Annotation XV

”He saw the Holy Spirit, like a dove.” — Matthew 3:16

On the Trinity.

The author of the Opus imperfectum must be read cautiously — homily 4, near the end — where in the Arian manner he hands down that the three divine persons are altogether unequal among themselves, in these words: “In what mystery Christ was born, in this mystery he also received the Holy Spirit. For, the Son of God receiving baptism and the Spirit descending, the one [the Father] stood in human form, the [third] was descending in the appearance of a dove; while [the Father], neither standing in human form nor descending in the appearance of a dove, was heard only in a voice coming down from above.” — But this is the confession of foolish heretics. The more prudent heretics do not say that the three are one God, but that the three have the same substance — which Macedonius confesses rather than the homoousion [consubstantial]. “Let us see, then, to whom [the Spirit] is equal. [The Father] did not say ‘This is our beloved Son,’ lest, like God [the Father], the Holy Spirit too should seem to have been the Father of Christ. For if they are equal in all things — just as [the Father] is honored with fatherhood, so too the Holy Spirit [would be]. But if God is Father because he has a Son, while the Holy Spirit is not Father because he has no Son — is he equal in all things? Nor was it said ‘These are our beloved Sons,’ lest the Holy Spirit, together with Christ, be thought a son. For if he is equal to Christ in all things, he too is a son, just as Christ. But if not a son, as Christ [is], but a faithful minister of Christ — is he not [then] unequal to Christ?”