Dec 29, 2021

Hilary of Poitiers on Scripture and Tradition [Part 2]

 


On the Trinity, Book 9, section 40

"The Lord enunciated the faith of the Gospel in the simplest words that could be found, and fitted His discourses to our understanding, so far as the weakness of our nature allowed Him, without saying anything unworthy of the majesty of His own nature." (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/330209.htm)


On the Trinity, Book 7, section 33

"The Lord has not left in doubt or obscurity the teaching conveyed in this great mystery; He has not abandoned us to lose our way in dim uncertainty. Listen to Him as He reveals the full knowledge of this faith to His Apostles;  I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but through Me. If ye know Me, ye know My Father also; and from henceforth ye shall know Him, and have seen Him. Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and ye have not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father also. How sayest thou, Shew us the Father? Dost thou not believe Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself, but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth His works. Believe Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; or else believe for the very works’ sake.

He Who is the Way leads us not into by-paths or trackless wastes: He Who is the Truth mocks us not with lies; He Who is the Life betrays us not into delusions which are death. He Himself has chosen these winning names to indicate the methods which He has appointed for our salvation. As the Way, He will guide us to the Truth; the Truth will establish us in the Life. And therefore it is all-important for us to know what is the mysterious mode, which He reveals, of attaining this life.

No man cometh to the Father but through Me. The way to the Father is through the Son. And now we must enquire whether this is to be by a course of obedience to His teaching, or by faith in His Godhead. For it is conceivable that our way to the Father may be through adherence to the Son’s teaching, rather than through believing that the Godhead of the Father dwells in the Son. And therefore let us, in the next place, seek out the true meaning of the instruction given us here. For it is not by cleaving to a preconceived opinion, but by studying the force of the words, that we shall enter into possession of this faith." (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/330207.htm)


On the Trinity, Book 8, section 52

"God out of regard for human weakness has not set forth the faith in bare and uncertain statements" (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/330208.htm)


On the Trinity, Book 11, section 7

""In our reply we have followed Him to the moment of His glorious death, and taking one by one the statements of their unhallowed doctrine, we have refuted them from the teaching of the Gospels and the Apostle. But even after His glorious resurrection there are certain things which they have made bold to construe as proofs of the weakness of a lower nature, and to these we must now reply. Let us adopt once more our usual method of drawing out from the words themselves their true signification, that so we may discover the truth precisely where they think to overthrow it. For the Lord spoke in simple words for our instruction in the faith, and His words cannot need support or comment from foreign and irrelevant sayings." (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/330211.htm)


On the Trinity, Book 7, section 38

 "It is only the Word of God, of Whom we men are enabled, in our discourse concerning Divine things, to reason. All else that belongs to the Godhead is dark and difficult, dangerous and obscure. If any man propose to express what is known in other words than those supplied by God, he must inevitably either display his own ignorance, or else leave his readers' minds in utter perplexity. "(https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/330207.htm)



"Hilary will maintain throughout De Trinitate that our thoughts about God must be governed only by scripture. At the same time, Hilary is aware that this is insufficient to overthrow the assertions of his opponents. They, too, appeal to scripture and use God’s testimony about himself. Indeed, Hilary repeatedly acknowledges their reliance on scripture and laments their ‘deception’, as he calls it, of promoting anti-Nicene theological positions under the guise of scripture alone. Although both parties appeal to scripture, the difference rests, argues Hilary, with how scripture is approached and the normative role assigned to scripture in forming the content of a person’s confession about the mystery of God. In many respects, Hilary’s argument mirrors closely what he has to say about faith and reason. Although his opponents claim to give priority to faith in discerning the mystery of God, Hilary argues that in practice they neglect faith by abusing their gift of reason and limiting God’s revelation of himself to what seems reasonable to their finite and created minds. Similarly, Hilary admits that his opponents claim to be guided by scripture, but in practice they distort it by failing to recognize the scriptural context of the passages they interpret, by pitting one verse against another in an effort to dismiss unfavourable or difficult texts, and by allowing their limited human reason to guide their interpretation and to form the acceptable content of their faith." (Carl L. Beckwith, Oxford Early Christian Studies Series - Hilary of Poitiers on the Trinity: From De Fide to De Trinitae, pg. 189)


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