Chapter I.
1. In the beginning was the Word etc. This book, which concerns the incarnate Word, in whom a twofold nature is considered, namely divine and human, is first divided into two parts. In the first he treats of the Word in himself; in the second, insofar as he is united to flesh, and that part begins there: There was a man sent from God. And because word denotes operative power, as Augustine says, and has relation both to the one speaking and to that which is said through the word: therefore the first part has two sections. In the first, the Word is treated in comparison to the one speaking; in the second, in comparison to those things which are spoken through the Word: All things were made through him.
Part I. On the Word in himself, and first in comparison
TO THE ONE SPEAKING.
In the first part four clauses are set forth, in which the incarnate Word is described with respect to four conditions, which are: unity in essence, otherness in person, equality in majesty, coeternity in duration. And through these conditions four errors are refuted.
2. (Verse 1.). The first condition, therefore, is unity in essence, and it is noted in the first clause, when it is said: In the beginning was the Word: as Augustine says: "There is a principle not from a principle, and this is the Father; and there is a principle from a principle, and this is the Son." Here principle is taken by antonomasia for the Father: whence the sense is: In the beginning, that is, in the Father, is the Son, not separated from the Father in essence, below in the fourteenth chapter: "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me," as undivided: because as is said below in the tenth chapter: "I and the Father are one." And in this the unbelief of the pagans is refuted, who are indignant with us because we say three persons and not three gods: as Augustine says in On the Christian Combat; and this, because they do not understand how the Word was in the beginning.
3. The second condition is otherness in person, and this is touched upon in the second clause, when it is said: The Word was with God: because, as the Grammarian says, and also Victor, prepositions are transitive; therefore this preposition with implies distinction insofar as it is a preposition, but by reason of its special signification it denotes authority in the Father and subauthority in the Son, because the lesser is said to be with the greater and not conversely, according to the common manner of speaking. But there, although there is no lesser and greater, nevertheless there is authority in the Father and subauthority in the Son. By the name word, however, is understood the emanation of generation. And these three are touched upon in Ecclesiasticus twenty-four: "I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn before every creature ": of the Most High, behold authority; from the mouth, behold generation; I came forth, behold distinction. And in this the heresy of the Sabellians is refuted, who hold that the Father and the Son are one and the same: because they did not understand how the Word was with God.
4. The third condition is equality in majesty, and this is touched upon in the third clause, where it says: And the Word was God. For if, as Anselm says, "God is that than which nothing greater can be thought"; if the Word was God, then he was that than which nothing greater could be thought, and thus he was equal to the Father in majesty; below in the fourteenth chapter he said to the disciples: "You believe in God, believe also in me." If one must believe in God alone as in the highest truth, and one must believe in the Word, it follows that the Word was God. And in this the heresy of the Arians is refuted, who held the Son to be a creature and lesser than the Father, as Augustine says. For they did not understand how the Word was God.
5. (Verse 2). The fourth condition is coeternity in duration, and this is touched upon when it is said: He was in the beginning with God, in which coeternity is noted. For God the Father was from eternity; but if the Son were not coeternal, the Father existed before the Son; therefore the Word was not in the beginning with God. But he was in the beginning, and therefore coeternal. Whence Proverbs 8: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made anything from the beginning. From eternity I was ordained." And in this the heresy of the Photinians and the Ebionites is refuted, who said that Christ took his beginning entirely from Mary, as Augustine says in On the Christian Combat . For they did not understand how the Word was in the beginning with God.
Questions.
6. For the understanding of the foregoing, the following may be asked here:
Question I. Since "Son" conveys the most distinctive property, why does he describe the Son of God under the name Word rather than under the name Son? For it seems that he ought to have done the contrary.
I respond: It must be said that son expresses a relation only to the father, but word expresses a relation to the one speaking, expresses a relation to that which is said through the word, expresses a relation to the voice which it assumes, and also expresses a relation to the teaching which is effected in another through the word. And since the Son of God ought to be described here not only in relation to the Father, from whom he proceeds, but also in relation to the creatures which he made, and to the flesh which he assumed, and to the teachings which he provided, he ought most nobly and most fittingly to be described under the name Word, because that name regards all these things, nor could a more fitting name be found in the world.
