卷一 13 三一真神(3)

主讲:林慈信牧师_刘加立弟兄、王弟兄&ZJY(CGY)姐妹

各位同学,现在我们来到第13课。关于“三位一体论”呢,我们可以说:神是“一”,神是“三”。[神是“一”]在英文与中文中都因为经过了早期教会的争辨,差不多这两个字都定下来了。[神是“一”]用essence“本质”,神是“三” 用persons“位格”。所以英文是:神是一个essence,三个persons,中文是:神是一个本质,三个位格。

那在早期教会(特别是在尼西亚会议的时候),希腊文当时在尼西亚会议(325年),希腊文是最普遍使用的。也就是说,当时的教会的主教们、监督们绝大部分是用希腊文的。他们讲到神的本质是用ousias,后来(特别是在尼西亚之后)新尼西亚的三教父是用hypostases来表达神有三个位格。

1、问题是:后来的拉丁文的教父耶柔米就是用substantia这个字来翻ousias,其他的教父用substantia这个字来翻“位格”。当然,hypostases这个字也可以有希腊语的 prosopa这个字的。加尔文说:“耶柔米有一些混乱,因为他没有跟当时的习惯”。但是到了英语,就是到了宗教改革之后呢?英文的确是与耶柔米一样的:“本质”是essence或者是substance,所以英文又用了substance,就是substantia这个字,来说“圣子与圣父是同质的。”(“本质”又用了substantia,就与耶柔米是不约而同的。)所以,homoousias英文就是consubstancial。

2、另外一个问题、另外一个我们要解释的,就是拉丁文翻hypostases 除了substantia这个字以外,也可以用prosopa这个字,用prosopa这个字没有问题的。因为无论你用substantia、用hypostases,用任何一个字都可以用的。问题是撒伯流主义这种的异端,就很字意地去解释prosopa这个字。因为prosopa这个字本身可以被解释为:(当时的意思就是)戏剧里不同的演员戴不同的面具,表示他们扮演不同的角色。所以prosopa这个字在异端的用法、在撒伯流派的用法就是不同的角色:父就是神,戴一个面具;子,就是神戴第二个面具;灵,就是神戴第三个面具。这个是异端!包括在台湾出版的《信徒神学》的作者也是跟着这个异端。但是prosopa这个字或者person这个字是可以用的。

下面第十三节,我们继续讨论:加尔文怎么分析古代和中古时期,教父是怎样地感觉到一些的用词是超越了人的理解,所以就有点放弃怎么去分辨正确的用词。

上一段我们讲到:Hilary认为其实“圣父、圣子、圣灵”这三个名字,只不过是表达一些字不能表达的一些奥秘。不过,请记得,在这一段的前面,我们已经说过:(加尔文已经说过)Hilary是认为substance是三个的,不是一个的。所以,Hilary有用substance这个字来表达“圣父、圣子、圣灵”,但是他又说:“这样子表达的方法只不过是在表达奥秘而已”, beyond the meaning of language, above the reach of sense, 这些呢?都有是在言语与人的感观以外的,above the capacity of understanding.是超乎人的理解的能力的。

奥古斯丁也是一样的、类似的,他说:on account of the poverty of human speech in so great a matter,“论到这么伟大的一件事的时候,人的言说是那么的贫乏。the word “hypostasis” had been forced upon us by necessity,我们是被逼、必须用hypostasis,位格这个字的。not to express what it is, 不是说hypostasis,位格这个字就可以把神的位格说清楚了,不是的!but only not to be silent on how Father, Son, and Spirit are three.只不过是不甘寂寞。就是说,我们不能不说父、子、灵是[三],所以被逼用了‘位格’这个字而已。不是说用了这个字就可以说清楚了。”

下面一段,And this modesty of saintly men ought to warn us against forthwith so severely taking to task, like censors, those who do not wish to swear to the words conceived by us所以这些比较谦卑的教父也给我们一个很好的警告的。But let these very persons, in turn, weigh the necessity that compels us to speak thus,是的,用这些词要很谨慎,但是还是必须的,我们是被逼要这样讲话的。that gradually they may at length become accustomed to a useful manner of speaking.我们被逼用“位格”、用“本质”这些词来表达,就好叫人们慢慢就习惯了用“本质” 和“位格”,这样子是对教会有用的。Also let them learn to beware, lest, when they have to Arians on the one hand and Sabellians on the other, while indignant that the opportunity to evade the issue is cut off, they arouse some suspicion that they are disciples either of Arius or of Sabellius.这里说:是的,我们要让教会习惯用这些字,但是我们用字的时候又不要让别人怀疑我们就是亚流派,我们就是撒伯流派。Arius says that Christ is God, 亚流说:[基督是神。]but mutters that he was made and had a beginning.但是,他又喃喃自语说:[基督是被造的,他是有开端的、开始的。] He says that Christ is one with the Father,亚流说:[基督与父同为一]。but secretly whispers in the ears of his own partisans that He is united to the Father like other believers, 但是,说到[基督同为一]呢?亚流与他自己同派的人说话的时候,又说:[基督与父联合,就好像信徒与神联合一样]。就是完全与正统信仰所说的“同质”是两码事了。although by a singular privilege.当然,基督与父联合是有他自己的特权的。 Say “consubstantial” and you will tear off the mask of this turncoat,当你用“同质”的时候,你就把亚流的这个异端的面具扯掉了。 yet you add nothing to Scripture. 不过,你并没有在《圣经》的真理之上加了什么另外的?

