The following translations of Victorinus’ Latin commentary on Ephesians come from:
Stephen A. Cooper, Metaphysics
and Morals in Marius Victorinus’ Commentary on the Letter to the Ephesians [PhD
Dissertation; Columbia University, 1992)
Eph 1:13-14:
Believing in whom you have been signed by the Holy Spirit of
promise. This
is the reason for the exhortation, the full Mystery: to believe in Christ, to
believe by the Gospel - that is, by the word of truth. In this, Paul says, you
too believing have been signed by the Holy Spirit of promise, with the
result that you too have already received the Holy Spirit of the promise of
Christ. But because it is as if the Holy Spirit is one thing and Christ
another, the Holy Spirit is nonetheless consummation, perfection and full
liberation. You have been signed - Paul says - by the Holy Spirit of the
promise with respect to the things that have been promised, because the Holy
Spirit has been promised and given to us. (Stephen A. Cooper, Metaphysics
and Morals in Marius Victorinus’ Commentary on the Letter to the Ephesians [PhD
Dissertation; Columbia University, 1992], 90-91)
The
discussion concerning signati estis spiritu promissions sancto reveals
how what is actually being referred to - baptism - is so obvious that it need
not be mentioned explicitly. When he says nobis spiritus
sanctus promissus est et datus, the reference is to Acts 1,5. His mention
of this text in Adv. Ar. HI 16,26 is followed by a discussion similar to
the matter being explained here. Thus when he says consummatio et perfectio
et plena liberatio spiritus sanctus est, he is speaking of the new life
conferred upon the baptized _by the Holy Spirit. (Ibid., 93)
Eph 1:17:
Thus
he who is faithful in Christ loves those who are holy, that is, those who have
been made holy on the basis of the faith of Christ and the Mystery of baptism.
Therefore, I too love you, having heard of your faith, and having heard
also of your love-your love—for the holy ones—I will make an effort to
thank God on your behalf. (pp. 93-94)
Eph 1:18:
For
we are also co-heirs along with Christ; and Christ is God; therefore we are
heirs with God in the riches of HIs glory. But all these things pertain to the
holy ones, that is, to those who have been made holy by the Mystery, by the
name of Christ through baptism. (p. 103)
The Latin for this text reads:
Nam
et cum Christo coheredes sumus et Christus deus est; ergo cum deo heredes
divitiarum gloriae eius sumus. Sed haec omnia sunt in sanctis, id est in his
qui sanctificat! sunt mysterio Christi nomine per baptismum. (Marii
Victorini Opera, Pars II: Opera Exegetica [Corpus Scriptorum
Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum Editum Consilio Et Impensis Academiae Scientiarum
Austricae LXXXIII, Pars 2; Vindobonae: Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1986], 22)
Eph 3:15:
Ax quo omnis paternitas in cadis et in terra
nominatur. Scilicet ex patre deo, ex patre domini nostri lesu Christi; ipse
enim pater, ipse primus pater et ab ipso quicumque pater est, pater est
nominatus, et nomen hoc atque vocabulum vel potestas a primo deo patre velut a
fonte defluxit. Nam et Christus pater omnium
quae creata sunt; per Christum enim creata sunt omnia. Item et in mysteriis
pater. Et Paulus
quodammodo pater, si quidem dicit: filii mei estis: ego, inquit, in
Christo lern per evangdmm vos genui Denique paternitas in caelis Christus
est et in terra paternitas vel apostoli vel quicumque evangelizat vel qui
tradit mysterium. His enim modis atque aliis multis filii dicuntur qui fidem
accipiunt et illi patres qui tradunt. Paternitas igitur omnis a deo patre proficiscitur.
(Marii Victorini Opera, Pars II: Opera
Exegetica [Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum Editum
Consilio Et Impensis Academiae Scientiarum Austricae LXXXIII, Pars 2;
Vindobonae: Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1986], 52)
From
whom all paternity in the heavens and on earth is named - clearly,
’from God the Father,’ from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For God
Himself is the Father, is the First Father; and whosoever is a father has been
called ’father’ from Him. This name, this term, or this authority [potestas]
has flowed out from the First God, the Father, as if from a fountain. Now
Christ is also Father of all things that have been created: for through Christ
have all things been created. And in the same way [the name of] ’father is used
with respect to the mysteries. Paul too is somehow a father, if indeed he says
you are my sons: I have begotten you - he says - in Christ Jesus
through the Gospel To sum up: Christ is paternity in the heavens; and there
is paternity on earth, be it the Apostles or of whosoever evangelizes or passes
on the Mystery. For in these and in many other ways, those who receive the
faith are called sons and those who pass it on are called fathers. All
paternity, then, comes forth from God the Father. (p. 186)
Cooper (ibid., 188-89) offered the
following commentary:
In his discussion of patemitas on 3,15 MV indicates that
Christ too can be called pater omnium quae creata sunt. He expressed
himself in the same manner in his theological treatises; and the usage is
apparently not without parallels in other writers. Scholars who have accused MV
of being thin on knowledge of church tradition are guilty, I think, of
overlooking what is in its understated way in fact there, e.g., Item et in
mysteriis pater. Pater can mean both ’godfather’ or ’bishop’ - though I
think it likely he means the former here. MV is clearly referring to baptism
Eph 5:8:
For
once you were shadows, but now you are light in the Lord. Therefore,
that they might in every respect separate themselves from the sons of
disbelief, Paul says now what they were earlier when they were living
gentile-style. You were shadows, he says. But the one who follows Christ
is light. Whoever has been baptized in Christ receives the light. (p. 256)
Eph 5:27:
In
any case, let us take church to mean ’every faithful person,’ everyone
who has accepted baptism, who is enlisted in the faith - surely, by both washing
of water and invocation of the word. How these things are to be recalled to
the man concerning his wife is insufficiently clear. Nevertheless, it was able
to appear that what was given in the earlier part <of the text> to fit
the similitude has in this part been completed as regards the account of the
Mystery. (p. 267)
Cooper also noted that with
respect to Victorinus’ theology of baptism:
God
can dispose of His grace however He will, he says, but let us not forget that
this usually happens per spiritum et aquam, i.e., through baptism. (Ibid.,
167)
The
language he uses to refer to baptism (mysteriis indutam) is interesting,
in that indutam expresses both the symbolic death and ’burial’ of
baptism along with an allusion to the clothing in white garments. (Ibid., 179)
From
his commentary on Galatians we can see that he in a very matter-of-fact way
totally assumes the value of baptism. Far from fearing that the institution of
the church and its sacraments would undermine moral conduct, it would seem that
MV became a churchman willing to make use of all the means afforded by the
institution and its language for the sake of moral exhortation. (Ibid., 312)
