes in saying that the Son himself is the Father, and vice versa; but these in a certain manner announce three gods, in that they divide the holy unity into three different substances, absolutely separated from one another.

For the kingdom of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is one, even as their substance is one and their dominion one. Therefore with one and the same adoration we worship the one Deity in three Persons, subsisting without beginning, uncreated, without end, and to which there is no successor. For neither will the Father ever cease to be the Father, nor the Son to be the Son and king, nor the Holy Spirit to be what in substance and personality he is. For nothing of the Trinity will be diminished, either in respect of eternity, communion, or sovereignty.

[The Trinity] is a Trinity not merely in name or figuratively; rather, it is a Trinity in truth and in actual existence. Just as the Father is he that is, so his Word is one that is and is God over all. And neither is the Holy Spirit nonexistent, but he actually exists and has true being. Less than these the Catholic Church does not hold, lest she sink to the level of the Jews of the present time, imitators of Caiaphas, or to the level of Sabellius.

For they are one, not as one thing divided into two parts, and these nothing but one, nor as one thing twice named, so that the same becomes at one time Father, at another his own Son. For believing this Sabellius was judged a heretic. But they are two, because the Father is Father and is not also Son, and the Son is Son and not also Father; but the nature is one.

We anathematize those also who follow the error of Sabellius in saying that the same one is both Father and Son.

The Father is not made nor created nor begotten by anyone. The Son is from the Father alone, not made or created, but begotten. . . . Let him who wishes to be saved think thus concerning the Trinity. But it is necessary for eternal salvation that he faithfully believe also in the Incarnation. . . . He is God begotten of the substance of the Father before time, and he is man born of the substance of his mother in time. . . . This is the Catholic faith; unless everyone believes this faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.

[T]hat we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity. . . . The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal, and yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.

[Y]ou baptize this way: Having first said all these things, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water. But if you don’t have living water, baptize in other water; and if you cannot baptize in cold, then baptize in warm. But if you have not either, pour water three times on the head in the name of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But before the baptism let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whoever else can; but you shall order the baptized to fast one or two days before.

Then said Jesus unto them, “I have been given all authority in heaven and earth; and as my Father has sent me, so I also send you. Go now into all the world, and preach my gospel in all the creation; and teach all the peoples, and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; and teach them to keep all whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you all the days, unto the end of the world” [Mt 28:18–20].

When the one being baptized goes down into the water, the one baptizing him shall put his hand on him and ask, “Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty?” And he that is being baptized shall answer, “I believe.” Then, with his hand on the head of the one to be baptized, he shall baptize him once, then he shall ask, “Do you believe in Christ Jesus . . . ?” And when he says, “I believe,” he is baptized again. Again shall he ask, “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit and the holy Church and the resurrection of the flesh?” The one being baptized then answers, “I believe.” And so he is baptized a third time.

After his Resurrection he promises in a pledge to his disciples that he will send them the promise of his Father [Lk 24:49]; and lastly, he commands them to baptize into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, not into a uni-personal God. And indeed it is not once but three times that we are immersed into the three Persons, at each mention of their names.

Why, when the Lord himself told his disciples that they should baptize all peoples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, does this apostle [Paul] employ the name of Christ alone in baptism, saying, “We who have been baptized into Christ”; for indeed, legitimate baptism is had only in the name of the Trinity.

Then Probus . . . leapt into the water, saying, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, and everlasting God, let all my sins be taken away by this water.” And Paul said, “We baptize thee in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit.” After this he made him to receive the Eucharist of Christ.

Finally, when, after the Resurrection, the apostles are sent by the Lord to the heathens, they are bidden to baptize the Gentiles in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. How, then, do some say that a Gentile baptized without, outside the Church, and in opposition to the Church, so that it be only in the name of Jesus Christ, can obtain remission of sin, when Christ himself commands the heathen to be baptized in the full and united Trinity?

We believe . . . each of these to be and to exist: the Father, truly Father, and the Son, truly Son, and the Holy Spirit, truly Holy Spirit, as our Lord, sending forth his disciples to preach, said, “Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” about whom we confidently affirm that so we hold, and so we think, and so we have always held, and we maintain this faith until death, anathematizing every godless heresy.

You were led by the hand to the holy pool of divine baptism, as Christ was carried from the cross to this sepulcher before us [the tomb of Jesus at Jerusalem]. And each of you was asked if he believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And you spoke that saving confession, and descended into the water three times, and again ascended, and in this the three days of Christ’s burial was suggested as a symbol.

And the whole faith is summed up and secured in this, that a Trinity should ever be preserved, as we read in the Gospel, “Go and baptize all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” [Mt 28:19]. And entire and perfect is the number of the Trinity.

The Holy Spirit, too, is numbered with the Father and the Son, because he is above creation, and is ranked as we are taught by the words of the Lord in the Gospel, “Go and baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” [Mt 28:19]. He who places the Spirit before the Son, or says he is older than the Father, resists the ordinance of God, and is a stranger to the sound faith, since he fails to preserve the form of doxology that he has received, but adopts some newfangled device in order to be pleasing to men.

Moreover, Christ himself says: “I and the Father are One” [Jn 10:30]. “One,” said he, that there be no separation of power and nature; but again, “We are,” that you may recognize Father and Son, for as much as the perfect Father is believed to have begotten the perfect Son, and the Father and the Son are One, not by confusion of Person, but by unity of nature. We say, then, that there is one God, not two or three Gods.

[N]ot yet perhaps is there upon your soul any writing good or bad; and you want to be written upon today, and formed by us unto perfection. Let us go within the cloud. Give me the tables of your heart; I will be your Moses, though this be a bold thing to say; I will write on them with the finger of God a new Decalogue [Ex 38:28]. I will write on them a shorter method of salvation. And if there be any heretical or unreasoning beast, let him remain below, or he will run the risk of being stoned by the Word of truth. I will baptize you and make you a disciple in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and these Three have one common name, the Godhead. And you shall know by appearances [Mt 28:19] and by words that you reject all ungodliness, and are united to all the Godhead.

For seeing that a man baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit becomes a temple of the Lord, and that while the old abode is destroyed a new shrine is built for the Trinity, how can you say that sins can be remitted among the Arians without the coming of the Holy Spirit? How is a soul purged from its former stains that does not have the Holy Spirit?

And we, in receiving baptism . . . conceal ourselves in [the water] as the Savior did in the earth: and by doing this three times we represent for ourselves that grace of the Resurrection, which was wrought in three days. And this we do, not receiving the sacrament in silence, but while the names of the three sacred Persons in whom we believe are spoken over us, in whom we also hope, and from whom comes to us our present and our future existence.

Baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit has Christ for its authority, not any man, whoever he may be; and Christ is the truth, not any man.

O Lord our God, we believe in you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For the truth would not say, “Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” . . . unless you were a Trinity.

[W]hat need is there of many words, when it is possible to refute falsehood in few? We provide that those who year by year come up for holy baptism should carefully learn the faith set forth at Nicaea by the holy and blessed Fathers; and initiating them as we have been bidden, we baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, pronouncing each name singly.