The Holy Trinity, the Son and His Divinity, and the Meaning of Divinity in All the Hypostases
1. Differences between the Christian Trinity and pagan triads
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His Holiness explains that some confuse the Church’s belief in the Trinity with pagan triads such as Isis, Osiris, and Horus.
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The essential difference is that the Christian Trinity is “Trinity in unity,” while paganism teaches multiple separate gods.
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Pagan triads involve marriage and bodily procreation, while the Christian Trinity has no marriage, no femininity, and no physical generation.
2. The eternity of the Son and His non-temporal begetting
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The Son is not created, because creating “the mind of God” implies a time when God was without a mind, which is impossible.
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The Son is begotten of the Father in a natural spiritual manner, like a thought begotten from the mind: proceeding yet not separated.
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The Son is in the Father and the Father in Him, as the Lord said: “I am in the Father and the Father in Me.”
3. The meaning of Logos
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The word “Word” in John’s Gospel is “Logos,” meaning “the rational mind of God” or “the intelligent utterance.”
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All things were created “through the Son,” meaning through the rational mind of God, as a person solves a problem by his mind while being one with his mind.
4. Divine attributes that are shared and unshared
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Some attributes belong to God alone: eternity, creation, necessary existence, infinity, omnipresence, and omnipotence.
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Some attributes appear in humanity in limited form: knowledge, love, beauty, and wisdom.
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But God’s knowledge is unlimited, certain, and without instruments, while human knowledge is partial, gradual, and dependent on tools.
5. Equality of the hypostases in divinity
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Each hypostasis possesses every divine attribute while maintaining a distinguishing property: the Father as the fountainhead, the Son as the rational Word, and the Holy Spirit as the giver of life.
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Distinction does not mean separation but perfect unity in essence.
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