And there came a voice from heaven, saying,
You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
These words are not to be understood, when we speak of God, as when we speak of bodies. The generation of the Son is incomprehensible, the Father begets without changing his nature. Yet this begottenness is of himself. In ages inconceivably remote the true God has begotten one who is truly God. .
In the Scripture many details are mentioned distinguishably of each of the triune Persons individually, such as cannot be said of them jointly, even though they are inseparably together, as when they are made manifest by corporeal sounds. So in certain passages of Scripture and through certain created beings they are shown separately and successively, as the Father in the voice which is heard: “Thou art my Son,” and the Son in the human nature which he took from the Virgin, and the Holy Spirit in the physical appearance of a dove. These are mentioned distinguishably, it is true, but they do not prove that the Three are separated. To explicate this, we take as an example the unity of our memory, our understanding, our will. Although we list these distinguishably, individually and in their various functions, there is nothing we do or say which proceeds from one of them without the other two. However, we are not to think that these three faculties are compared to the Trinity so as to rese...
Whichever of the Evangelists may have preserved for us the words as they were literally uttered by the heavenly voice, the others have varied the terms only with the object of setting forth the same sense more familiarly, so that what is thus given by all of them might be understood as if the expression were: In You I have set my good pleasure; that is to say, by You I am doing what is my pleasure. .
De Con. Ev., ii, 14: Wherefore Matthew relates that the voice said, “This is my beloved Son;” for he wished toshew that the words, “This is My Son,” were in fact said, that thus the persons who heard it might know that He, and not another, was the Son of God.
In Marc., i, 4: He was baptized, that by being baptized Himself He might show His approval of John’s baptism, and that, by sanctifying the waters of Jordan through the descent of the dove, He might show the coming of the Holy Ghost in the laver of believers. Whence there follows, “And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit like a dove descending, and resting upon him. "But the heavens are opened, not by the unclosing of the elements, but to the eyes of the spirit, to which Ezekiel in the beginning of his book relates that they were opened; or that His seeing the heavens opened after baptism was done for our sakes, to whom the door of the kingdom of heaven is opened by the laver of regeneration.
This event also, in which the Holy Ghost was seen to come down upon baptism, was a sign of spiritual grace to be given to us in baptism.
Well indeed in the shape of a dove did the Holy Spirit come down, for it is an animal of great simplicity, and ...
Today the Source of all the graces of baptism comes himself to be baptized in the river Jordan, there to make himself known to the world. Seeing him approach, John stretches out his hand to hold him back, protesting: Lord, by your own baptism you sanctify all others; yours is the true baptism, the source of perfect holiness. How can you wish to submit to mine? But the Lord replies, I wish it to be so. Come and baptize me. Do as I wish, for surely you cannot refuse me. Why do you hesitate, why are you so afraid? Do you not realize that the baptism I ask for is mine by every right? By my baptism the waters will be sanctified, receiving from me fire and the Holy Spirit…. See the hosts of heaven hushed and still, as the allholy Bridegroom goes down into the Jordan. No sooner is he baptized than he comes up from the waters, his splendor shining forth over the earth. The gates of heaven are opened, and the Father’s voice is heard: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” All who a...
The Greek printed copies, and some manuscripts read with St. Matthew (iii. 17.) in whom, en o, thus St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, and Theophylactus. Some few, however, have en soi, in thee, with the Syriac and Latin text. (Pastorini)
All the Fathers cite these verses for a proof of the Trinity: the testimony of the Father speaking, of the Son receiving the testimony, of the Holy Spirit descending in the shape of a dove. (Pastorini in Matt. iii. 17)
Ture the Father of the Only-begotten, He who alone knoweth perfectly Him whom He alone in passionless fashion begat, to correct the erroneous imaginations of the Jews, opened the gates of the heavens, and sent down the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, lighting upon the head of Jesus, pointing out thereby the new Noah, yea the maker of Noah, and the good pilot of the nature which is in shipwreck. And He Himself calls with clear voice out of heaven, and says: "This is my beloved Son"
For this reason did the Father send down the Holy Spirit from heaven upon the One who was baptized…. For what reason? That the faithfulness of the Father’s voice might be made known…. Listen to the Father’s voice: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This is he who is named the son of Joseph, who according to the divine essence is my only begotten. “This is my beloved Son,” yes, none other than the One who himself becomes hungry, yet feeds countless numbers. He is my Son who himself becomes weary, yet gives rest to the weary. He has no place to lay his head, yet bears up all things in his hand. He suffers, yet heals sufferings. He is beaten, yet confers liberty upon the world. He is pierced in his side, yet repairs the side of Adam.
Again, the Holy Spirit camedown in the shape of a dove, because in the Canticles it is sung of the Church: "My bride, my love, my beloved, my dove. ”Bride” in the Patriarchs, “love” in the Prophets, “near of kin” in Joseph and Mary, “beloved” in John the Baptist, "dove” in Christ and His Apostles: to whom it is said, “Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” .
Morally also it may be interpreted; we also, drawn aside from the fleeting world by the smell and purity of flowers, run with the young maidens after the bridegroom, and are washed in the sacrament of baptism, from the two fountains of the love of God, and of our neighbour, by the grace of remission, and mounting up by hope gaze upon heavenly mysteries with the eyes of a clean heart. Then we receive in a contrite and lowly spirit, with simplicity of heart, the Holy Spirit, who comes down to the meek, and abides in us, by the never-failing charity. And the voice of the Lord from heaven is directed to us the beloved of God; ...
Forasmuch as He was ordaining a new baptism, He came to the baptism of John, which, in respect of His own baptism, was incomplete, but different from the Jewish baptism, as being between both. He did this that He might show, by the nature of His baptism, that He was not baptized for the remission of sins, nor as wanting the reception of the Holy Spirit: for the baptism of John was destitute of both these. But He was baptized that He might be made known to all, that they might believe on Him and “fulfil all righteousness”, which is “keeping of the commandments:” for it has been commanded to men that they should submit to the Prophet’s baptism.
Or else, that from heaven sanctification might be given to men, and earthly things be joined to heavenly. But the Holy Spirit is said to have descended upon Him, not as if He then first came to Him, for He never had left Him; but that He might show forth the Christ, Who was preached by John, and point Him out to all, as it were by the finger of fa...