Sabellius,撒伯流说:says that Father, Son, and Spirit signify no distinctions in God. 父、子、灵在神格里面没有什么特别的意义,也不是用来分辨三个位格的]。Say they are three, 你说,[神是三]喽。 and he will scream that you are naming three Gods.撒伯流就说:[唉呀,你是三神论哪]。 Say that in the one essence of God there is a trinity of persons; you will say in one word what Scripture states, and cut short empty talkativeness.当你说:神有一个本质,在一个本质的神里有三个位格的时候,你就把撒伯流的异端砍掉了。 Indeed, if anxious superstition so constrains anyone that he cannot bear these terms, 假如有人那么迷信地、不让教会用或者不容许教会使用这些词的话,yet no one could now deny, even if he were to burst, that when we hear “one” we ought to understand “unity of substance”; 就是说:有人假如这样说:“不可以用这些名词!”不要紧,经过这么多年了,当我们一想到[神是一]的时候,我们就想到[神是一个质、一个本质的];when we hear “three in one essence,” the persons are meant. 当我们说[一个本质有三]的时候呢?当然,我们一想就想到是[三个位格],神格里面的三个位格。When this is confessed without guile, we need not dally over words.当我们很诚恳地这样说:[神是一]、[神是三]、[神是一个本质、三个位格]的时候。我们诚恳地说,就是我们心目中是正统的信仰的话,我们就不怕用或者不用这些词的。But I have long since and repeatedly been experiencing that all who persistently quarrel over words nurse a secret poison. 但是,我多年来发觉,我的经验告诉我,那些为了字而争辨的人往往心中另有意图的,是有一些毒害或毒素在他的思想中。 As a consequence, it is more expedient to challenge them deliberately than speak more obscurely to please them.所以,对那些不愿意用这些词汇的人,比较有效的是特意地挑战他们。也就是说用我们这些的词汇,好过不用词汇、模模糊糊地为了讨好那些不愿意用这些名词的人。还是用比较好,因为你不用的话,很容易地就让异端存留下去。

好,我们现在继续来看,要正面地来讨论“位格”了。1.13.6  laying aside disputation over terms, 现在我们不再谈这些关于名词的争辨了。I shall proceed to speak of the thing itself:我们来讲真理本身,“Person” 位格,we call a “subsistence” in God’s essence,什么是“位格”呢?“位格”就是指在神的本质里我们所指的一个生存的形态。

你看,加尔文就把“Person”与“subsistence”当成同义词啦。which, while related to the others,是的,位格与位格之间是有关系的。is distinguished by an incommunicable quality.三个位格之间是有不同的,他们之间的分辨是一种不能传递的本质,或者是三个位格之间的不同,他们之间的分辨是有一种不能传递的素质的。就是说:父与子之间不同、子与灵之间不同,他们之间的不同呢,这个不同点是独特的,子不能把祂的子性传给父,父不能把祂的父性传给子。那我(林老师)就跟着一些英文的教义历史书说,这个叫作“subsistence”,“生存形态”。

By the term“subsistence” we should understand something quite different from “essence.” 总之,“生存形态subsistence”就是与本质是不一样的。For if the Word were simply God, and yet possessed no other characteristic mark, John would wrongly have said that the Word was always with God. 假如[道就是神],而没有其他的特点的话,约翰就不会继续说下去,说:[道与神同在](约一:1)。When immediately after he adds that the Word was also God himself, he recalls us to the essence as a unity. 然后,在第二节,约翰又继续马上说:[这道从太初与神同在](约一:2),或者说:道就是神。他就告诉我们:神在本质上是一的。[道就是神]!And because he could not be with God without residing in the Father, hence emerges the idea of a subsistence, 但是,道不可能与神同在,除非在父里永存,因此这里有一个“生存形态”的意思。which, even though it has been joined with the essence by a common bond and cannot be separated from it, yet has a special mark whereby it is distinguished from it.“生存形态”虽然与“本质”很有密切的关系,但是,还是不一样的。Now, of the three subsistences I say that each one is distinguished by a special quality. 当我们说到“生存形态”的时候呢?每一个生存形态虽然是与别的有关系,什么叫子?当然是[父的子]的意思。这就叫做有关系。但是,子是子,子就不是父,那个“子性”就是一个special quality,一个特别的素质。his “relation” is here distinctly expressed:那么,位格与位格之间、生存形态与生存形态之间的那个关系是这样表达的:because where simple and indefinite mention is made of God, this name pertains no less to the Son and the Spirit than to the Father. 当《圣经》说“神”,(简单说“神”或者不分辨时说“神”的时候,这个“神”的名字当然指父啦,但是也是指着子和灵而说的)。起初 神创造天地(创1:1)就是起初,父、子、灵创造天地。“神”就是代表了父、子、灵。 But as soon as the Father is compared with the Son,但是,当《圣经》把父与子比较的时候呢?the character of each distinguishes the one from the other. 父的特点与子的特点就马上显出来了:父是父,子是子。

