Reading Scripture: Types and Figures
Novatian, On the Trinity 19
Consider another passage where Scripture calls God an angel. When Jacob complained to his wives, Leah and Rachel, about their father's injustice and told them he wished to return to his own land, he backed his words with the authority of a dream. He told them the angel of God had spoken to him in that dream: 'Jacob.' Jacob answered, 'Here I am.' The angel said, 'Look up and see: the he-goats and rams mounting the ewes and she-goats are striped, speckled, and mottled. I have seen everything Laban has done to you. I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, where you anointed a standing stone for me and vowed a vow to me. Now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth, and I will be with you' (Genesis 31:11–13). The angel of God speaks these words to Jacob, and the angel himself declares, 'I am the God who appeared to you in the place of God.' We therefore see not only an angel but God himself, without any hesitation. The angel refers to the vow Jacob made to him at the place of God, and he does not say 'in my place.' There is a place of God, and here God is present. At Bethel the text simply says 'the place of God'; it does not say 'the place of an angel and God,' but only 'of God.' Yet the one who makes these promises is called both God and angel. A proper distinction exists between the one called simply God and the one called not simply God but also angel. If no other angel can claim such authority — to confess he is God and to testify a vow was made to him — except Christ, to whom a vow can be made not because he is an angel but because he is God, then clearly the figure here cannot be the Father but the Son, God and angel.
Since Christ is that one, anyone who calls Christ merely a man or only an angel runs a grave risk. Such a claim strips away the power of the divine name that Christ has frequently received from the faith of the heavenly Scriptures, which call him both angel and God. To these points another is added: just as divine Scripture frequently calls him angel and God, so it also calls him man and God. It expresses what he was going to be and depicts in image what he already possessed in the truth of his substance. Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw he could not prevail, he touched Jacob's hip socket, and said, 'Let me go, for the dawn is rising.' Jacob replied, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' The man said, 'Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.' Then Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, 'For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved' (Genesis 32:24–33). The sun rose as he passed Peniel, and he limped on his hip. The text says, 'A man wrestled with Jacob.' If he is only a solitary man, who is he? Where is he from? Why does he contend and wrestle with Jacob? What occasioned it? What had happened? What is the reason for so great a struggle? Why, moreover, does Jacob — who proves strong enough to hold the man he wrestles — demand a blessing from him because dawn is breaking, unless this struggle prefigures the conflict between Christ and the sons of Jacob, which the Gospel says is fulfilled? Against this man the people of Jacob have wrestled. In that wrestling the people prevailed, because they won a victory of iniquity over Christ. At that time, because of the crime they committed, they began to limp severely and uncertainly in their own faith and salvation. Though they were found superior in condemning Christ, they still need his mercy; they still need his blessing. The man who wrestled with Jacob said, 'Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel.' Since Israel means a man who sees God, the Lord elegantly showed that the one who wrestled with Jacob was not only a man but also God. Jacob saw God face to face, even while he held a man in his grip. To leave no doubt, the man himself gave the interpretation: 'You have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.' Jacob, understanding the power of the mystery and perceiving the authority of the one he had wrestled, named the place 'Vision of God.' He added the reason: 'I have seen God face to face, and my soul is saved.' He saw God, with whom he wrestled as with a man; yet he held a man as victor, and asked a blessing as from God, as an inferior. Thus he wrestled with God and with man. If this wrestling was prefigured there but fulfilled in the Gospel between Christ and the people of Jacob — where the people, though found superior, are found inferior because proven guilty — who will doubt that Christ, in whom the figure of this wrestling is completed, is not only a man but also God? The figure itself proves he is both man and God.
