ACC ~ John 7 v29

NONE CAN CONFESS THE SON WHO DENY HE WAS BORN

HILARY OF POITIERS: Every person is born in the flesh; yet does not universal consciousness make every person spring from God? How then can Christ assert that either he or the source of his being is unknown? He can do so only by assigning his immediate parentage to the ultimate author of existence. And, when he has done this, he can demonstrate their ignorance of God by their ignorance of the fact that he is the Son of God…. Now he who came is not the author of his own being; but he who sent him is true whom the blasphemers do not know. He it was who sent him; and they do not know that he was the sender. Thus the sent one is from the sender; from him whom they do not know as his author. The reason why they do not know who Christ is, is that they do not know from whom he is. None can confess the Son who deny that he was born; none can understand that he was born who has formed the opinion that Jesus is from nothing. And indeed Jesus is so far from being made out of nothing that the heretics cannot tell from where he is. ON THE TRINITY 6.29. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:108*. See also Ambrose On the Christian Faith 5.10.120-22 (NPNF 2 10:299-300).

CHRIST’S BEING FROM GOD PREDATES HIS ADVENT

HILARY OF POITIERS: [Jesus says this] to debar heresy from the violent assumption that his being from God dates from the time of his advent. The gospel revelation of the mystery proceeds in a logical sequence. First he is born, then he is sent. Similarly, in the previous declaration, we were told of ignorance, first as to who he is and then as to from where he is. For the words “I am from him, and he sent me” contain two separate statements, as also do the words “You know me, and you know where I am from.” ON THE TRINITY 6.29. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:108*.

Jn