Question 15 · God and the Trinity

Did the early Church teach that the Son is subordinate to the Father?

What the sources show

Justin Martyr c. 155 · Tertullian c. 213 · Novatian c. 250 · Origen of Alexandria c. 235Second in order

Second- and third-century writers speak of an order: the Son in "second place" and the Spirit "third" (Justin), the Son as a "portion" of the Father's whole substance (Tertullian). They also call the Son God. Novatian (c. 250) has all things subjected to the Son by the Father, and the Son himself, with them, subjected to the Father, handing back the whole authority of the divinity, while remaining God and Lord of everything else. ¹²³⁴

Arius (quoted by Athanasius) c. 320 · Gregory of Nazianzus c. 380

Arius pressed order into inequality of being. The Nicene teachers answered that "the Father is greater" refers to the Father as cause, and "equal" to their one nature. ⁵⁶

The answers given:

ApostolicBefore NicaeaNicaea and afterMiddle AgesReformation to today

Scroll through the centuries, or tap a dot. J K move between witnesses.

Before Nicaea

150–325

155c. AD

Second in order

Justin Martyr c. 100–c. 165 ADFirst Apology 13.3–4

We will show that we honor him reasonably, having learned that he is the Son of the true God himself, and holding him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third rank. For they call this our madness: that we give second place after the unchangeable and ever-existing God, the begetter of all, to a crucified man.

Second and third "place" names an order of honor. Justin does not explain how it fits with the Son being God.

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213c. AD

Second in order

Tertullian c. 155–c. 220 ADAgainst Praxeas 9.2

The Father is the whole substance, and the Son a derivation and portion of the whole, as he himself declares: "The Father is greater than I" (John 14:28).

Tertullian holds one substance but describes the Son as a portion of it. Later writers judged this language too weak.

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235c. AD

Second in order

Origen of Alexandria c. 185–c. 254 ADCommentary on John 13.25

But we, believing the Savior when he says, "The Father who sent me is greater than I", say that the Savior and the Holy Spirit surpass all created things, not by comparison but by a surpassing excellence, and are themselves surpassed by the Father by as much again, or even more, as they surpass all the rest.

The passage survives here only in the book's raw scan, whose OCR is rough and interleaves the critical apparatus; the words quoted follow the standard printed text. Origen is answering those who would over-exalt the Son against the Father, and he takes the Savior's word at face value.

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250c. AD

Second in order

Novatian fl. c. 250 ADOn the Trinity 31.18–19

All things have been subjected to him by the Father, as to a Son; and while he himself, together with the things that have been subjected to him, is subjected to his Father, he is proved to be his Father’s Son, and is found to be Lord and God of everything else. So when all things are handed over, laid beneath him who is God, and the Son reports back to the Father everything he has received as subjected to him, he returns to the Father the whole authority of the divinity.

From the closing summary chapter of Novatian’s treatise: the Son’s divinity is given by the Father and returned to him, so that God stays one, yet the Son is God over all creation. Read from the Fausset (1909) scan of the Latin, the library’s copy of the edition; On the Trinity is not yet locked as library sections.

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320c. AD

Lower in being

Arius (quoted by Athanasius) c. 256–336 ADThalia, quoted in Athanasius, Against the Arians 1.5

God was not always Father; there was a time when God was alone and was not yet Father. Later he became Father. The Son was not always. For all things came to be from nothing, and all are creatures and things made; so the Word of God himself came to be from nothing, and there was when he was not, and he was not before he came to be, but he too had a beginning of being created. For, he says, God was alone, and the Word and Wisdom did not yet exist. Then, wishing to create us, he made one being and named him Word and Wisdom and Son, so that he might create us through him.

The view Nicaea condemned, in Arius's own words as his opponent preserves them. Arius did call the Son "God" in a lesser sense: a perfect creature, not one of the creatures.

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Nicaea to Chalcedon

325–451

380c. AD

Equal in nature

Gregory of Nazianzus c. 329/330–390 ADOration 30 7

Their third text is "greater"; their fourth, "my God and your God". If he were called greater and not equal, that might count for something. But since we clearly find both, what will these fine people say? How will they reconcile what cannot be reconciled? For the same thing cannot be both greater and equal to the same thing. Is it not clear that "greater" refers to the cause, and "equal" to the nature?

The Nicene answer to John 14:28: the Father is the source of the Son, and the Son is equal in nature.

Full English of this work is being translated

How this page was made

Every early quote was read in its Greek or Latin and translated for this page by Claude (Opus 5.5) on 13 October 2026. Each line names the printed edition it was read from. A quote marked indirect does not state the answer outright; read its note. A writer's silence is never counted as an answer.