Thirdly,第三,whatever is proper to each individually, I maintain to be incommunicable,父独特所有的“父性”、子的“子性”、灵的“灵性”是不能传递的,because whatever is attributed to the Father as a distinguishing mark cannot agree with, or be transferred to, the Son. 父的特点是不能与子的特点等同的,也不能传递的。Nor am I displeased with Tertullian’s definition, provided it be taken in the right sense, that there is a kind of distribution or economy in God which has no effect on the unity of essence. 加尔文说:特土良(Tertullian)所讲的,我也可以同意,不过呢?我们要解释得恰当,不要误解、不要误说。就是呢?在[神有一个、只有一个本质的]这个大前提之下,神里面有a kind of distribution or economy的,神之间是有一种的分配或者是秩序。父是父,父是排第一的;子是排第二的;灵是排第三的。这个秩序是神自己排的。所以,说[一个本质里面有三个位格,每个位格有他的生存形态,或者有他在三位一体里面的独特的秩序order,economy就是order的意思]。这样讲是正确的,只要我们不要说:[子本质上比父低,灵本质上比父和子低],就可以了。祂们在本质上是同等的,完全是神。但是,《圣经》的确把父排在第一、子排第二、灵排第三。这个就是特土良所讲的economy。

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再来一次,父是神,父不是子,子不是灵,灵不是父,这叫“Person”,位格;父是父,子是子,灵是灵,这叫“生存形态”;父排第一、子排第二、灵排第三,这个叫economy,这个叫作秩序;但是父是神,子是神,灵是神,这叫做本质。

好,现在我们继续来讲[神是一]的。 because God more clearly disclosed himself in the coming of Christ, thus he also became known more familiarly in three persons. 因为上帝的自我启示,当耶基督道成肉身的时候,祂的自我启示就越来越明显、越来越清楚。因此,到了新约时期,我们就认识到[神是三个位格的]。But of the many testimonies this one will suffice for us.但是,我们只要讲一个例子就好了,就是《以弗所书》第四章第五节“一主,一信,一洗、一父、一灵”等等,他说:我们只有一个洗、一个信,因为我们受洗是归入一个真神。

这段结论是这样说的:this means precisely to be baptized into the name of the one God,《马太福音》第二十八章19节的意思是说:我们是受洗进入到(中文是翻译为“归入”,进入到)那个一个神的一个名字,who has shown himself with complete clarity in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. 这个一个神——有一个名的神,很清楚地启示祂自己是父、子、灵。所以,神的本质是一个,所以,祂的名字是一个。父、子、灵是一个名字,不是三个名字。Hence it is quite clear that in God’s essence reside three persons in whom one God is known.所以,在一个神的本质里有三个位格,透过这三个位格,我们认识是一个神,不是三个神。A faith ought not to gaze hither and thither, nor to discourse of various matters, but to look upon the one God, 我们的信心不要东张西望,我们要注视一位神,unite with Him, 与他联合,cleave to Him紧紧地握住祂。

我们来看下面的大黑字。Baptism should be in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, 什么意思呢?就是we ought with one faith to believe in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit。受洗是奉父、子、圣灵的名施洗的。什么意思呢?就是说我们只有一个信心:相信父、相信子、相信灵。Therefore, since that there is one God, 那既然只有一位神,not more,不是三位神,that there is one God is regarded as settled principle,这个是已经定的真理。we conclude that Word and Spirit are nothing else than the very essence of God. 道和灵,“太初有道”的那个[道]和灵呢,就是神的本质,也就是说与父同质。The Arians used to prate most foolishly when,in confessing the divinity of the Son,they took away the substance of God from Him.亚流派的错误就是当他们承认子是神,子有神性的时候,他们同时又把神的本质拿走。

