1. Some others are secretly introducing another doctrine, who have become disciples of one Noetus, who was a native of Smyrna, (and) lived not very lo

 2. Now they seek to exhibit the foundation for their dogma by citing the word in the law, “I am the God of your fathers: ye shall have no other gods b

 3. In this way, then, they choose to set forth these things, and they make use only of one class of passages just in the same one-sided manner that T

 4. Let us, as I said, see how he is confuted, and then let us set forth the truth. Now he quotes the words, “Egypt has laboured, and the merchandise o

 5. But what is meant, says he, in the other passage: “This is God, and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of Him?” That said he righ

 6. Let us look next at the apostle’s word: “Whose are the fathers, of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever.

 7. If, again, he allege His own word when He said, “I and the Father are one,” let him attend to the fact, and understand that He did not say, “I and

 8. Many other passages, or rather all of them, attest the truth. A man, therefore, even though he will it not, is compelled to acknowledge God the Fat

 9. There is, brethren, one God, the knowledge of whom we gain from the Holy Scriptures, and from no other source. For just as a man, if he wishes to b

 10. God, subsisting alone, and having nothing contemporaneous with Himself, determined to create the world. And conceiving the world in mind, and will

 11. And thus there appeared another beside Himself. But when I say another ,

 12. Acting then in these (prophets), the Word spoke of Himself. For already He became His own herald, and showed that the Word would be manifested amo

 13. Now Jeremiah says, “Who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived His Word?”

 14. These things then, brethren, are declared by the Scriptures. And the blessed John, in the testimony of his Gospel, gives us an account of this eco

 15. But some one will say to me, You adduce a thing strange to me, when you call the Son the Word. For John indeed speaks of the Word, but it is by a

 16. And these indeed are testimonies bearing on the incarnation of the Word and there are also very many others. But let us also look at the subject

 17.  These testimonies are sufficient for the believing who study truth, and the unbelieving credit no testimony. For the Holy Spirit, indeed, in the

 18. Thus then, too, though demonstrated as God, He does not refuse the conditions proper to Him as man,

2. Now they seek to exhibit the foundation for their dogma by citing the word in the law, “I am the God of your fathers: ye shall have no other gods beside me;”7    Ex. iii. 6 and xx. 3. and again in another passage, “I am the first,” He saith, “and the last; and beside me there is none other.”8    Isa. xliv. 6. Thus they say they prove that God is one. And then they answer in this manner: “If therefore I acknowledge Christ to be God, He is the Father Himself, if He is indeed God; and Christ suffered, being Himself God; and consequently the Father suffered, for He was the Father Himself.” But the case stands not thus; for the Scriptures do not set forth the matter in this manner. But they make use also of other testimonies, and say, Thus it is written:  “This is our God, and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of Him. He hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob His servant (son), and to Israel His beloved. Afterward did He show Himself upon earth, and conversed with men.”9    Baruch iii. 35–38. [Based on Prov. viii., but so remarkable that Grotius presumptuously declared it an interpolation. It reflects canonical Scripture, but has no canonical value otherwise.] You see, then, he says, that this is God, who is the only One, and who afterwards did show Himself, and conversed with men.” And in another place he says, “Egypt hath laboured; and the merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, (and they shall be slaves to thee); and they shall come after thee bound with manacles, and they shall fall down unto thee, because God is in thee; and they shall make supplication unto thee: and there is no God beside thee. For Thou art God, and we knew not; God of Israel, the Saviour.”10    Isa. xlv. 14. Do you see, he says, how the Scriptures proclaim one God? And as this is clearly exhibited, and these passages are testimonies to it, I am under necessity, he says, since one is acknowledged, to make this One the subject of suffering. For Christ was God, and suffered on account of us, being Himself the Father, that He might be able also to save us.  And we cannot express ourselves otherwise, he says; for the apostle also acknowledges one God, when he says, “Whose are the fathers, (and) of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever.”11    Rom. ix. 5.

