appears from Heb. I, 2: "Diebus istis [Deus] locutus est nobis in Filio, per quem fecit et saecula - In these days [God] hath spoken to us by his Son, . . . by whom he also made the world." 43 While the term ảñavyaoμa tñs dóέŋs represents the Father as "light,” and the Son as the reflection of this light (for this reason He is called lumen de lumine as well as Deus de Deo),14 the locution χαρακτήρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ complements the former by emphasizing the independent subsistence of the Son of God (i. e., Christ) in His relative opposition to God the Father,- a point which the Fathers of the Church did not fail to insist upon in their early conflicts with Photinus and Sabellius.

d) The Scriptural teaching so far developed furnishes us with a key for interpreting those numerous texts which speak of the primogeniture of Christ.

The "only begotten Son" (unigenitus, povoyevýs) alone is and always remains the "firstborn" (primogenitus, πрWτÓTOKOS).45 No creature can claim to be His equal in πρωτότοκος).4 birth or dignity. St. Paul's teaching on this head is most clearly developed in his Epistle to the Colossians. There he distinguishes in Christ a twofold "right of the firstborn" the one divine, the other human; the former based upon the title of creation, redemption, and final

43 Cfr. John I, 10, 3.

44 Cfr. W. Humphrey, S. J., "His Divine Majesty," pp. 433 sq., London 1897.

45 " Πρωτότοκος is not an exact translation of Primogenitus, though Homer, as Petavius says, may use TIKTW for gigno. It is never used in Scripture for Only-begotten. We

never read there of the First-born of God, or of the Father; but Firstborn of the creation, whether the original creation or the new."Newman, Causes of the Rise and Successes of Arianism" in Tracts Theol. and Eccles., p. 204 n., London 1895.

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end; the latter on Christ's prerogative as the mystic head and reconciler of His Church, which consists of

46

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sinful men. From the first-mentioned viewpoint He is " primogenitus omnis creaturae (πρωτότοκος πάσης KTÍσEWS)"; from the point of view mentioned in the second place, He is " primogenitus ex mortuis (ρWτÓTOKOS ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν).” In both respects Christ is no mere creature, but very God. For like unto the Hypostatic Wisdom of the Old Testament,47 He possesses, as the firstborn of every creature," an eternal, divine existence, and is equipped with creative power, whereby He has created and upholds the universe together with the realm of angels.48 As the "firstborn from the dead," on the other hand, He is "the head of the body [of] the church," absolute "beginning," the one "who holds in all things the primacy," the possessor of "the fullness of all perfection," and lastly "the reconciling mediator through the blood of His cross, of the things that are on the earth and the things that are in heaven,”—all of which can be true only on the supposition that Christ as the Firstborn is at the same time the true and genuine Son of God, and therefore Himself God.49 According to St. Paul, therefore, Christ's human primogeniture is based upon His divine primogeniture, which in turn coincides with His unigeniture (primogenitus = unigenitus).50

4. THE CONSUBSTANTIALITY OF THE SON OF GOD WITH GOD.-In the Scriptural texts we

have cited, the Divinity which is communicated to the Son by His divine yévmois from the Father is not founded upon Ditheism, or the existence of two coequal gods, but on the numerical identity of the Divine Nature.

This conclusion, which flows so manifestly from the monotheistic character of both the Old and the New Testament, is expressly confirmed in the Epistle to the Philippians, where St. Paul draws a neat distinction between the "form of a servant" (forma servi, μoppn Souλov) and the "form of God" (forma Dei, μopon δούλου)

et

cov). By the former he means the truly human, and by the latter the truly divine nature of Jesus Christ, in the possession of which the Son of God is consubstantial or coequal with God (aequalis Deo, toa ℗e). “Qui [scil. Christus] cum in forma Dei esset, non rapinam arbitratus est, esse se aequalem Deo, sed semetipsum exinanivit formam servi accipiens habitu inventus ut homo-Christ Jesus, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant . . . and in habit found as a man." Forma servi" in this context can mean nothing else than the human nature which the Son of God "assumed," 52 and in virtue of which He was "found as a man." "Forma Dei," on the other hand, plainly signifies the Divine Nature, which Christ possessed before he "took the form of a servant" and before He "emptied Himself," and which to claim He did not need to think robbery, i. e., unjust usurpation. It is immaterial whether we take "rapina"

51 Phil. II, 5 sqq.

52 John I, 14: "And the Word

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was made flesh, and dwelt among us."

in its active sense as "actus rapiendi," or objectively as res rapta."

"53

B. The Divinity of Christ

If Christ is truly the Son of God, no special argument is required to show that He is Divine. Yet as Holy Scripture, aside from those passages which prove Christ's Divine Sonship, also contains a number of texts which expressly assert His Divinity, it will be well to study these separately and to show how they confirm our thesis. We shall divide them into three distinct groups.

I. THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES OF CHRIST.—A being that possesses divine attributes and performs divine acts, is truly divine. Christ, according to the New Testament Revelation, possesses divine attributes and performs divine acts. Consequently He is true God. The major premise of this syllogism, being merely a descriptive definition of God, needs no proof. From out of the profusion of Scriptural texts which can be cited in support of the minor, we select the following.

53 Cfr. St. Chrysostom, Hom. in Philip., 7, n. 2: "Hoc, inquam, esse aequalem Deo, non ex rapina habuit, sed a natura, quamobrem seipsum exinanivit." For a full elucidation of Phil. II, 5 sqq., see K. J. Müller, Brief des hl. Paulus

an die Philipper, Freiburg 1899.The dogma of Christ's Divine Sonship is ably defended against the attacks of the Modernists by M. Lepin, Christ and the Gospel (English tr.), pp. 263 sqq., Philadelphia 1910.

a) The New Testament predicates self-existence, which is the fundamental attribute of the Godhead, in the same terms of Christ in which the Old Testament predicates it of Jehovah. Jesus said to St. John: 54 "Noli timere, ego sum primus et novissimus (ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος) et vivus et fui mortuus· Fear not, I am the first and the last, and alive, and was dead." 55 As causa prima the auroúσios is per se and by intestine necessity the finis ultimus of all creation. Now Christ says of Himself: 56 "Ego sum a et w, primus et novissimus, principium et finis—I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Similarly St. Paul: 57 66 Τὰ πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται· - All things were created by him and in him."

Because of His aseity God is incomprehensible to the created intellect. Christ shares in this incomprehensibility. On the other hand He possesses a truly comprehensive knowledge of the Father. Cfr. Matth. XI, 27: "Nemo novit (èπɩyivóσkeɩ) Filium nisi Pater, . . . neque Patrem quis novit (émɩyivúσkeɩ) nisi Filius, et cui voluerit Filius revelare - No one knoweth the Son but the Father: neither doth any one know the Father but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal him." Note that the verb mywvúσke is stronger than simple ywóσkew; it denotes that comprehensive knowledge which is proper to the infinite God.58

b) Chief among God's transcendental attributes of being is His absolute truth. Now Christ is the absolute, living Truth, as He Himself testifies: "Ego sum via et veritas et vita ( åλela kai on) - I am the