Did early Christians teach eternal generation?

Ignatius, The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians (Long Version) Direct teaching

For the Son of God, who was begotten before time began, and established all things according to the will of the Father, He was conceived in the womb of Mary, according to the appointment of God, of the seed of David, and by the Holy Ghost.

Ignatius of Antioch, Connection to John 1:18 Direct teaching

one God, who has manifested Himself by Jesus Christ His Son, who is His eternal Word, not proceeding forth from silence.

Justin Martyr, The First Apology Direct teaching

...iar with the Father and do not know that the Father of the universe has a Son, who, being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God. In the past, He appeared to Moses and other prophets as fire and in the likeness of an angel. But now, in the time of your reign, having become Man by a virgin, according to the Father’s plan, for the salvation of those who believe in Him, He endured being scorned and suffering, so that by dying and rising again He might conquer death. What was said from the bush to Moses, "I am that I am, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and the God of your fathers," indicated that they, though dead, are still in existence and belong to Christ Himself. For they were the first to seek God earnestly; Abraham being the father of Isaac, and Isaac of Jacob, as Moses wrote.

Justin Martyr, The Second Apology Direct teaching

And His Son, who alone is properly called Son, the Word, who also was with Him and was begotten before the works, when at first He created and arranged all things by Him, is called Christ, in reference to His being anointed and God’s ordering all things through Him;

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Direct teaching

Wherefore we have always held that God is the Father of His only-begotten Son, who was born indeed of Him, and derives from Him what He is, but without any beginning, not only such as may be measured by any divisions of time, but even that which the mind alone can contemplate within itself, or behold, so to speak, with the naked powers of the understanding.

Alexander of Alexandria, Epistles on the Arian Heresy Direct teaching

but to the Son must be allotted His fitting honour, in assigning to Him, as we have said, a generation from the Father without beginning, and allotting adoration to Him, so as only piously and properly to use the words, He was, and always, and before all worlds, with respect to Him;

Alexander of Alexandria, Epistles on the Arian Heresy Direct teaching

who, not in time, nor after an interval, nor from things which are not, has begotten His only-begotten Son.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, On the Trinity Direct teaching

Besides, the generation of the Son by the Father is incomprehensible and ineffable;

Clement of Alexandria, Fragments Direct teaching

For when he says, That which was from the beginning, he touches upon the generation without beginning of the Son, who is co-existent with the Father.

Dionysius of Alexandria, Miscellaneous Fragments Direct teaching

4. Since, therefore, the Father is eternal, the Son also is eternal, Light of Light.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, On the Trinity Direct teaching

... remains as it was. Nor does anything new happen to the persons or even to the names, but these are eternal and without time. However, no one was able to know these things until the Son, being made flesh, manifested them, saying, "Father, I have manifested Your name to men; glorify me also, that they may know me as Your Son." John 17:6 And on the mount the Father spoke and said, "This is my beloved Son." Matthew 3:17 And the same sent His Holy Spirit at the Jordan. And thus it was declared to us that there is an Eternal Trinity in equal honor. Besides, the generation of the Son by the Father is incomprehensible and ineffable. And because it is spiritual, its investigation becomes impracticable. For a spiritual object can neither be understood nor traced by a bodily object, for that is far removed from human nature. We men know indeed the generation proper to us, as also that of other things. But a spiritual matter is above human condition, nor can it in any way be understood by the minds of men. Spiritual substance can neither perish nor be dissolved. Ours, however, as is easy to understand, perishes and is dissolved. How, indeed, could it be possible for man, who is limited on

Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Direct teaching

...tten of the Father in a true generation, and not formed by an act of will. The Spirit is sent forth eternally from the substance of the Father through the Son, with power to sanctify the whole creation. We also acknowledge that the Word was made flesh and was revealed in the movement of flesh received from a virgin, and did not merely work in a man. And those who have fellowship with people who reject consubstantiality as a teaching foreign to the Scriptures, and who speak of any of the persons in the Trinity as created, and separate that person from the one natural divinity, we regard as aliens, and we have fellowship with no such people. There is one God, the Father, and there is only one divinity. But the Son also is God, as the true image of the one and only divinity, according to His generation and the nature He has from the Father. There is one Lord, the Son. But in the same way there is also the Spirit, who carries the Son's lordship over to the creature that is sanctified. The Son lived in the world, having received flesh from the Virgin, which He filled with the Holy Spirit for the sanctification of us all. And after giving up the flesh to death, He destroyed death thro

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Direct teaching

...ow then was the Son produced by the Father?” we respond that no one understands that production, or generation, or calling, or revelation, or whatever name one may use to describe His generation, which is truly indescribable. Neither Valentinus, nor Marcion, nor Saturninus, nor Basilides, nor angels, nor archangels, nor principalities, nor powers have this knowledge, but only the Father who begat, and the Son who was begotten. Since His generation is unspeakable, those who try to explain generations and productions cannot be in their right mind, as they attempt to describe things which are indescribable. For it is well understood by all that a word is spoken by the command of thought and mind. Those who have developed the theory of emissions have not discovered anything great or revealed any hidden mystery, when they have merely applied what all understand to the only-begotten Word of God; and while they call Him unspeakable and unnameable, they nevertheless describe the production and formation of His first generation, as if they themselves had witnessed His birth, thus comparing Him to the word of humanity formed by emissions.

Hippolytus, Against the Heresy of Noetus Direct teaching

...." Now what is meant in this sentence, "I came forth from the Father," except the Word? And what is begotten of Him except the Spirit, that is to say, the Word? But you will say to me, "How is He begotten?" In your own case, you can give no explanation of the way in which you were begotten, although every day you see the cause according to man. Neither can you tell accurately the divine arrangement in His case. For it is not in your power to acquaint yourself with the Maker's practiced and indescribable art, or method, but only to see, and understand, and believe that man is God's work. Moreover, you are asking for an account of the generation of the Word, whom God the Father in His good pleasure begot as He willed. Is it not enough for you to learn that God made the world? Do you also dare to ask from where He made it? Is it not enough for you to learn that the Son of God has been manifested to you for salvation, if you believe? Do you also inquire curiously how He was begotten after the Spirit? Truly, no more than two have been entrusted to give the account of His generation after the flesh. And are you then so bold as to seek the account of His generation after the Spirit, wh

Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Direct teaching

...ature. They are known to the Son alone, who has known the secrets of the Father. Then, since He was begotten of the Father, He is always in the Father. I say "always" in this way to show that He is not unborn, but born. But He who is before all time must be said to have always been in the Father, because no time can be assigned to Him who is before all time. And He is always in the Father, unless the Father has not always been Father, except that the Father also goes before Him in a certain sense, since it is necessary in some degree that He should exist before He is Father. Because it is necessary that He who knows no beginning should go before Him who has a beginning. In the same way, He is less, since He knows that He is in Him, having an origin because He is born, and being of like nature with the Father in some measure by His birth, although He has a beginning in that He is born, since He is born of that Father who alone has no beginning. He, then, when the Father willed it, proceeded from the Father. He who was in the Father came forth from the Father. And He who was in the Father because He was of the Father was afterward with the Father because He came forth from the Fat

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Direct teaching

...asped. They are known to the Son alone, who has known the secrets of the Father. Then, since He was begotten of the Father, He is always in the Father. And I say always in this way, so that I may show that He is not unborn, but born. But He who is before all time must be said to have always been in the Father, for no time can be assigned to Him who is before all time. And He is always in the Father, unless the Father has not always been Father. Only, in a certain sense, the Father also goes before Him, since it is necessary, in some degree, that He should be before He is Father. Because it is essential that He who knows no beginning should go before him who has a beginning. In this way, He is less, since He knows that He is in Him, having an origin because He is born, and being of like nature with the Father in some measure by His nativity. Although He has a beginning in that He is born, since He is born of that Father who alone has no beginning. He, then, when the Father willed it, proceeded from the Father. And He who was in the Father came forth from the Father. And He who was in the Father because He was of the Father was afterward with the Father because He came forth from

