Whether the earliest Church Fathers believe in the Trinity or not is a subject for debate. Some of the evidence used to support the original belief in the Trinity is a triadic statement (referring to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) of the New Testament and the Father of the Church. The view that the Son is 'from the essence of the Father, God... very God Himself' was officially inaugurated at the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD. The Holy Spirit belongs to the First Council of Constantinople (381 AD), where the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one substance (ousia) and the three parallel hypostaseists) officially inaugurated.
Video Trinitarianism in the Church Fathers
Introduction
Some Trinitarians claim that the doctrine of the Trinity was revealed in New Testament times; the other, revealed in the Patristic period. Nontrinitarian, on the other hand, would generally argue that the traditional doctrine of the Trinity did not exist until centuries after the end of the New Testament period. Some Trinitarians agree with this, seeing progress from time to time towards a true understanding of the Trinity. Trinityists sometimes refer to Christian beliefs about God before the traditional notion of the Trinity is neither simple nor 'naive', nor 'new Trinitarianism', and that early Christians were 'proto-Trinitarian, part Trinitarian', etc. Unitarians and some Trinitarians would argue that this means that the early Christians were not actually Trinitarians.
The phrases connecting the names of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit occur very early in the History of the Christian Church. This is sometimes regarded as an expression of the Trinity. At other times, they are referred to more generally as 'triadic'. It is stated by some that 'These passages can not be immediately taken as evidence of belief in the substantial unity of God; names can be combined for a number of reasons (eg unity in speech, unity of purpose, etc.) so that even the use of three-fold formula can not be inferred '.
Two examples appear in the New Testament: 2 Corinthians 13:13 and Matthew 28:19. The context of 2 Corinthians 13:14 (verse 13 in the Vulgate and NRSV), which is the cover of a letter, suggests the church's relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit may have come as a doxological formula; while the context of Matthew 28:19, the Great Commission, shows that the verbal conjunction of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is used from the beginning as the formula of baptism. The Unitarians argue that 'the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are mentioned together [in the New Testament] in the same context, but not in any way that shows that they are all different people who together cover the whole of God'; 'literary triad' is not the same as ontological triunities'.
This triadic pattern is even more visible in the available glimpses of the early Church's liturgy and the daily practice of catechetics. Nevertheless, some say that 'the indication of apostolic and sub-apostolic writers is that their triadic [...] formula does not carry the same significance as the post-Nicene triadic formula. The oldest surviving work in which the word "Trinity" itself (Greek Triac, triados ) is used is Theophilus of the 2nd century Antiochia To Autolycus. There it is used to refer to God, his words and his wisdom. The view that the Son is 'the essence of the Father, the Lord God... the very God Himself' was officially inaugurated at the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD The Holy Spirit was included in the First Council of Constantinople (381 CE), where the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as one substance ( ousia ) and three equals ( hypostaseis ) officially inaugurated.
Maps Trinitarianism in the Church Fathers
2nd century
The beginning of the second century: Ignatius of Antioch
Ignatius, the second bishop of Antioch, who was martyred in Rome around 110 AD, wrote a series of letters to churches in Asia Minor on his way to execution in Rome. Conjunctions of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit appear in his letter to the Magnesian church:
Therefore, study, to be established in the teachings of God and the apostles, in order that all things, whatever you do, can prosper in both the flesh and the spirit; in faith and love; in the Son, and in the Father, and in the Spirit; at the beginning and in the end; with your most magnificent bishop, and your well-compressed spiritual presbytery, as well as godly deacons. Be subject to the bishop, and to each other, as Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the flesh, and the apostles to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit; so that there may be a good and spiritual unity. - Epistle to the Magnesians , Chapter 13 [SR]
Unitarians would argue that Ignatius does not show that the Father, the Son and the Spirit 'are one more substance than the flesh says and the spirit is a substance'.
