By Water & Blood

Chapter 8: With what words Marcellus denied the Son of God

But Marcellus, being in ignorance of these things, does not wish the Son to have been truly begotten from the Father as a Son living and subsisting; rather, he says that he came forth from God like a word signifying something, or a word of command. Hear him, at any rate, saying this too without disguise, in these words (Nr. 31):

“Now, to say that he was begotten before the ages he seems to have said consistently; for that which has come forth becomes the offspring (γέννημα) of the Father who sent it forth. But the other point he has no longer taken up soundly or piously. For to say that the one who came forth from him is not a Word—and that this is not the true mode of the generation—but truly a Son only, is wont to present to the hearers some impression of a human appearance.”

Then, showing that the Word was not even begotten from the Father, he speaks word for word as follows (Nr. 28): “The holy apostle and disciple of the Lord, John, therefore, making mention of his eternity, became a true witness of the Word, saying, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,’ making no mention here of any generation of the Word.” Thus, denying the Son of God, he said that the Word in God was at one time within, in God, and at another time came forth from God, and that at another time again he would run back into God and would be in him,

as he was before also. Listen how he says these things in these words (Nr. 108):

“But now I believe the divine Scriptures, that God is one, and that his Word came forth from the Father in order that all things might come into being through him; but that after the time of the judgment, and the setting right of all things, and the abolition of every opposing activity, ‘then shall he himself be subject unto him that put all things under him,’ unto ‘God, even the Father,’ in order that the Word may thus be in God, just as he was before, prior to the world’s existence. For since there was nothing before except God alone, but all things were about to come into being through the Word, the Word came forth by an effective activity (δραστικὴ ἐνέργεια), being the Word of the Father.”

And again he sets down the same thought more plainly, writing thus (Nr. 54):

“For before the world existed the Word was in the Father. But when God Almighty purposed to make all things, both those in the heavens and those on earth, the coming-into-being of the world required an effective activity; and for this reason, since there was nothing else except God (for all things are confessed to have come into being by him), then the Word, coming forth, became the Maker of the world—he who had also previously been preparing it inwardly, in thought.”

And once more, after all this, he goes on, saying (Nr. 34):

“And for this reason he does not name himself Son of God, but everywhere calls himself Son of Man, in order that through such a confession he may prepare man to become Son of God by adoption (θέσει), through fellowship with him, and that after the completion of the work he may again, as Word, be united to God, fulfilling that which was spoken by the Apostle: ‘Then shall he himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all and in all.’ For then he will be that which he was before.”

Having said so much concerning the Word in God, by virtue of which we conceive God to be rational, Marcellus has fallen into a grievous difficulty, having dared to say that the Word in God at one time came to be outside God, and again, after the time of the judgment, will be within him, so that, having been united to him, he may thus be in God just as he was before.