In my most recent blog post, I had written an article talking about a general introduction to the Christology of the Church of The East and had promised that I will later do a dedicated post in regards to Triadology as well. With that being said, this article will be dedicated to now explaining the Holy Trinity, and having a continuation of the prior topics in regards to our formulations and terms that we use to describe these Divine Realities, such as the Incarnation, but now with the Trinity. It was important to separate these into different posts because as I reiterated in the past, the way we use terms such as Kyana, Qnoma, and Parsopa, will differentiate according to different topics and it is important not to conflate categories with each other and end up falling into a heretical view. Let us now examine the Triadology of the Church of The East according to a very important theologian and Saint of our Church, Mar Babai The Great, who is writing his treatises on the faith in the mid 6th century.
The Theological Framework of The Trinity
To understand our Triadology, we must begin by examining how our Saint’s use the terms we went over prior – that being Kyana, Qnoma, and Parsopa, in regards to The Holy Trinity.
Kyana – refers to the divine essence — the one, indivisible reality of God. For Babai, there is only one kyana in the Trinity. This is the foundation of divine unity. God is not composed of parts, nor divided into multiple beings; rather, the divine essence is singular, simple, and infinite.
“So too, he is named “Spirit”, a designation [which] indicates to us—to the exalted likeness of his nature—his infinitude, and that he is present to all but is above all in his Being, and from him and in him is the breath and subsistence of all, and his power is indomitable, and the infinitude of his nature is incomprehensible. So too “Light”, for he is named “Light” because of the sublimity of his nature, for there is nothing in the visible realm which is more exalted, resplendent, and glorious than light, and it “lightens” all. So too God enlightens all with his knowledge and is resplendent in his Being, and all things belonging to him are glorious and exalted. He is above all and not divided into parts, and he is not cut off from his infinitude by those in whom he dwells and makes his habitation impalpably.”
Qnoma – The term qnoma is more complex. In Babai’s usage, a qnoma is simply something that exists concretely but is not necessarily identical to the modern notion of “person” as used in us creatures. Instead In the Trinity, we can say that the Qnome are Persons that are ontological and exist concretely and are distinguished by their relations of oppositions, being that there are three qnome: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
However, these are not three separate beings. Each qnoma fully possesses the one kyana. Thus, the plurality of qnome does not compromise the unity of essence as everything within the Holy Trinity is identical to the One Divine Essence, thus preserving the notion of Absolute Divine Simplicity that God is not composed of parts, and that these 3 Divine Persons Subsist in the 1 Divine Essence. So for Babai, the Qnome are not instantiations or particulars of the Divine Essence, rather he says they ARE, not they HAVE.
But if God were not as the Cause and Giver of all excellent things, but as the “titles” by which he is called, the concepts of him would impress the mind in the same way as [those] concerning the rest of the created things, and that he exists as a composite of such things. It would seem to everyone that God is composed of parts, as in the thinking of the Naturalists and heathen wise men who foolishly [claimed] that God is the | cosmos, compounded of parts into one body from being, life, and light, and other things such as these, and that there is nothing else except the cosmos, and that it returns to itself and gives birth and is born, and the rest of the pagan impieties. But God forbid that we should think such things concerning God the Creator and Cause of all, for he is higher in his worshipful Being than all creatures and the names which refer to them. He is invisible and not divisible into parts, and he has no end and is not composite. A rod?? is simple, and its essence is not something else, or its life something else, or its light something else, although [such things] are said about it according to the human fashion—that it “possesses” and “has” [them] in its qnoma as though it were “something other” that “possessed” them. But how is it? He is called “Being” but not that he “has” being??, and he is called “Life” but not that he “has” life, and he is called “Light”, but not that he has” light, and “God is Spirit’, but not that he “has” spirit. For he is true Being, and he is true Life, and he is the Light lighting all, and he is infinite Spirit, and moves all, and is present to all, and is above all. He is not the whole of them as though a whole in parts, and they are not the whole of him as though parts in a whole, but he is one in a singular way—ineffable, unsearchable, and indivisible. He it is who created such things as in their being are fore-ordained. The same gives life to those who live, and the same gives knowledge to the knowing
