Commentary on Matthew

Appendix I. An Echo From the Lost Ending

297 APPENDIX I. AN ECHO FROM THE LOST ENDING Hilary, De trinitate 2.1 (SC 443.274–76) For believers it was enough that the utterance of God entered into our ears through the witness of the Gospel by the power of its truth, when the Lord said: Go now and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you. And lo, I am with you for all days unto the end of the age.1 What is not included in that utterance concerning the sacrament of human salvation? Or is there anything that remains, or is hard to understand? It is entirely complete as from completeness, and has proceeded from perfection.2 For the utterance compromises the words’ significance, the realization of the issues involved, the proper ordering3 of sequences, and an understanding of the [divine] nature. It orders [us] to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,4 that is, with a confession of the Author, of the Onlybegotten , and the Gift. There is one Author of all things, for there is one God the Father, from whom all things come; and one Onlybegotten , our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things; and one Spirit, the Gift in all things. Everything, therefore, has been arranged according to its powers and benefits: one Authority from whom is all; one Offspring5 through whom is all; one Gift who is the perfect hope. Nothing is found to be lacking in such fulfillment: within which the eternal infinite is in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, resemblance in the image, the benefit in the gift.6 1. Mt 28.19–20. 2. An alternative reading: “perfect from the perfect.” 3. ordinem. 4. Mt 28.19. 5. progenies. 6. M. Milhau, “Hilaire de Poitiers, De Trinitate 2, 1: Formule baptismale et foi trinitaire,” Studia Patristica 38 (2001): 435–48, which briefly surveys twentiethcentury scholarship on what is manifestly part of a baptismal confession theologically glossed by Hilary. ...