234 ORIGEN THE TRINITY 240
Some are confused on the subject of the relation between the Father and Son: they take the text 'We are found false witnesses of God, because we testified of God that he raised the Christ, whom he did not raise', and similar passages which clearly show a distinction between raiser and raised; and with these they compare 'Destroy this temple and I will raise it in three days', and take this as proving a numerical identity between the Son and the Father, so that the two are spoken of as really one subject, not just one in essence, and Father and Son differ in certain functions and not in individual existence. To such men one must first quote the dominant, systematic statements of the distinction between the Father and the Son; and point out that the Son must be in the relation of son to the Father and vice versa. And besides, Jesus admits that he 'can do nothing save what he sees the Father doing' and he says that 'whatever the Father does, these things the Son does likewise'............................
(b) The Subordination of the Son
In his use of the article and in the omission of it John displays great care and an accurate knowledge of Greek idiom. He adds the article to 'Word'. but to the appellation 'God' he sometimes prefixes it, some-times omits it. He prefixes the article when the name 'God' is applied to the absolute being, the author of all things; he does not use it when the Word is named 'God'. But while 'the God' is distinguished from 'God' in these contexts, there is probably a similar distinction between 'the Word' and 'Word'. For just as the supreme God is 'the God' and not simply 'God', so the Word [Logos] who is the source of the reason [logos] which is in every reasonable being, is called 'the Word', a title which would not rightly be applied to the reason in each individual. Hence we can resolve a difficulty which troubles many who claim to be devout. In their anxiety to avoid designating two gods they became involved in false and impious doctrines; for either they deny the individuality of the Son, as something distinct from that of the Father, while they confess the divinity of him whom they call, as far as the name goes, the Son; or they deny the divinity of the Son while asserting his individuality and personality as really separate and distinct from that of the Father. To such people we must say that sometimes 'God' means 'God-in-himself' ; thus it is that the the Saviour, in his prayer to the Father, says, 'That they may know thee, the only true God'. Everything which, without being 'God-in-himself' is deified by participation in his godhead should strictly be called 'God', not 'the God'. The 'firstborn of all creation', since he by being 'with God' first gathered godhead to himself is therefore in every way more honoured than the others besides himself who are 'gods' of whom God is the God, as it is said, 'God the Lord of gods spoke and called the world'. For it was through his ministry that they became gods, since he drew divinity from God for them to be deified, and of his kindness generously shared it with them. God, then, is the true God, and those who through him are fashioned into gods are copies of the prototype. And, again, the copy which is the archetype of the many copies is the Word which was 'with God' who was 'in the beginning'. He remains God by being with God: but he would not have had this status had he not been with God; and he would not have remained God had he not persisted in the unremitted vision of the depth of the Father's being.
(f) The Distinct Spheres of the Three Persons
We have said that the Holy Spirit is granted only to the holy, while the benefits, or operations, of the Father and the Son extend to the good and the bad, the righteous and the unrighteous. Let none therefore suppose that we have thereby raised the Holy Spirit above the Father and the Son, or are asserting that he is of higher rank; such an inference is utterly illogical. For we have restricted his grace and work to a particular sphere. And, besides this, there must be no question of lesser or greater in the Trinity, since the source of the one godhead holds sway over all things by his Word and Reason and sanctifies by the 'Spirit of his mouth' all that is worthy of sanctification; as the Psalm says, 'By the word of the Lord the heavens were set fast, and the whole power of them by the spirit [breath] of his mouth'. There is also a certain operation of God the Father in his creatures besides that by which of his own nature he bestows existence on all. There is also a certain special ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ towards those on whom from his own nature he confers rationality; a ministry through which he bestows well-being on those that are in being. There is also another grace of the Holy Spirit which is bestowed on the deserving, a grace which is ministered through Christ while it is made effective by the Father according to the desert of those who are made able to receive it [or him]. This is most plainly shown by the Apostle Paul when he describes the power of the Trinity as one and the same and says: 'There are differences of gifts, but the same Spirit; differences of ministrations, but the same Lord; and differences of operations, but the same God who makes all things operative in all. But to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit, according to what is profitable.' Hence it is most plainly laid down that there is no divergence in the Trinity; what is called the gift of the Spirit is ministered through the Son and made operative through God the Father. 'But all these things are made operative by one and the same Spirit, distributing to each as he wills.'