First half of the second century or the end of the first century: Didache
This source uses only the Gospel of Matthew and no other Gospel is known, and therefore must have been written before the canon of four Gospels had spread widely in the churches, ie before the second half of the 2nd century when Tatian produced Diatessaron. Given its dependence on the Gospel of Matthew, it is not surprising that Didache follows the Gospel of Matthew by designating the triadic formula as the formula of baptism:
After the above instruction, baptize in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the life [running] the water.... If you do not have, pour water three times in the head, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. - Didache 7: 1
ca. 155: Polycarp of Smyrna
Polikarpus became a martyr in Smyrna (where he was also a Bishop) in 155. It was said by Irenaeus of Lyons that he was a disciple of the Apostle John. In his last prayer before his martyrdom, he "praised, glorified, and blessed" the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
169-181: Theophilus of AntiochFor this reason, yes and for all things, I praise You, I bless You, I glorify You, through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, Your Beloved Son, through whom with Him and the Holy Spirit be the good present now [ and ever] and for the future. Amin. - Polikarpus martyrdom 14: 3
Theophilus of Antioch Ad Autolycum is the oldest surviving work that uses the word "Trinity" to refer to God, His Word, and His Wisdom. The context is a discussion of the first three days of creation in Genesis 1-3:
... Three days before the characters were created were the types of the Trinity, God, His Word, and His Wisdom. - To Autolycus 2:15
Defended by some people that 'Theophilus does not use ????? means' three-in-one ', but only uses it to show that there are three things before man, God and His Word and His Wisdom'; that he, like other second- and third-century writers, refers to "a" trinity ", triad or threesome, but not a triune or trippersonal God.
Third century: Theology in response to Patripassianism and Sabellianism
At the beginning of the 3rd century Tertullian and Hippolytus of Rome wrote Against Praxeas and Against Noetus , respectively, which is sometimes regarded as the first expository treatment of Trinitarian theology. Both authors use the word Trinity (Latin: Trinity, Greek: Triass ), but the term has no meaning of the Trinity. They wrote these works to combat Patripassianism, the view that the Father suffered on the cross with the Son. In the third century there were also Trinitarian theologies expressed in writings against Monarchianism, Sabellianism, and Modalism.
210: Tertullian
Tertullian's treatise on a Patripassian heretic named Praxeas, who claims that the Father has suffered with the Son on the cross, is arguably the oldest still existing treatise with detailed explicit Trinitarian theology. In his book Against Praxeas Tertullian writes:
And at the same time the mystery of oikonomia is guarded, because unity is distributed in the Trinity. Put in order, all three are Father, Son, and Spirit. They are three, but not in condition, but in degrees; not in form, but in form; not in power, but in form; from one being, however, and one condition and one force, for he is one God whose degrees and forms and types are taken into account in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. - against Praxeas 2
Others, however, argue that Tertullian is unitarian, claiming that Tertullian's use of the word "trinity" differs from later Trinitarian usage: 'For Tertullian, the one God is not the Trinity; rather, one God is a member of the trinity... '; '... The Tertullian Trinity is not a triune God, but a triad or a group of three, with God as a founding member'.
ca. 220: Hippolytus Roma
At the beginning of the 3rd century, Hippolytus of Rome wrote an Against Noetus treatise, in response to a Christian from Smyrna named Noetus who had promoted the views of the Patripassians, whom Hippolytus considered heretical. Noetus and other Patripassi, such as Praxeas (see above, in relation to Tertullian), claim that the Father and the Son have suffered on the cross. Like Tertullian, Hippolytus explicitly uses the word Trinity in his treatise on the Patripassian view:
Therefore, the Word of the Father, who knows the economy and will of the Father, to know that the Father is seeking to be worshiped in other ways than this, gives this charge to the disciples after rising from the dead: "Go and teach all nations, baptize they are in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. "(Mt 28:19) And with this he points out that whoever is eliminated one of them, fails to glorify God perfectly. Because through the Trinity the Father is glorified. Because the Father desires, the Son does and the Spirit manifests. - Against Noetus
Some, referring to another section of Against Noetus along with Hippolytus ' The Refutation of All Heresies , see Hippolytus as nontrinitarian, saying that' in his theology, the divine (but less divine from God) Logos emerged from God some time ago, so God can create the cosmos in his way. Therefore, in two ways, this makes it not trinitarian - that the "people" are not equal or equally divine.
ca. 225: Origen
Origen In The First Principle De Principiis or the Archonian Fairy ) is the oldest surviving Christian theological treatise. Origen's theology of God is developed in this treatise, which reveals that today the use of the word Trinity to refer to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is the standard in orthodox churches. However, it is said that the word still does not have any later Trinitarian meaning.
For only the Trinity alone transcends every sense in which not only temporal but even immortal can be understood. It's all other things, indeed, that are outside the Trinity, which must be measured by time and age....
It seems right to ask the reason why he who is 'born again through God' for salvation requires both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and will not obtain salvation apart from the whole Trinity, and why it is impossible to be part of the Father or the Son without the Holy Spirit. In discussing these points, it is undoubtedly necessary to describe the activity unique to the Holy Spirit and what is specific to the Father and the Son. -
However, it is also argued in the contradiction that the word Trinity is used with a very similar meaning to its fourth century usage.