Even after all this, divine Scripture does not cease to call the angel God and God an angel. When Jacob was about to bless Manasseh and Ephraim, Joseph's sons, he crossed his hands over their heads and said, 'The God who has fed me from my youth until this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless these boys' (Genesis 48:15–16). He identifies the same angel he called God so closely that at the end of his prayer he uses the singular: 'bless these boys.' If he had meant two distinct persons — one God, one angel — he would have used the plural. Instead he places the singular number of one person in the blessing, showing he intends the same one to be understood as both God and angel. The Father cannot be that one; but Christ, who is God and angel, can be. Jacob signified Christ as the author of this blessing by laying his crossed hands on the boys, as if Christ were their father, and by that gesture he showed the figure and form of the future passion. No one should therefore doubt that Christ is an angel, and likewise should not hesitate to confess him God. For he understands that the same one is invoked as both God and angel in the blessing of these boys, through the sacrament of the passion, embodied in the figure of the hands.
Latin
Quid si et alio in loco similiter legimus deum angelum positum? nam cum apud uxores suas Liam atque Rachel Iacob de patris illarum iniquitate quereretur, et cum referret quod iam in terram propriam remeare et reuerti cuperet, somnii quoque sui interponebat auctoritatem, quo tempore refert sibi angelum dei per somnium dixisse: acod, Lacob. et ego, inquit, dixi?: quid est? aspice, inquit, oculis tuis, et uide hircos et arietes ascendentes super oues et capras uariatos albos et uarios et cinericios et aspersos. vidi enim quaecumque tibi Laban fecit. ego sum deus qui uisus sum tibi in loco dei, ubi unxisti mihi illic stantem lapidem, et uouisti mihi illic uotum. nunc ergo surge, et proficiscere de terra hac, et uade in terram natiuitatis tuae, et ero tecum. si angelus dei loquitur haec ad Iacob, atque ipse angelus infert, dicens: ego sum deus qui uisus sum tibi in loco dei, non tantummodo hunc angelum sed et deum positum sine ulla haesitatione conspicimus, quippe sibi uotum refert ab Iacob destinatum esse in loco dei, et non dicit ‘fin loco meo.” est ergo locus dei, est et hic deus. sed enim ibi simpliciter est zz loco dei positum; neque enim dictum est ‘‘in loco angeli et dei,” sed tantummodo “dei.” hic autem qui ista promittit, deus atque angelus esse perhibetur; ut merito distinctio sit inter eum qui tantummodo deus dicitur, et inter eum qui non deus simpliciter sed et angelus pronuntiatur. ex quo si nullius alterius angeli potest hic accipi tanta auctoritas, ut deum quoque se esse fateatur et uotum sibi factum esse testetur, nisi tantummodo Christi, cui, non quia angelo tantum, sed quia deo, uotum uoueri potest, manifestum est non patrem accipi posse, sed filium, deum et angelum. hic autem si Christus est, sicuti est, uehementer periclitatur, qui aut hominem Christum aut angelum tantummodo dicit, subtracta illi diuini nominis potestate, quam ex scripturarum caelestium fide frequenter accepit, quae illum et angelum frequenter et deum dicunt. His omnibus etiam illud accedit, ut quo modo illum et angelum frequenter et deum posuit scriptura diuina, sic illum et hominem ponat et deum exprimens eadem scriptura diuina quod erat futurus, et depingens iam tum in imagine quod habebat esse in substantiae ueritate. remansit enim, inquit, Iacob solus, et luctabatur homo cum eo usque in mane: et uidit quoniam non potest aduersus eum, et tetigit latitudinem femoris Iacob, cum in eum luctaretur et ipse cum eo, et dixit et: dimitte me, ascendit enim lucifer. tam, nist me benedixeris. nomen tuum Lacob, sed Israel erit nomen tuum: quia tnualuisti cum deo, et cum hominibus potens es. et adhuc