The Father is greater than the Son:
but this is said in respect to generation—as a father is to a son—and not of
classification. The Son is, and He comes forth from Him. The possession of a
paternal designation is permissive of a distinction but there is no distinction
as to nature. The God born of God is not dissimilar in substance to the One who
bore Him. He is not able, therefore, to be made equal to Him from whom He is.
For although the One remains in the Other through the uniform and similar glory
of the same nature, nevertheless, because the Father begot, it is clear that it
is not possible for the Son to be made equal to Him from whom He was begotten. Hilary
of Poitiers, Commentaries on the Psalms, On Ps 138 [139] §17, c. A.D. 365, in The
Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens;
Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1970], 1:387-88)
Hilary clearly states that their
inequality is only in the fact that one is Father and the other is Son, a
relationship which, afterall, is meaningful, and cannot be ignored. At the same
time, he does point out that there can be no distinction in their nature as
God. if he seems as pains to stress, in this particular passage, an inequality,
he has not suddenly deserted us for the Arian camp, but is only somewhat
hard-pressed to explain the Gospel passages, John 5:19 and 14:28. (Ibid., 389
n. 16)
