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The Early Church Fathers on the Divinity of Christ.
- Early Church Fathers
- From the Scriptures
- — St. Cyprian of Carthage, (A.D. 200-258)
— St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, (A.D. 213-270)
— Lactantius, (A.D. 240-c.330)
— St. Athanasius of Alexandria, (A.D. 296-372)
— Arnobius of Sicca, (unknown - A.D. c.320)
— Council of Nicaea, (A.D. 325)
— St. John Chrysostom, (A.D. 344 - 407)
— Council of Ephesus, (held in A.D. 431)
St. Cyprian of Carthage, (A.D. 200-258), North African; bishop; biblical scholar, martyr.
One who denies that Christ is God cannot become his temple [of the Holy Spirit].
Letters 73:12 [A.D. 253]
St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, (A.D. 213-270), (of NeoCæsarea), also known as Gregory the Wonderworker Asia Minor; bishop of Cæsarea, built up the Christian Church, extended its influence, and strengthened its institutions, student of Origen.
"There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is his subsistent wisdom and power and eternal image: perfect begetter of the perfect begotten, Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, only of the only, God of God, image and likeness of deity, efficient Word, wisdom comprehensive of the constitution of all things, and power formative of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, invisible of invisible, and incorruptible of incorruptible, and immortal of immortal and eternal of eternal. . . . And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abides ever".
Declaration of Faith [A.D. 265]
Lactantius, (A.D. 240-c.330), was an early Christian author, the goal of his writings was to present Christianity in a form that would be attractive to philosophical pagans.
He was made both Son of God in the spirit and Son of man in the flesh, that is, both God and man.
Divine Institutes 4:13:5 [A.D. 307]
"We, on the other hand, are [truly] religious, who make our supplications to the one true God. Someone may perhaps ask how, when we say that we worship one God only, we nevertheless assert that there are two, God the Father and God the Son—which assertion has driven many into the greatest error . . . [thinking] that we confess that there is another God, and that he is mortal. . . . [But w]hen we speak of God the Father and God the Son, we do not speak of them as different, nor do we separate each, because the Father cannot exist without the Son, nor can the Son be separated from the Father".
Divine Institutes 4:25-29
St. Athanasius of Alexandria, (A.D. 296-372), Egyptian; bishop, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. He was present, as an assistant to St. Alexander of Alexandria, at the council of Nicea who he succeeded in A.D. 326. During more than forty years he was the champion of orthodoxy, and suffered much severe persecution from the Arian party.
"For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."
St. Athanasius, De inc. 54, 3: PG 25, 192B.
Arnobius of Sicca, (unknown - A.D. c.320), was an Early Christian apologist, during the reign of Diocletian (A.D. 284-305), the master of Lactantius: he was a distinguished rhetorician who taught rhetoric at Sicca, in Numidia, at the end of the third or beginning of the fourth century. He has left us seven books against the Pagans.
"Well, then," some raging, angry, and excited man will say, "is that Christ your God?" "God indeed" we shall answer, "and God of the hidden powers".
Against the Pagans 1:42 [A.D. 305]
Council of Nicaea, (A.D. 325), met for two months and twelve days in Nice, (or Nicsea), in Bithynia. Three hundred and eighteen bishops were present. This council gave us the Nicene Creed as a result of Arius' heretical opinions, defining the true Divinity of the Son of God (homoousios). They also fixed of the date for keeping Easter and passed several canons of ecclesiastical discipline.
The first ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed that:
Tthe Son of God is "begotten, not made, of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father", and condemned Arius, who had affirmed that the Son of God "came to be from things that were not" and that he was "from another substance" than that of the Father.
Council of Nicaea I (325): DS 130, 126.
St. John Chrysostom, (A.D. 344 - 407), Syrian; archbishop, Doctor of the Church. Born at Antioch in 344; he was ordained priest in A.D. 383, and raised to the see of Constantinople in the year A.D. 398. His eloquence gained him the title of Chrysostom, or the mouth of gold. His expositions of Scripture, especially the Epistles of St. Paul, are very valuable. This illustrious prelate died on his road to exile, in A.D. 407.
"O only-begotten Son and Word of God, immortal being, you who deigned for our salvation to become incarnate of the holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, you who without change became man and were crucified, O Christ our God, you who by your death have crushed death, you who are one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit, save us!"
Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Troparion "O monogenes."
Council of Ephesus, (held in A.D. 431) this third general council assembled at Ephesus and was composed of more than two hundred bishops, amongst whom St. Cyril of Alexandria, who represented Celestine, bishop of Rome, bore the principal part. St. Cyril was the most active in opposition to Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, against whose errors especially this council was convened. Nestorius asserted two persons in Christ, and affirmed that the Blessed Virgin ought not to be called Theotocos, mother of God.
The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person joined to the divine person of God's Son. Opposing this heresy, St. Cyril of Alexandria and the third ecumenical council, at Ephesus in 431, confessed:
"That the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by a rational soul, became man."
Council of Ephesus (431)
Christ's humanity has no other subject than the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it and made it his own, from his conception. For this reason the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb:
"Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or his divinity received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to himself according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word is said to be born according to the flesh."
Council of Ephesus (431)
The Early Church Fathers believed and taught that Jesus Christ, as the second person of the Trinity, was God. He spoke with the authority of God and did things that only God could do. It is the reason why He was accused of blasphemy.
The Church's Scriptures that support the Divinity of Christ:
The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
John 1:1-4
The Testimony of John the Baptist: glory of Father's only Son, full of grace and truth
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. 15 John bore witness to him, and cried, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.' "
John 1:14-15
Jesus says, "if you knew me, you would know my Father."
19 They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father; if you knew me, you would know my Father also."
John 8:19
Jesus states, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."
58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." 59 So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.
John 8:58-59
The Father and I are one.
30 I and the Father are one." 31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?" 33 The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God."
John 10:30-33
Note: The Greek word that Jesus used in John 10:30-33 is the Greek equivalent of echad which is the Hebrew word used in Deuteronomy 6:4
See Exodus 3:14, 20:7; Leviticus 19:12, Leviticus 24:14-16.
The Father is in me and I am in the Father
37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."
John 10:37-38
Who ever sees me, sees the one who sent me — and — I have not spoken on my own authority
44 And Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And he who sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If any one hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge; the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority; the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has bidden me."
John 12:44-50
Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father.
8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip?
He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, `Show us the Father'?
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that
I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. 12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.
John 14:8-12
Jesus accepts Thomas' "My Lord and my God!"
28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."
John 20:28-29
The Church of God he acquired with His Blood
28 Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son.
Acts 20:28
In him we have redemption by His Blood
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace
Ephesians 1:7
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily
9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
Colossians 2:9-10
Glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ
11 For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, 12 training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, 13 awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
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Titus 2:11-14
The Blood of His Son Jesus cleanses from all sin.
6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; 7 but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:6-7
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