[2] οἳ καὶ δεῖξαι βούλονται σύστασιν τῷ δόγματι λέγοντες, Εἶπεν ἐν νόμῳ, Ἐγὼ εἰμὶ ὁ Θεὸς τῶν πατέρων ὑμῶν: οὐκ ἔσονται ὑμῖν θεοὶ ἕτεροι πλὴν ἐμοῦ. καὶ πάλιν ἐν ἑτέρῳ, Ἐγώ, φησίν, πρῶτος καὶ ἐγὼ ἔσχατος καὶ μετ' ἐμὲ οὔκ ἐστιν οὐδείς. οὕτω φάσκουσιν συνιστᾶν ἕνα Θεόν. οἳ ἀποκρίνονται λέγοντες, Εἰ οὖν Χριστὸν ὁμολογῶ Θεόν, αὐτὸς ἄρα ἐστὶν ὁ Πατήρ, εἰ γάρ ἐστιν ὁ Θεός. ἔπαθεν δὲ Χριστὸς αὐτὸς ὢν Θεός. ἆρα οὖν ἔπαθεν Πατήρ; [Πατὴρ] γὰρ αὐτὸς ἦν. ἀλλ' οὐχ οὕτως ἔχει. οὐδὲ γὰρ οὕτως αἱ γραφαὶ διηγοῦνται. χρῶνται δὲ καὶ ἑτέραις μαρτυρίαις λέγοντες, Οὕτω γέγραπται, Οὗτος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν: οὐ λογισθήσεται ἕτερος πρὸς αὐτόν. ἐξηῦρεν πᾶσαν ὁδὸν ἐπιστήμης καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτὴν Ἰακὼβ τῷ παιδὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ Ἰσραὴλ τῷ ἠγαπημένῳ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ. μετὰ ταῦτα ἐπὶ γῆς ὤφθη καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συνανεστράφη. Ὁρᾷς οὖν, φησίν, ὅτι οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ Θεὸς ὁ μόνος ὢν καὶ ὕστερον ὀφθεὶς καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συναναστραφείς. [Ἐν] ἑτέρῳ δέ, φησίν, λέγει, Ἐκοπίασεν Αἴγυπτος καὶ ἐμπόρια Αἰθιόπων καὶ οἱ Σαβαεὶμ ἄνδρες ὑψηλοὶ ἐπὶ σὲ διαβήσονται καί σοι δοῦλοι ἔσονται καὶ πορεύσονται ὀπίσω σου δεδεμένοι ἐν χειροπέδαις καὶ ἐν σοὶ προσκυνήσουσιν, ὅτι ἐν σοὶ ὁ Θεός ἐστιν, καὶ ἐν σοὶ προσεύξονται καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν Θεὸς πλὴν σοῦ. σὺ γὰρ ἦς ὁ Θεὸς καὶ οὐκ ᾔδειμεν, ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ σωτήρ. Ὁρᾷς, φησίν, πῶς ἕνα Θεὸν κηρύσσουσιν αἱ γραφαί, τούτου ἐμφανοῦς δεικνυμένου. Τούτων οὕτως μαρτυρουμένων ἀνάγκην, φησίν, ἔχω, ἑνὸς ὁμολογουμένου, τοῦτον ὑπὸ πάθος φέρειν. 〚καὶ〛 Χριστὸς γὰρ ἦν Θεὸς καὶ ἔπασχεν δι' ἡμᾶς, αὐτὸς ὢν Πατήρ, ἵνα καὶ σῶσαι ἡμᾶς δυνηθῇ. ἄλλο δέ, φησίν, οὐ δυνάμεθα λέγειν. καὶ γὰρ ὁ ἀπόστολος ἕνα Θεὸν ὁμολογεῖ λέγων, Ὧν οἱ πατέρες, ἐξ ὧν ὁ Χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα, ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων Θεὸς εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.