Il divinità di Cristo è indicato molte volte nel nuovo
testamento.Per esempio, nel
Vangelo di Giovanni 5,18 ci dice che gli avversari di Gesù hanno cercato di
ucciderlo perché " ma chiamava Dio
suo Padre, facendosi uguale a Dio.”
Sempre nel Vangelo
di Giovanni 8,58, quando gli hanno chiesto circa come ha conoscenza
speciale di Abramo, risposte del Gesù «In
verità, in verità vi dico: prima che Abramo fosse, Io Sono»."—richiamando
e applicando a se il nome personale di Dio—"I Sono" o "Yahweh".
I suoi nemici pubblici hanno capito esattamente cosa stava dicendo circa a se
"così hanno preso le pietre per gettare lui; ma Gesù si è nascosto ed ha
uscito del Tempio"(Giovanni 8,59).
In Giovanni troviamo un altro episodio. Tommaso cade ai
piedi di Gesù ed esclama Rispose
Tommaso: «Mio Signore e mio Dio!».(Giovanni 20,28) (che in greco:
Ho Kurios mou kai ho Theos mou—letteralmente, «Mio
Signore e Dio di me!»).
In Filippesi 2,6,
Paolo ci dice che Cristo Gesù il quale,
pur essendo di natura divina, non considerò un tesoro geloso la sua uguaglianza
con Dio;". Così Gesù ha scelto
essere sopportato nella apparire nella debolezza della forma umana benché
potrebbe rimanere semplicemente nella gloria uguale con il Padre per Lui era
" pur essendo di natura divina."
Inoltre significativi sono i passaggi che applicano il
titolo "il Primo e l'Ultimo" a Gesù. Ciò è uno dei titoli di Yahweh
nel Vecchio Testamento "Così dice
il re di Israele, il suo redentore, il Signore degli eserciti: «Io sono il
primo e io l'ultimo; fuori di me non vi sono dèi.» (Isaia44:6; cfr. 41:4, 48:12).
Questo titolo direttamente è applicato a Gesù tre volte
nel libro dell’Apocalisse: "Appena lo vidi, caddi ai suoi piedi come
morto. Ma egli, posando su di me la destra, mi disse: Non temere! Io sono il
Primo e l'Ultimo” (Apocalisse 1:17). " All'angelo della Chiesa di Smirne scrivi:Così parla il Primo e
l'Ultimo, che era morto ed è tornato alla vita: "(Apocalisse 2:8). " Ecco, io
verrò presto e porterò con me il mio salario, per rendere a ciascuno
secondo le sue opere.Io sono l'Alfa e l'Omega, il Primo e l'Ultimo, il
principio e la fine."(Apocalisse 22:12–13).
Questa ultima citazione è particolarmente significativa
poiché applica a Gesù il titolo parallelo "l'Alfa ed il Omega," che
l’Apocalisse ha applicato al Signore Dio:"‘ Io sono l'Alfa e
l'Omega, dice il Signore Dio, Colui che è, che era e che viene, l'Onnipotente!
" (Apocalisse 1:8).
Poiché le seguenti citazioni mostrano, i Padri della
Chiesa che hanno riconosciuto in anticipo Gesù Cristo come Dio ed era risoluto
nell'effettuare questa verità preziosa.
Ignazio,
Teoforo, a colei che è stata benedetta in grandiosità con la pienezza di Dio
Padre, che è stata predestinata, prima dei secoli, ad essere per sempre di
gloria eterna e di salda unità, che è stata scelta nella passione vera per
volontà del Padre e di Gesù Cristo, Dio nostro, la Chiesa degna di essere
beata, che è in Efeso dell'Asia, I migliori saluti in Gesù Cristo e nella
gioia irreprensibile.(Lettera agli
Efesini, saluto iniziale)
Il nostro
Dio, Gesù Cristo è stato portato nel seno di Maria, secondo l'economia di Dio,
del seme di David e dello Spirito Santo. Egli è nato ed è stato battezzato
perché l'acqua fosse purificata con la passione.(ibid.,18,2).
.... la
Chiesa amata e illuminata nella volontà di chi ha voluto tutte le cose che
esistono, nella fede e nella carità di Gesù Cristo Dio nostro, che presiede
nella terra di Roma, degna di Dio, di venerazione, di lode, di successo, di
candore, che presiede alla carità, che porta la legge di Cristo e il nome del
Padre. (Lettera ai Romani, saluto
iniziale)
Aristides
"[Christians] are they who, above every people of the earth, have found the
truth, for they acknowledge God, the Creator and maker of all things, in the
only-begotten Son and in the Holy Spirit" (Apology 16 [A.D. 140]).
Tatian the Syrian
"We are not playing the fool, you Greeks, nor do we talk nonsense, when we
report that God was born in the form of a man" (Address to the Greeks 21
[A.D. 170]).
Melito of Sardis
"It is no way necessary in dealing with persons of intelligence to adduce
the actions of Christ after his baptism as proof that his soul and his body, his
human nature, were like ours, real and not phantasmal. The activities of Christ
after his baptism, and especially his miracles, gave indication and assurance to
the world of the deity hidden in his flesh. Being God and likewise perfect man,
he gave positive indications of his two natures: of his deity, by the miracles
during the three years following after his baptism, of his humanity, in the
thirty years which came before his baptism, during which, by reason of his
condition according to the flesh, he concealed the signs of his deity, although
he was the true God existing before the ages" (Fragment in Anastasius of
Sinai’s The Guide 13 [A.D. 177]).
