The Uncreated Word Becomes A Son
The list of quotes cited here is taken from David W. Bercot’s A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, published by Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts in 1998, pp. 262-265.
The author will mention the particular volume and page number of the ten-volume set of The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, 1885–1887, reprinted by Hendrickson in 1994). For instance, this 1.144 means volume 1, p. 144. Bercot will also signify whether the Christian writer is an eastern and/or western theologian/apologist.
Here are the links where this set can be accessed online:
The Early Christian Church Fathers.38Volumes.
All emphasis will be mine.
IV. The internal Logos and the external Son
The numerous quotations above make it clear that the early church believed the Logos of God to be eternal. The statements of some of the writers, however—when taken out of context or read carelessly—make it sound as though they thought the Son came into existence from nothing.
They sometimes speak of God the Father having originally been alone. They sometimes also speak of the Father as begetting the Word or the Son at some time or interval.
Yet those same writers state that the Father has always had his Logos or Wisdom with him. Upon more careful examination, one finds that those writers are distinguishing between the internal Logos and the external Word (who are one and the same person).
They are saying that, technically speaking, the title of “Word” (and perhaps “Son”) do not apply to the Logos until he went forth from the Father to create the universe. They will sometimes speak of this going forth from the Father as the begetting of the Son, distinguishing it from the eternal generation of the Logos from the Father.
For example, the following passage from Tatian sounds quite Arian at first glance:
God was in the beginning. . . . For the Lord of the universe, who is Himself the necessary ground of all being, was alone. For no creature was in existence yet. Tatian (c. 160, E), 2.67.
When a person reads the entire passage, however, he or she soon realizes that Tatian believed the Logos to be eternal. But he distinguishes between the eternal existence of the Logos and the point at the beginning of time when the Logos went forth to create the universe:
Nevertheless, inasmuch as the Father was all power, Himself the necessary ground of things visible and invisible, with Him were all things. The Logos Himself was in Him and subsists with Him by Logos-Power. And by His simple will, the Logos springs forth. So the Logos, not coming forth in vain, becomes the first-begotten work of the Father. We know the Logos to be the beginning of the world. But He came into being by participation, not by abscission. For what is cut off is separated from the original substance. However, that which comes by participation, making its choice of function, does not render him deficient from whom he is taken. From one torch many fires are lighted, but the light of the first torch is not lessened by the kindling of many torches. It is the same with the Logos. His coming forth from the Logos-Power of the Father has not divested Him who begat Him of the Logos-Power. Tatian (c. 160, E), 2.67.
In the following quotation, Tertullian says that there was a time when the Son did not exist. At first glance, this sounds like an Arian statement:
He could not have been the Father previous to the Son, nor a Judge previous to sin. There was, however, a time when neither sin existed with Him, nor the Son. Tertullian (c. 200, W), 3.478.
Again, however, when a person reads all of what Tertullian says about the Father and the Son (as illustrated in the passage that follows), it becomes clear that Tertullian was not Arian. Rather, in his view, the title of “Son” did not apply to the eternal Logos until He went forth from the Father to create the universe.
I am led to other arguments derived from God’s own dispensation, in which He existed before the creation of the world, up to the generation of the Son. For before all things, God was alone—being in Himself and for Himself universe, space, and all things. Moreover, He was alone, because there was nothing external to Him but Himself. Yet, even then He was not [completely] alone. For He had with Him that which He possessed in Himself—that is to say, His own Reason. For God is rational, and Reason was first in Him. And so all things were from Himself. This Reason is His own Thought, which the Greeks call logos, by which term we also designate Word or Discourse. Therefore, it is now usual with our people—owing to the mere simple interpretation of the term—to say that the Word was in the beginning with God. Although it would be more suitable to regard Reason as the more ancient. For God did not have “Word” from the beginning. But He did have Reason even before the beginning. . . . For although God had not yet sent out His “Word,” He still had Him within Himself, both in company with and included within His very Reason—as He silently planned and arranged within Himself everything that He was afterwards about to utter through His Word. Now, while He was thus planning and arranging with His own Reason, He was actually causing that to become Word. . . . I may therefore without rashness first lay this down that even then before the creation of the universe, God was not alone. For He had within Himself both Reason, and, inherent in Reason, His Word, which He made second to Himself by agitating it within Himself. …
Now, as soon as it pleased God to [begin creation], . . . He first put forth the Word himself, having within Him His own inseparable Reason and Wisdom, in order that all things could be made through Him through whom they had been planned and disposed. . . . Then, therefore, does the Word also himself assume His own form and glorious garb, His own sound and vocal utterance, when God says, “Let there be light.” This is the perfect nativity of the Word, when He proceeds forth from God—formed by Him first to devise and think out all things under the name of Wisdom—“The Lord created me as the beginning of His ways,” then afterward begotten, to carry all into effect: “When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him.” He thus makes His Son equal to Him. For, by proceeding from Himself, He became His First-Begotten Son. For He was begotten before all things. And He is His Only-Begotten also, for He was alone begotten of God in a way peculiar to Himself, from the womb of [the Father’s] own heart. This is just as the Father Himself testifies. He says, “My heart has emitted my most excellent Word.” The Father took pleasure evermore in Him, who equally rejoiced with a mutual gladness in the Father’s presence. “You are my Son. Today I have begotten you.” Tertullian (c. 213, W), 3.600, 601.
We need not dwell any longer on this point, as if it were not the very Word Himself, who is spoken of under the name of both Wisdom and Reason, and of the entire Divine Soul and Spirit. He became also the Son of God and was begotten, when He proceeded forth from Him. Tertullian (c. 213, W), 3.602.
The following passage from Hippolytus illustrates this same concept of distinguishing between the eternal Logos (Reason) and his going forth from the Father as the Word of God.
God, subsisting alone, and having nothing contemporaneous with Himself, determined to create the world. . . . For us, then, it is sufficient simply to know that there was nothing contemporaneous with God. Beside Him, there was nothing. However, He—while existing alone—yet existed in plurality. For He was neither without Reason, nor Power, nor Counsel. And all things were in Him, and He was the All. When He willed, and as He willed, He manifested His Word in the time determined by Him. And by Him He made all things. . . . And, as the Author, Fellow-Counselor, and Framer of the things that have been created, He begat the Word. He uttered the first voice, begetting Him as Light of Light. And He sent Him forth to the world as its Lord. Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.227.
Further Reading
DID TERTULLIAN DENY THE ETERNAL NATURE OF CHRIST?
TRINITY IN IRENAEUS & TERTULLIAN