Book of Union – Treatise 1.14
Parsopa – refers to the identifiable expression or manifestation of a qnoma by their relation of oppositions. In the Trinity, each qnoma is also a distinct parsopa. Thus, Babai affirms three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. Thus he would formulate the Trinity as being:
Father – Unbegotten
Son – Filiation
Holy Spirit – Proceeding / Procession
So also, after his resurrection, while he was teaching his disciples to preach in all the world and to turn the nations from a multitude of gods to the true knowledge of the one God who is known in a Trinity of qnome—that as he created and brought all into being from nothing, the same renews all by the power of his eternal Trinity—he said this to them: “Go forth and disciple all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”? that is, the one Essence. And if you say “nature”, and it is infinite and the Cause of all, which in three infinite qnome is differentiated by way of their parsopic properties, in this way too is manhood the Son, in union with the eternal Son, one Son. But the eternal qnome are one infinite nature, for while they are distinguished, they are united in Essence, and while they are infinitely united, they are distinguished in their qnome eternally, without confusion, infinitely, invisibly. Among them one does not precede another in its qnoma, as also one does not follow in its parsopa, the Father being the Father alone, the Son being utterly singular in a different way which is unsearchable— the Simple from the Simple—and in his property being singular, and there is no other. The Father exists eternally | and for ever and not by stages as with us, nor with another Son, but remains eternally the Father—the Father alone of the Son alone, a whole natural Son of a whole natural Father in a distinct, incomprehensible way and with a singular property. Again there is no other Son consubstantial with the Father, eternally Son and eternally Father. The Son did not begin in [his] Sonship, as the Father did not begin in [his] Fatherhood. The Father is not able to be the Son, nor is the Son able to be the Father, and never do these properties change into one another, but the Father remains eternally and for ever, and the Son remains eternally and for ever. And the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son, but eternally, perpetually proceeds from the Father. He did not “begin” in his procession, as neither did the Father in his Fatherhood nor the Son in his Sonship. The proceeding remains eternally and for ever, and there is no other Holy Spirit going forth from the Father in the manner of a procession, as there is no other begotten in the manner of “the begetting of the Father”. The Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father alone, is not “later” just as the Father does not precede the Son who is eternally begotten from him. In the same way the Holy Spirit is not after the Son, as he is not after the Father, for the Father does not leave his eternal Fatherhood, nor the Son his eternal Sonship, nor the Holy Spirit his eternal procession. They did not end or begin: eternally the Father, eternally the Son, and eternally the proceeding Holy Spirit remain in one united and sole nature of eternal Being.
Book of Union – Treatise 1.37
The Unity of God
After going over some of the quotes from Mar Babai, we can see that the overall framework in his formulation of the Trinity is that:
- God is singular, ineffable, and indivisible, ultimately 1 in Essence, which is in regards to the very being of God.
- The 3 Qnome in which are enumerated are modes of subsistence, and exist concretely, distinctly, and are really identical to the one Divine Essence, meaning nothing pertaining to them in regards to natural properties are distinct rather only their modes of subsistence is distinct, in other words their “relation of oppositions”
- The 3 Qnome which are enumerated and exist concretely are identified according to their Parsopa, which is how we know that The Father is The Father, The Son is The Son, and The Holy Spirit is The Holy Spirit, as the Parsopa is what manifests that which ontologically exists as a real identity and expression of what exists.
- These 3 Qnome are not thus not “parts” of God, as God IS being, IS existence, and IS will and power and operation. This is why all 3 Qnome are identical to the One Divine Essence because if they weren’t, then it would follow that they are distinct in Essence as well and thus 3 Gods which is precisely what Mar Babai rejects.