Irenaeus
"For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the
ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and from their disciples the
faith in one God, Father Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth and sea and
all that is in them; and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became flesh
for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who announced through the prophets
the dispensations and the comings, and the birth from a Virgin, and the passion,
and the resurrection from the dead, and the bodily ascension into heaven of the
beloved Christ Jesus our Lord, and his coming from heaven in the glory of the
Father to reestablish all things; and the raising up again of all flesh of all
humanity, in order that to Jesus Christ our Lord and God and Savior and King, in
accord with the approval of the invisible Father, every knee shall bend of those
in heaven and on earth and under the earth . . . " (Against Heresies 1:10:1
[A.D. 189]).
"Nevertheless, what cannot be said of anyone else who ever lived, that he
is himself in his own right God and Lord . . . may be seen by all who have
attained to even a small portion of the truth" (ibid., 3:19:1).
Clement of Alexandria
"The Word, then, the Christ, is the cause both of our ancient beginning—for
he was in God—and of our well-being. And now this same Word has appeared as
man. He alone is both God and man, and the source of all our good things" (Exhortation
to the Greeks 1:7:1 [A.D. 190]).
"Despised as to appearance but in reality adored, [Jesus is] the expiator,
the Savior, the soother, the divine Word, he that is quite evidently true God,
he that is put on a level with the Lord of the universe because he was his Son"
(ibid., 10:110:1).
Tertullian
"God alone is without sin. The only man who is without sin is Christ; for
Christ is also God" (The Soul 41:3 [A.D. 210]).
"The origins of both his substances display him as man and as God: from the
one, born, and from the other, not born" (The Flesh of Christ 5:6–7
[A.D. 210]).
"That there are two gods and two Lords, however, is a statement which we
will never allow to issue from our mouth; not as if the Father and the Son were
not God, nor the Spirit God, and each of them God; but formerly two were spoken
of as gods and two as Lords, so that when Christ would come, he might both be
acknowledged as God and be called Lord, because he is the Son of him who is both
God and Lord" (Against Praxeas 13:6 [A.D. 216]).
Origen
"Although he was God, he took flesh; and having been made man, he remained
what he was: God" (The Fundamental Doctrines 1:0:4 [A.D. 225]).
Hippolytus
"Only [God’s] Word is from himself and is therefore also God, becoming
the substance of God" (Refutation of All Heresies 10:33 [A.D. 228]).
Hippolytus of Rome
"For Christ is the God over all, who has arranged to wash away sin from
mankind, rendering the old man new" (ibid., 10:34).
Novatian
"If Christ was only man, why did he lay down for us such a rule of
believing as that in which he said, ‘And this is life eternal, that they
should know you, the only and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent?’
[John 17:3]. Had he not wished that he also should be understood to be God, why
did he add, ‘And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent,’ except because he
wished to be received as God also? Because if he had not wished to be understood
to be God, he would have added, ‘And the man Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent;’
but, in fact, he neither added this, nor did Christ deliver himself to us as man
only, but associated himself with God, as he wished to be understood by this
conjunction to be God also, as he is. We must therefore believe, according to
the rule prescribed, on the Lord, the one true God, and consequently on him whom
he has sent, Jesus Christ, who by no means, as we have said, would have linked
himself to the Father had he not wished to be understood to be God also. For he
would have separated himself from him had he not wished to be understood to be
God" (Treatise on the Trinity 16 [A.D. 235]).
Cyprian of Carthage
"One who denies that Christ is God cannot become his temple [of the Holy
Spirit] . . . " (Letters 73:12 [A.D. 253]).
Gregory the Wonderworker
"There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is his subsistent
wisdom and power and eternal image: perfect begetter of the perfect begotten,
Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, only of the only, God of God,
image and likeness of deity, efficient Word, wisdom comprehensive of the
constitution of all things, and power formative of the whole creation, true Son
of true Father, invisible of invisible, and incorruptible of incorruptible, and
immortal of immortal and eternal of eternal. . . . And thus neither was the Son
ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and
without change, the same Trinity abides ever" (Declaration of Faith [A.D.
265]).
Arnobius
"‘Well, then,’ some raging, angry, and excited man will say, ‘is that
Christ your God?’ ‘God indeed,’ we shall answer, ‘and God of the hidden
powers’" (Against the Pagans 1:42 [A.D. 305]).
Lactantius
"He was made both Son of God in the spirit and Son of man in the flesh,
that is, both God and man" (Divine Institutes 4:13:5 [A.D. 307]).
"We, on the other hand, are [truly] religious, who make our supplications
to the one true God. Someone may perhaps ask how, when we say that we worship
one God only, we nevertheless assert that there are two, God the Father and God
the Son—which assertion has driven many into the greatest error . . . [thinking]
that we confess that there is another God, and that he is mortal. . . . [But w]hen
we speak of God the Father and God the Son, we do not speak of them as different,
nor do we separate each, because the Father cannot exist without the Son, nor
can the Son be separated from the Father" (ibid., 4:28–29).
Council of Nicaea I
"We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, God
from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in
being with the Father. Through him all things were made" (Creed of
Nicaea [A.D. 325]).
"But those who say, ‘There was a time when he [the Son] did not exist,’
and ‘Before he was born, he did not exist,’ and ‘Because he was made from
non-existing matter, he is either of another substance or essence,’ and those
who call ‘God the Son of God changeable and mutable,’ these the Catholic
Church anathematizes" (Appendix to the Creed of Nicaea [A.D. 325]).
Patrick of Ireland
"Jesus Christ is the Lord and God in whom we believe, and whose coming we
expect will soon take place, the judge of the living and the dead, who will
render to everyone according to his works" (Confession of St. Patrick 4
[A.D. 452]).