adicit: et uocauit Iacob nomen loci illius, uisio dei; vidi enim deum facie ad faciem, et salua facta est anima mea. ei sol, mox ut transiuit uisionem dei; ipse uero claudicabat femore suo. homo, inquit, luctabatur cum Iacob. si homo solitarius, quis est iste? unde est? quare cum Iacob contendit atque luctatur? quid intercesserat? quid factum fuerat? quae ratio contentionis istius tantae tantique certaminis? quare praeterea Iacob, qui ad tenendum hominem cum quo luctabatur fortis inuenitur, et benedictionem ab eo quem detinebat postulat quia iam lucifer oritur, ideo postulasse reperitur, nisi quoniam praefigurabatur contentio haec inter Christum et filios Iacob futura, quae in euangelio dicitur perfecta? contra hunc enim hominem colluctatus est populus Iacob, in qua colluctatione potentior populus est Iacob repertus, quippe cum aduersus Christum iniquitatis suae uictoriam sit consecutus: quo in tempore, propter facinus quod admisit, incessu fidei propriae et salutis claudicare grauissime incertus et lubricus coepit: qui, quamuis superior damnando Christum repertus, eget tamen ipsius misericordia, eget tamen ipsius benedictione. sed enim hic homo, qui cum Iacob luctatus est: non, inquit, uocabitur etiam nunc nomen tuum Iacob, sed Israel erit nomen tuum. ac si Israel est homo uidens deum, eleganter ostendebat dominus quod non tantum homo esset, qui colluctabatur tunc cum Iacob, sed et deus. uidebat utique deum Iacob, cum quo colluctabatur, quamuis hominem ipsius in colluctatione retineret. et ut nulla adhuc posset esse dubitatio, interpretationem ipse posuit dicendo: guéa inualuist? cum deo, et cum hominibus potens es. ob quam causam hic idem Iacob intellegens iam uim sacramenti, et peruidens auctoritatem eius cum quo luctatus fuisset, nomen loci illius in quo colluctatus est, uocauit wstonem det. superstruxit praeterea causas ad interpretationem wzstonis det porrigendam: uid enim, inquit, deum facie ad faciem, et salua facta est anima mea. uidit autem deum, cum quo colluctatus est quasi cum homine: sed et hominem quidem quasi uictor tenuit, benedictionem autem quasi a deo, ut inferior, postulauit. ita cum deo et cum homine colluctatus fuit. ac si colluctatio haec ibi quidem praefigurata est, in euangelio autem inter Christum et populum Iacob perfecta est, in qua quamuis populus superior inuentus sit, minor repertus est dum nocens comprobatus est, quis dubitabit Christum, in quo haec colluctationis figura completa ro est, non hominem tantum sed et deum agnoscere, quandoquidem hominem illum et deum etiam figura ipsa colluctationis uideatur comprobasse? Et tamen etiam post haec aeque non cessat eadem scriptura diuina angelum deum dicere, et deum angelum pronuntiare. nam cum Manassen atque Ephrem filios Ioseph benedicturus esset hic ipse Iacob, transuersis super capita puerorum manibus collocatis, deus, inquit, gud pascit me a iuuentute mea usque in hunc diem, angelus cui liberauit me ex omnibus malis, benedicat pueros hos. usque adeo autem eundem angelum ponit, quem deum dixerat, ut singulariter in exitu sermonis sui posuerit personam de qua loquebatur, dicendo benedicat pueros hos. si enim alterum deum, alterum angelum uoluisset intellegi, plurali numero duas personas complexus fuisset: nunc unius personae singularem numerum in benedictione deposuit; ex quo eundem deum atque angelum intellegi uoluit. sed enim deus pater accipi non potest: deus autem et angelus Christus accipi potest. quem ut huius benedictionis auctorem etiam transuersas super pueros manus Iacob ponendo significauit, quasi pater illorum esset Christus, ex quo manus poneret figuram et formam futurampassionis ostendens. nemo igitur Christum, sicut angelum non dubitat dicere, ita etiam deum haesitet pronuntiare, cum hunc eundem in puerorum horum benedictionem per sacramentum passionis digestum in figura manuum et deum et angelum intellegat inuocatum fuisse.