Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] Look then how much they lay down against you, even in the Gospel, before Philip's question and before any argument of yours. And right at the outset, the very preface of John the evangelist demonstrates at once what he had been before ever taking on flesh: "At the origin there existed the Word, and that Word was present with God, and that Word was itself God; this one, from the origin, stood together with God; through him every single thing came into existence, and apart from him nothing whatever came into existence." [2] For if these things are not to be taken any other way than as they are written, it is shown beyond doubt that one thing was he who existed from the beginning, another he with whom he existed: one thing the Word of God, another God — though the Word too is God, yet as God's Son, and not as the Father — one thing he through whom all things exist, another he from whom all things exist. [3] How we may call him "other," we have already often set out. In whatever sense we call him other, it must not be as though he were the same — and yet "not the same" does not mean as though separated: other by disposition, not by division. This one, then, was made flesh, not the one whose Word he was. His glory was seen as that of an only Son from a Father, not as of the Father himself. This only Son unfolded the Father's bosom, not the Father his own bosom; for it precedes, "No one has ever seen God." [4] Hence too, if he is designated by John as the Lamb of God, it is not the one whose beloved he is. Certainly he is always the Son of God, but not the one whose Son he is. This is what Nathanael sensed at once, as Peter did elsewhere too: "You are the Son of God." And he himself confirms that they had rightly sensed this — answering Nathanael, "Because I said, I saw you under the fig tree, therefore you believe"; and pronouncing Peter blessed, to whom it was not flesh and blood that had revealed what he had also perceived about the Father, but the Father who is in heaven. [5] By this saying he established the distinction of both persons — the Son on earth, whom Peter had recognized as the Son of God, and the Father who is in heaven, who had revealed to Peter what Peter recognized, the Son of God, Christ. [6] When he went into the Temple, he calls it his Father's house, as a Son does. When he says to Nicodemus, "For in this way God cherished the world: he handed over his one and only Son, so that everyone who trusts in him would not be lost but would hold everlasting life"; and again, "For God did not dispatch his Son into the world in order to condemn the world, but so the world might be rescued through him; whoever trusts in him faces no condemnation; whoever refuses to trust stands condemned already, for he has refused trust in the name of God's one and only Son." [7] And John, when asked about Jesus while he was baptizing, said, "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand; whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not believe in the Son of God will not see God, but the wrath of God remains upon him." [8] And whom did he show to the Samaritan woman? If it was the Messiah, who is called Christ, then he showed himself to be the Son, certainly not the Father — since elsewhere too Christ is called the Son of God, not the Father. [9] Then to his disciples he says, "It is mine to do the will of him who sent me, to finish his work." And to the Jews concerning the healing of the paralytic, "My Father works until now, and I work" — Father and I, the Son says. In fact this is precisely why the Jews wanted the more to kill him — not only because he was breaking the Sabbath, but because he was calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God. [10] Then he said to them, "On his own the Son is capable of nothing, save what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does likewise; for the Father loves the Son, and has shown him all things that he himself does, and will show him greater works than these, so that you may marvel; for as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so the Son too gives life to whom he wills. For neither does the Father judge anyone, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father; he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. [11] Amen, amen, I say to you, that he who hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. [12] Amen I say to you, a moment is approaching, in which the dead shall hear the summons of the Son of God, and those who heed it shall live; for as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man" — through the flesh, that is, just as he is the Son of God through his spirit. [13] He adds further, "But I have testimony greater than John's; for the works which the Father gave me to finish, these very works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me; and he who sent me, the Father, has himself borne witness of me." [14] And when he goes on, "At no point have you caught his sound, nor glimpsed his shape," he confirms that it was the Son, not the Father, who in earlier ages was heard and beheld. [15] Then again he says, "I have come in my Father's name, and you did not receive me" — so constantly was the Son in the name of God and King and almighty and most high Lord. [16] And when they asked what they ought to do, he answered, "That you believe in him whom God has sent." [17] He also affirms himself to be that bread which the Father would supply out of heaven; and so all that the Father entrusts to him would arrive at him, and he would turn none of it away, seeing that his descent from heaven was undertaken not for the sake of his own wish but for the wish of the one who sent him; and this was the Father's wish — that whoever beholds the Son and puts trust in him should gain life and rising again; and further, that no one could come to him except one whom the Father drew, and that everyone who had heard and learned from the Father comes to him — not as though anyone had seen the Father — adding this too, to show that it is the Father's own Word through whom people are taught. [18] But when many withdrew from him, and he offered his apostles the chance to withdraw too if they wished, what did Simon Peter answer? "To whom shall we go? You have the words of life, and we believe that you are the Christ" — was that the Father, or the Father's Christ?