On the Incarnation and against the Arians · §6 · Marcellus of Ancyra

The Son gives the living water of the Spirit; the Trinity is one Lord of hosts

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Marcellus is arguing that the Son and the Spirit share the Father's divine nature, now showing that the Son gives the Spirit as living water and that the seraphim's threefold 'Holy' glorifies Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the one Lord of hosts.

In the Gospel the Son promises to give water to those who walk in thirst, saying to the Samaritan woman about the Holy Spirit: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). And after a little while he says to her: “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water leaping up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). And for this reason David, singing to God, says: “For with you is the spring of life; in your light we will see light” (Psalm 36:9). For he knows that the Son, who is with God the Father, is the spring of the Holy Spirit. And through Jeremiah the Son says: “My people have done two evil things: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13). And when the seraphim glorify God, saying for the third time, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts,” they glorify Father and Son and Holy Spirit. And for this reason, just as we are baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son, so also into the name of the Holy Spirit, and we become sons of God, not of gods. For Father and Son and Holy Spirit is Lord of hosts. For the deity is one, and one God in three persons. And for this reason, what the Father said in Isaiah, John says that the Son said; and in Acts Paul says that the Holy Spirit said. For Isaiah says this: “I saw the Lord of hosts sitting on a high and exalted throne, and the house was full of his glory, and the seraphim stood around him; each had six wings, and each had six wings; with two they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew. And one cried to the other, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts; heaven and all the earth are full of his glory’” (Isaiah 6:1-3). And after a little while the same prophet says: “I heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?’ And I said: ‘Here am I; send me.’ And he said to me: ‘Go to this people, and say to them: With hearing you will hear and not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive. For the heart of this people has grown thick, and they have heard heavily with their ears, and they have shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I heal them’” (Isaiah 6:8-10). But the evangelist John says: “For this reason the Jews could not believe in Jesus, because Isaiah said: ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and I heal them’” (John 12:39-40).