Three are the adorable hypostases (qnomé) of the eternal Trinity identical in everything: in one glorious essence (ithuta), cause of all creatures. However, if you want to distinguish through reason the one [hypostasis] from the other, you cannot [do it], except through the property of their persons (parsopé). The name ‘Father’ is, in fact, the person (parsopa) of his hypostasis [qnoma]: He is unbegotten; from whom the Son, already since eternity, was begotten. And [the Son] is distinct through the person (parsopa) of his hypostasis, so He is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit, but the begotten from the Father before the ages. And so we distinguish the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit through its singular person (parsopa) that He possesses, for He is from the Father since eternity, that is, from the nature of Him through the way of the procession, so He is neither the Father nor the Son. This means that these [hypostases] are distinct through the distinct persons (parsopé) they own through their properties. These adorable persons (parsopé) can be given and received; the hypostases (qnomé), on the contrary, can neither be given nor received. Because of the fact that this hypostasis (qnoma) cannot be received, to become one hypostasis with another [different] hypostasis is impossible. But what inheres permanently in one hypostasis (qnoma) is the thing by which it is distinguished, so that is not another hypostasis, i.e., the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Holy Spirit. These names, as they are persons, not in the [domain of hypostases, can be given and received. The hypostasis (qnoma), however, shows only that this is this and not that. [For example], when two men come forward us, it is known that they are two hypostases, but it is not yet known who is the one and who is the other, i.e., yet the property of the hypostasis (qnoma) is not manifested as person (parsopa)”.
Babai The Great “Liber De Union” (Book Of Union)
What is most important here to note, is that for Babai, Parsopa and Qnoma have different metaphysical concepts as I stated earlier in the section on Qnoma. We see Babai using Parsopa in a way that is a manifestation of the personal properties of a singular Qnoma, such as in regards to the Father being Unbegotten and the Fountainhead of the Trinity, meaning that from him is the Eternal Cause of the Son and Spirit. We can explain it by saying that the person (parsopa) is called “Son” since His Qnoma received the property of Sonship, i.e., being generated from the Father, and that by this we understand that Person is an identity in which we can distinguish one Qnoma from another as being distinct modes of subsistence, and not that Parsopa is just a property, but instead an expression that indicates the Qnoma.
Relations of Opposition
When we speak about relations of opposition, I would just like to clarify that what we mean is: the way divine persons are distinguished by being relationally opposed to one another. To make it more easier to understand, I will provide a general summary of how we can understand the Holy Trinity, along with an image from a book I linked earlier.
The Father = Divine Essence as subsisting in Paternity.
The Son = Divine Essence as subsisting in Filiation.
The Spirit = Divine Essence as subsisting in Procession.
This would be why:
Father ≠ Son Because begetting is opposed to being begotten
Spirator ≠ Proceeding one
And is ultimately why we can speak of 3 persons within the Trinity and it not being 3 Gods, because it would only imply Tritheism if these 3 persons were subsisting in something other than the 1 Divine Essence.
Conclusion
The triadology of Mar Babai the Great represents an extremely detailed and expressive comprehension of Trinitarian theology in the Church of The East. As I demonstrated in this blog post, kyana, qnoma, and parsopa, are used distinctly when speaking about the Holy Trinity, compared to when we use these terms in regards to creatures or even in the Incarnation of our Lord Christ. Babai’s articulation ultimately demonstrates an understanding of the Trinity as being Absolutely Simple, hence the name Absolute Divine Simplicity, that God is One and not composed of parts, which I may or may not do a separate blog post later in regards to it.
His theology avoids collapsing the Trinity into modalism and tritheism, by grounding the distinctions of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in eternal relations of origin while affirming the absolute unity of the divine essence. With this article, I believe that Mar Babai does an excellent job demonstrating the Trinitarian position on his own, which is why the majority of this post is quotes from him.
Thank you all, and for any questions in regards to the topic or any of my previous blog posts, or if you have any questions that need to be clarified more, feel free to submit a question down below and I can possibly make another blog post dedicated to answering it. God bless and all Glory to the One True God.
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