This is most clearly shown by the Apostle Paul, pointing out that the power of the Trinity is one and the same, in the words, "There are various gifts, but the same Spirit; there is a diversity of administrations, but equal to God, and there are various operations, but it is the same God who does all things, but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone to benefit: by itself. "From which it most clearly follows that there is no difference in the Trinity, but the so-called gifts of the Spirit are revealed through the Son, and operated by God the Father.
Some see Origen as holding what many scholars have called "subordinate" Christology: in Origen, "the Son and the Spirit always in some sense come from, less than, and subject to its source, the one God, that is, Father ':
God and Father, who unite the universe, is superior to every existing being, for it imparts to each of its own existence; The Son, who is less than the Father, is superior to rational beings alone (for he is second to the Father); The Holy Spirit is still lacking, and dwelling in the saints alone. So in this way the power of the Father is greater than the Son and the Holy Spirit, and that the Son is more than the Holy Spirit... (Origen, First, 33-4 [I. 3])
From this, it is said that Origen is actually a unitary. Yet others see Origen as teaching the deplorable delivery of the Son and the Spirit's procession as a unity of power and operation. In this view, the Son and the Spirit have the power that is not less than the Father, for it is literally His power. Both the Creed of Nicea and Athanasia assert that the Son is begotten , and the Spirit continues from , Father, together and eternally.
ca. 256: Novatian
Novatian, the presbyter of Rome, wrote the oldest surviving treatise of Christians specifically dedicated to and titled On the Trinity. This was written in response to a number of views considered by Novatian, and especially against Sabellius, who has maintained that the Trinity is divided into three prosocians, or "the character in which God is revealed to man, the Trinity becomes one of revelation, not essence ".
For as many Scriptures proclaim Christ as God, for announcing God Himself as a human being. He has portrayed Jesus Christ many times as a human being, since he also described Christ as God. Therefore it is not for him to be the Son of God alone, but also the son of man; nor does it just say, the son of man, but also has been accustomed to speak of him as the Son of God. In order to be both, he is both, lest if he has to be the only one, he can not be the other. Because as determined by nature that it must be believed to be a human being, the same nature also stipulates that it must be believed to be God of God... Therefore, let them, who read it Jesus Christ the son of man is a human being, read also that this same Jesus is called God and Son of God. - Minutes of the Trinity , 11
Some, referring to chapter 31 of On the Trinity , maintain that when Novatian calls Christ 'God' he still excludes him from 'one true God'.
262: Pope Dionysius
According to Athanasius of Alexandria, in the middle of the 3rd century Pope Dionysius wrote a letter to Dionysius of Alexandria criticizing Sabellius's view of the relationship between the Son and the Father, as well as some who tried to disprove Sabellius's views. He quoted parts of Dionysius's letter in the edict of the Council of Nicea . In this letter it is clear that Dionysius used the word Trinity (Greek Trias ) to explain the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit:
Furthermore, I may naturally turn to those who divide and dismember and destroy the most sacred doctrine of the Lord's Church, the Divine Monarchy, making it as if it were the three divine forces and subsistence and gods. I am told that some of you who are catechists and teachers of the Divine Word, lead in this doctrine, diametrically opposed, as well as, with Sabellius's opinions; because he blasphemously says that the Son is the Father, and the Father of the Son, but they in some way preach the three Gods, as dividing the Holy Unity into three alien livelihoods and completely separate. For surely that with the God of the Universe, the Word of the Divine is united, and the Holy Spirit must rest and dwell in God; so in one as at the summit, I mean the God of the Universe, must the Divine Trinity be collected and put together.... No, then, may we divide into three godheads The beautiful and divine Unity... On the contrary, we must believe in God, the Father Almighty; and in Christ Jesus his Son; and in the Holy Spirit; and that the Word is united with the Lord of the universe. 'For,' he said, 'the Father and I are one,' and 'I am in the Father, and the Father in me'. Therefore, both the Divine Trinity and the sacred preaching of the Monarchy will be preserved. - 'De decretis Nic. syn. 26
265: Gregory the Wonderworker
Gregory is the bishop of Neocaesarea in Asia Minor, and wrote the Declaration of Faith that treats the Trinity as a standard theological vocabulary:
There is one God.... There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, not divided or alienated. Hence nothing is created or in bondage in the Trinity; or anything super induced, as if in some previous period it did not exist, and at some later period was introduced. And so the Son never wanted the Father, or the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity persists. - Declaration of Faith .
References
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