7. Question II. Likewise it is asked about the fact that he is described by the verb was. For if was is of the imperfect past tense, it is entirely repugnant to eternity, because there is no passing away there. If you say, as Augustine says in the Gloss, that the verb is sometimes implies time according to the analogy of other verbs, but here it does not denote time, but designates essence without any temporal motion: this does not solve the difficulty, because when it is said: the Son is begotten or has been begotten, time is not implied there; yet it is better said always begotten than always being begotten.
Likewise the Lord says thus: Before Abraham was made, I am, below in the eighth chapter; He does not say I was or I used to be: therefore even now He ought to speak through the present tense.
I respond: It must be said that because the being of the Word is described here as permanent, it is described as immutable, as preceding all other things, because this word was, according as such, imports these three things: therefore he most elegantly said was. For since it is a mean between the present and the past, and "a mean partakes of the nature of the extremes," from the present it has permanence, from the past immutability, from itself precedence and order, namely of eternity in relation to time. Therefore was is rightly said.
8. But the heretic objects: if the Word proceeds from the speaker as a son from a father, and the son is posterior to the father, therefore the Word was not in the beginning with God. If you say that it is compared as splendor to light, another heretic objects: if light is much more luminous and nobler than the splendor which proceeds from it, therefore also the Father is greater than the Word.
I respond: It must be said that the taking of a likeness, namely in creatures, is nowhere fully found with respect to God, because every creature is more dissimilar than similar; and therefore the heretics erred who wished to assimilate entirely, but the likeness must be taken from many sources. For the Word is compared to the speaker as a son to a father on account of likeness in nature and equal perfection; it is compared as splendor to light on account of coeternity. And therefore in all such arguments there is a fallacy of the consequent.
Second, concerning the Word in comparison to those things which are spoken through Him.
9. (Verse 3). All things were made through Him, etc. Here the Word is described by comparison to that which is spoken through the Word, and this with respect to four conditions: for it describes Him as a sufficient principle of creation, as unfailing, as foreknowing, as providing knowledge to others. And through these four conditions many heresies are refuted.
First, therefore, He is called a sufficient principle, because He suffices for producing all things. Therefore he says: All things were made through Him, namely by God the Father through the Word, because Sirach 18: "He who lives forever created all things together"; and this through the Word, whence in the Psalm: "He spoke, and they were made." Augustine in the book of the Confessions: "By the Word coeternal with You, You speak whatever You speak, and whatever You say is made, nor do You make otherwise than by speaking."
10. And without him was made nothing. Here the second condition is noted, namely that he is an unfailing principle, because he is absent from no operation. For the Father does nothing without the Word: below in chapter five: "All things that the Father does, these the Son likewise does." Similarly, a creature does nothing without the cooperating Word: below in chapter fifteen: "Without me you can do nothing." And by this the heresy of the Manichaeans is perfectly refuted, who posited two principles, and that some things were produced by the God of light, and some by the God of darkness. For they did not understand how all things were made through the Word:
11. (Vers. 4.). What was made, in him was life. Here the third condition is noted, namely that he is a foreknowing principle, because all things are in him before they are made, and in him they live, just as a chest in the mind of the craftsman. Whence Augustine says that the Son is "the art full of all living reasons"; Ecclesiasticus chapter twenty-three: "To the Lord God, before they were created, all things are known: so also after their completion he beholds all things." Therefore the reasons flourish in him, because they are not changed: James chapter one: "With him there is no change nor shadow of alteration"; and every change is a kind of death.
12. And the life was the light of men. Here the fourth condition is touched upon, which is that he provides knowledge to others; therefore he is called the light of men, because he illuminates men and makes them see: whence in the Psalm: "The light of your countenance is signed upon us, O Lord." Without which light there is no seeing, as Augustine says, because just as the eye does not see unless it is illuminated by corporeal light, so the intellect does not see unless it is illuminated by the most spiritual light. And although he provides knowledge to all, he does not however provide knowledge of himself to all, because sinners know through him and yet do not comprehend him. Therefore he says:
13. (Vers. 5.). And the light shines in the darkness, when he makes sinners know true things: and the darkness did not comprehend it: because those blinded by the darkness of unbelief do not know it: Genesis chapter one: "Darkness was upon the face of the abyss," that is, unbelief upon the face of the human heart. Whence Ephesians chapter five: "You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord"; First John chapter one: "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." And by this is refuted that error which held that all things come from fortune, and that there is no providence, nor does God know our deeds.