New Testament Texts Treating of the Divine Persons Severally — Article 1: Of God the Father

SECTION 3: NEW TESTAMENT TEXTS TREATING OF THE DIVINE PERSONS SEVERALLY

In demonstrating the dogma of the Most Holy Trinity from those texts of Sacred Scripture which treat of the Divine Persons severally, we shall have to establish three distinct truths: (1) The reality of each Divine Person in contradistinction to mere personification; (2) the non-coincidence of each Person with the others, in contradistinction to the Sabellian heresy which confuses them; and (3) the Divinity of each Person, in opposition to the Arian and Macedonian doctrine that the Son or the Holy Ghost is a creature.

As “Logos” is manifestly synonymous with Son of God, and “Paraclete” with Holy Ghost, there cannot be five Divine Persons, but only three. To establish the hypostatic difference of these three is the purpose of the first two members of this argument, while the third shows forth the absolute unity of the Divine Nature possessed by the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity in common.

The most important part of our task in this Section is to establish the true Divine Sonship of Jesus Christ, a conception which fully harmonizes with the dogma of the Blessed Trinity and sets forth with great clearness its two fundamental marks, viz.: Trinity and Unity. For, as Gössler pertinently observes, “Belief in, and knowledge of, the Triune God is conditioned upon belief in, and knowledge of, the Son of God.”¹ The combined results of exegetical research ultimately lead to the dogma of a real Trinity of Persons in one divine and indivisible Monad.

ARTICLE 1: OF GOD THE FATHER

1. God’s Fatherhood in the Figurative Sense of the Term

The Biblical use of the name “Father” indicates that He to whom it is applied is a real person. It also proves His Divinity. But it does not necessarily argue that He is a father in the strict sense of the term, or that He is the “first” in a group of three Divine Persons.

There is a human fatherhood which is merely analogical and figurative.² Similarly Holy Scripture often refers to the Godhead, i. e., the whole Blessed Trinity, as “Father” in a purely moral or metaphorical sense. Thus God is in a certain sense the Father of His creatures by the act of creation and the fact of His Divine Providence. Cfr. Job XXXVIII, 28: “God … the father of rain” (“pater pluviae,” i. e., auctor pluviae). Hebr. XII, 9: “The father of spirits” (pater spirituum). He is called in a special manner “Father of men,” or Father of the human race, because He created humankind out of pure benevolence and with paternal solicitude provides for their needs.³ In the Old Testament Jehovah’s relation to His Chosen People formed the basis of a particularly cordial and intimate kinship, which might well be styled fatherhood. Cfr. Deut. XXXII, 6: “Numquid non ipse est Pater tuus, qui possedit te et fecit et creavit te — Is not he thy father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?” Jer. XXXI, 9: “Quia actus sum Israeli Pater et Ephraim primogenitus meus est — For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.” It is a proof of the depth of feeling and the keen insight which distinguishes the Aryan nations that, though deprived of the benefits of supernatural Revelation, they fixed upon fatherhood as the characteristic note of God. Such appellations as the Sanskrit Dyaus Pitar, the Greek Ζεὺς πατήρ, and the Latin Iupiter, indicate that God impressed them above all else as the Father of men.

God’s supernatural fatherhood with regard to man is related to the natural fatherhood of which we have just spoken, as light is related to shadow, or as being to nothingness. From the purely natural point of view God is our master rather than our father, and we are His slaves rather than His children.⁴ But sanctifying grace elevates us to the supernatural rank of “children of God,” inasmuch as it gives us “power to be made the sons of God,” if we “believe in his name” and are “born of God.”⁵ Rom. VIII, 15: “Non enim accepistis spiritum servitutis iterum in timore, sed accepistis spiritum adoptionis filiorum, in quo clamamus: Abba, Pater — For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father).” 1 Cor. VIII, 6: “Yet to us there is but one God, the Father” (ὁ θεός, ὁ πατήρ). It is in this sense that we daily pray: “Our Father, who art in Heaven.”⁶

2. God’s Fatherhood in the Strict Sense of the Term

Besides and above the figurative paternity of God, there is peculiar to Him another and higher fatherhood. This is based not on His (natural or supernatural) relations to His creatures, but on a mysterious vital process immanent in the Deity. Revelation tells us that God has from all eternity begotten a Son of the same substance with Himself, the “unigenitus Filius, qui est in sinu Patris.”⁷ This physical, or, more correctly speaking, metaphysical, divine Sonship must have for its necessary correlative in the Godhead a true Fatherhood in the proper sense of the term. Hence the name “Father” is applied to God as a nomen proprium, or proper name, and it follows with logical necessity that there is a First Person in the Godhead. For, being a pure spirit, God the Father can have a natural, coessential son (filius naturalis) only in so far as, by virtue of eternal generation, He communicates the fulness of His Divine Nature to a Second Person, who must in consequence be the true Son of God, and therefore Himself God. Cfr. 2 Pet. I, 17: “Accipiens enim a Deo Patre honorem et gloriam, voce delapsa ad eum huiuscemodi a magnifica gloria: Hic est Filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi complacui, ipsum audite — For he received from God the Father honor and glory: this voice coming down to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” No one felt the force of this argument more keenly than the unbelieving Jews. Cfr. John V, 18: “Propterea ergo magis quaerebant eum Iudaei interficere, quia non solum solvebat sabbatum, sed et Patrem suum dicebat Deum, aequalem se faciens Deo (πατέρα ἴδιον ἔλεγε τὸν θεόν, ἴσον ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν τῷ θεῷ) — Hereupon therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the sabbath, but also said God was his Father, making himself equal to God.”

The sacred writers frequently emphasize God’s peculiar and singular Paternity, and quite consistently depict it as the pattern and exemplar of all creatural fatherhood. Cfr. 2 Cor. I, 3: “Benedictus Deus et Pater Domini nostri Iesu Christi — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Eph. III, 14 sq.: “Flecto genua mea ad Patrem Domini nostri Iesu Christi, ex quo [scil. Patre] omnis paternitas in coelis et in terra nominatur — I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named.”

This inner-divine Paternity cannot be predicated of the Divine Nature or Essence as such, for the Divine Essence neither begets nor is begotten. Hence it must consist in a relative opposition between the Father and the Son. Consequently, the Father is a Person distinct from the Son; and inasmuch as paternity is notionally prior to sonship, He is the First Person of the Blessed Trinity.

It is to be noted that the Antitrinitarians never denied that the Father is a real person, or that He is true God. What they disputed was that the Father is the First Person of the Godhead. And in this they were quite consistent; for had they admitted that proposition, they would have been forced to admit also that there is a Second Person, namely, the Divine Son. It is this truth we now proceed to demonstrate from Holy Scripture.

Readings

On the theology of the Father, cfr. Heinrich, Dogmat. Theologie, 2nd ed., Vol. IV, pp. 139 sqq., Mainz 1885; Oswald, Trinitätslehre, § 4; Simar, Dogmatik, 4th ed., Vol. I, pp. 228 sqq., Freiburg 1899; Fr. H. Chase, The Lord’s Prayer in the Early Church, Cambridge 1891. Also S. Thom., S. Theol., Ia, qu. 33 (Bonjoannes-Lescher, Compendium, pp. 84 sq.).