Greek

Ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ δὲ ὁ Υἱὸς ἐπαγγέλ 1000 λεται διδόναι ὕδωρ τοῖς πορευομένοις ἐν δίψει, λέγων τῇ Σαμαρείτιδι περὶ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος· Εἰ ᾔδεις τὴν δωρεὰν τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τίς ἐστιν ὁ λέγων σοι, Δός μοι πιεῖν, σὺ ἂν ᾔτησας αὐτὸν, καὶ ἔδωκεν ἄν σοι ὕδωρ ζῶν. Καὶ μετ' ὀλίγα λέγει αὐτῇ· Πᾶς ὁ πίνων ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος τούτου διψήσει πάλιν· ὃς δ' ἂν πίῃ ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος, οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, οὐ μὴ διψήσει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα· ἀλλὰ τὸ ὕδωρ, ὃ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, γενήσεται ἐν αὐτῷ πηγὴ ὕδατος ἁλλομένου εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ὁ Δαβὶδ ψάλλων τῷ Θεῷ λέγει· Ὅτι παρὰ σοὶ πηγὴ ζωῆς, ἐν τῷ φωτί σου ὀψόμεθα φῶς· οἶδε γὰρ παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ Πατρὶ ὄντα τὸν Υἱὸν τὴν πηγὴν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος. Καὶ διὰ Ἱερεμίου ὁ Υἱὸς λέγει· Δύο καὶ πονηρὰ ἐποίησεν ὁ λαός μου· ἐμὲ ἐγκατέλιπον πηγὴν ὕδατος ζῶντος, καὶ ὤρυξαν ἑαυτοῖς λάκκους συντετριμμένους, οἳ οὐ δυνήσονται ὕδωρ συνέχειν. Καὶ ὅτε δοξολογοῦσι τὰ σεραφὶμ τὸν Θεὸν, λέγοντα τρίτον· Ἅγιος, ἅγιος, ἅγιος Κύριος σαβαὼθ, Πατέρα καὶ Υἱὸν καὶ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα δοξολογοῦσι. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο, ὥσπερ εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ βαπτιζόμεθα, οὕτως καὶ εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, καὶ γινόμεθα υἱοὶ Θεοῦ, οὐ Θεῶν. Πατὴρ γὰρ καὶ Υἱὸς καὶ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, Κύριος σαβαώθ ἐστι. Μία γὰρ ἡ θεότης καὶ εἷς Θεὸς ἐν τρισὶν ὑποστάσεσι. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο, ἅπερ εἶπεν ὁ Πατὴρ ἐν τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ, ὁ Ἰωάννης λέγει. ὅτι ὁ Υἱὸς εἶπεν· ἐν δὲ ταῖς Πράξεσιν ὁ Παῦλός φησιν, ὅτι τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον εἶπε. Λέγει γὰρ οὕτως ὁ Ἡσαΐας· Εἶδον τὸν Κύριον σαβαὼθ, καθήμενον ἐπὶ θρόνου ὑψηλοῦ καὶ ἐπηρμένου· καὶ ἐπληρώθη ὁ οἶκος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὰ σεραφὶμ εἱστήκεισαν κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ· ἓξ πτέρυγες τῷ ἑνὶ, καὶ ἓξ πτέρυγες τῷ ἑνί· καὶ ταῖς μὲν δυσὶ πτέρυξιν ἐκάλυπτον τὰ πρόσωπα, ταῖς δὲ δυσὶ τοὺς πόδας, καὶ ταῖς δυσὶν ἐπέτοντο. Καὶ ἐκέκραγεν ἕτερος πρὸς τὸν ἕτερον, λέγοντες· Ἅγιος, ἅγιος, ἅγιος Κύριος σαβαὼθ, πλήρης ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ πᾶσα ἡ γῆ τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ. Καὶ μετ' ὀλίγα ὁ αὐτός· Ἤκουσα τῆς φωνῆς Κυρίου λέγοντος· Τίνα ἀποστείλω; καὶ τίς πορεύσεται πρὸς τὸν λαὸν 1001 τοῦτον; Καὶ εἶπα· Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ, ἀπόστειλον με. Καὶ εἶπέ μοι· Πορεύθητι πρὸς τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον, καὶ εἶπον αὐτῷ· Ἀκοῇ ἀκούσητε, καὶ οὐ μὴ συνῆτε· καὶ βλέποντες βλέψητε, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἴδητε. Ἐπαχύνθη γὰρ ἡ καρδία τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου. Καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶ βαρέως ἤκουσαν· καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐκάμμυσαν· μήποτε ἴδωσι τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτῶν, καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν ἀκούσωσι, καὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ συνῶσι, καὶ ἐπιστρέψωσι, καὶ ἰάσωμαι αὐτούς. Ὁ δὲ εὐαγγελιστὴς Ἰωάννης λέγει· Διὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἠδύναντο πιστεύειν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι εἰς τὸν Ἰησοῦν, ὅτι εἶπεν Ἡσαΐας, ὅτι Ἐτύφλωσεν αὐτῶν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς, καὶ ἐπώρωσεν αὐτῶν τὴν καρδίαν· μήποτε ἴδωσι τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς, καὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ νοήσωσι, καὶ ἐπιστρέψωσι, καὶ ἰάσωμαι αὐτούς.

About this text

Marcellus of Ancyra (c. 280–c. 374), bishop of Ancyra, wrote this treatise against opponents who misuse Scripture to deny the full divinity of the Son.

Marcellus of Ancyra (c. 280–c. 374), bishop of Ancyra, wrote this treatise against opponents who misuse Scripture to deny the full divinity of the Son. They ask how the Son can be like the Father or from the Father's essence, given texts about receiving life, being raised, being forsaken, and not knowing the last day. Marcellus responds that these humble sayings belong to Christ's assumed humanity, not to his eternal divinity.

The opponents bring forward the human sayings of the Son's poverty to establish their own blasphemy. Marcellus argues that the Son is by nature equal and consubstantial with the Father, and that the Father acts through him in raising, sanctifying, and glorifying the incarnate Lord. He also insists that the Holy Spirit is uncreated, of the same divinity and authority as Father and Son, and that Scripture attributes the same works to all three, including creating, sanctifying, raising, giving life, speaking in prophets, and filling all things.

A reader will meet many biblical voices quoted and argued against: Paul, John, Isaiah, David, Peter, Thomas, Philip, Stephen, Mary, Adam, Gabriel, Ananias, Sapphira, Barnabas, Agabus, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, Moses, John the Baptist, Luke, Matthew, Timothy, and Satan.

No published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Migne PG text (Aegean University Digital Patrology, via (Greek)
Also checked Migne PG 18/26, archive.org scan patrologiae_cursus_completus_gr_vol_026 (Greek machine-read text) (Greek · check (same print; machine-read text compared word by word))

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