下面我们来讲[神是三、神三位格]。Again, Scripture sets forth a distinction of the Father from the Word, and of the Word from the Spirit. 《圣经》告诉我们父就不是[道]或者子,子或者[道]就不是灵,Yet the greatness of the mystery warns us how much reverence and sobriety we ought to use in investigating this.但是,这是一个奥秘。当我们探究这件事情的时候,要非常的敬畏和谨慎。And that passage in Gregory of Nazianzus vastly delights me: 三教父里面,其中有一位Gregory说了一句话,加尔文说这令我非常的喜欢。“I cannot think on the one without quickly being encircled by the splendor of the three; [当我想到一位的真神的时候,马上就被三个位格的荣耀包围了;nor can I discern the three without being straightway carried back to the one.” 当我分辨到、察觉到三个位格的时候,我马上就被带回到一位神那里。」想到“一”就想到“三”,想到“三”就想到“一”。Let us not, then, be led to imagine a trinity of persons that keeps our thoughts distracted and does not at once lead them back to that unity. 所以,我们要跟Gregory,跟贵格理一样呢,想到三个位格的时候,不要乱想、跑乱了,我们要马上回到神的“是一位神”那里。Indeed, the words “Father,” “Son,” and “Spirit” imply a real distinction 是的,父、子、灵这三个名字是告诉我们:三个不同的位格、是有分辨的。let no one think that these titles are empty不要以为父、子、灵这些头衔是空洞的, 他们distinction,他们是三个位格有的分辨的,but not a division, 但是不是把神分裂了。The passages that we have already cited, show that the Son has a character distinct from the Father, because the Word would not have been with God unless he were another than the Father, 子与父是有不同的性格的,不然的话,就不能说[道与神同在],除非他与父、与神是不一样的。nor would he have had his glory with the Father were he not distinct from the Father. 我们也不会看到祂的荣耀与父的荣耀在一起的,除非祂与父是不一样的。总之,这“三”之间是有不同的。

好,我们现在翻到讲义1.13.18。这里加尔文告诉我们:用任何的比喻都是不足够,即用任何的比喻来形容“三位一体”都是不足够。I really do not know whether it is expedient to borrow comparisons from human affairs to express the force of this distinction.三个位格之间的分辨用人类生活的比喻来说清,大概是不太可能的。Men of old were indeed accustomed sometimes to do so, but at the same time they confessed that the analogies they advanced were quite inadequate. 从古代的人起都承认他们的比喻是不足够的,Thus is it that I shrink from all rashness here:所以,我们特别不愿意太过鲁莽, lest if anything should be inopportunely expressed, it may give occasion either of calumny to the malicious, or of delusion to the ignorant. 因为我不想说错比喻,让一些邪恶的人来控告我,或者是让那些无知的人(就是指一些教会的弟兄姐妹)胡思乱想,跑到一个虚幻的一个地步。Nevertheless, it is not fitting to suppress the distinction that we observe to be expressed in Scripture. 但是《圣经》里面所说的关于“三个位格”之间的分辨,我们是要遵守的。

It is this: to the Father is attributed the beginning of activity, 《圣经》说“父”是神的行动的启动者,and the fountain and wellspring of all things; 是万物的起源;and to the Son, wisdom, counsel, and the ordered disposition of all things;圣子是满有智慧、谋略,也以祂的心意来管理和治理万事的;but to the Spirit is assigned the power an efficacy of that activity. 圣灵就特别让神的作为有祂的效力的,就是大能地成就神所做的、神所计划的。这里完全不是在讲“本质”,甚至不是在讲“位格”,只不过是讲每一个位格,他扮演的角色有一点不一样。每个位格是有不同角色的,但这个角色不是“位格”、不是“生存形态”、更加不是“本质”。

Indeed, although the eternity of the Father is also the eternity of the Son and the Spirit,是的,父是永恒的、就像子是永恒的、灵是永恒的。since God would never or could never exist apart from His wisdom and power, 而神不可能没有智慧、没有权能而生存的。 and we must not seek in eternity a before or an after, 当我们说:父、子、灵是永恒的时候,就没有开始、以前、没有后面以后。nevertheless the observance of an order is not meaningless or superfluous,但是说父、子、灵之间有某一种的秩序,不是没有意义的,也不是多此一举的。when the Father is thought of as first, then from Him the Son, and finally from both the Spirit. 先有父、然后子、然后从父、子,灵而出,这种的秩序既然是《圣经》里面有的,所以不是没有意义的。不是没有意义,很谦虚地这样说。用一般神学的名词就是说叫做economic Trinity,在神的计划里面,三位一体每一个位格有祂自己的角色。For the mind of each human being is naturally inclined to contemplate God first, then the wisdom coming forth from him, and lastly the power, 他说:人一般都是先想到神,然后想到祂的智慧,想到祂的权能,所以,子是从父而生,然后灵是从父、子而出,这个是很自然的事。

总之呢,这个是不是位格、不是生存形态,只不过是在工作上的一个次序。

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