Alexander of Alexandria, Epistles on the Arian Heresy Supporting witness

...o are moved by the Spirit of truth have no need to learn these things from me. For the words spoken before by Christ on this very matter are sounding in our ears: "No man knows the Father, save the Son; and no man knows who the Son is, save the Father." Matthew 11:27. We have learned that He is, equally with the Father, unchangeable and immutable, lacking nothing, the perfect Son, and like the Father. In this alone He is inferior to the Father: that He is not unbegotten. For He is the exact image of the Father, differing from Him in nothing. For it is clear that He is the image fully containing all things by which the greatest likeness is declared, as the Lord Himself taught us when He says, "My Father is greater than I." John 14:28. According to this, we believe that the Son is of the Father, always existing. For He is "the brightness of His glory, the express image of His Father's person." Hebrews 1:3. But let no one take that word "always" in such a way as to raise the suspicion that He is unbegotten, as those imagine whose senses are blinded. For neither are the words "He was," or "always," or "before all worlds," equal to "unbegotten." But neither can the human mind use any

Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Direct teaching

God the Father, being Himself the perfect Person, has thus the perfect Word begotten of Him truly, not as a word that is spoken, nor yet again as a son by adoption, in the sense in which angels and men are called sons of God, but as a Son who is in nature God.

Clement of Alexandria, Fragments Direct teaching

as also the Word itself, that is, the Son of God, who being, by equality of substance, one with the Father, is eternal and uncreate.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, On the Trinity Direct teaching

The Word Himself is before every creature — eternal from the Eternal, like spring from spring, and light from light.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Direct teaching

But the Son, eternally co-existing with the Father, from of old, yea, from the beginning, always reveals the Father to Angels, Archangels, Powers, Virtues, and all to whom He wills that God should be revealed.

Tertullian, Against Praxeas Direct teaching

So, it is either the Father or the Son, and day is not the same as night. In the same way, the Father is not the same as the Son, so that both of them would be one, and one or the other would be both. That is the view held by the most arrogant Monarchians. They say that He made Himself a Son to Himself. But a father makes a son, and a son makes a father. When persons are related to each other in that way, they cannot somehow become related to themselves by themselves. So the Father cannot make Himself a Son to Himself, and the Son cannot make Himself a Father to Himself. And the relations God establishes, He also preserves. A father must have a son in order to be a father. In the same way, a son must have a father in order to be a son. However, having something is one thing, and being something is another. For example, to be a husband, I must have a wife. I can never be my own wife. In the same way, to be a father, I have a son, because I can never be a son to myself. And to be a son, I have a father, because it is impossible for me ever to be my own father. These relations make me what I am when I come to possess them. I will be a father when I have a son, and a son when I have a

Tertullian, Against Praxeas Direct teaching

Colossians 1:15 and His only-begotten also, because alone begotten of God, in a way peculiar to Himself, from the womb of His own heart — even as the Father Himself testifies: My heart, says He, has emitted my most excellent Word.

Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Direct teaching

...aid, "Have I been with you so long, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father also." But let him learn what he does not understand. Philip is rebuked, and rightly and deservedly so, because he said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." For when had he either heard from Christ, or learned, that Christ was the Father? On the contrary, he had often heard and often learned that He was the Son, not that He was the Father. For when the Lord said, "If you have known me, you have known my Father also: and from now on you have known Him, and have seen Him," He did not say this because He wanted to be understood as being the Father Himself. Rather, He meant that whoever came near to the Son of God fully, completely, with all faith and all reverence, would certainly reach the Father through the Son Himself, in whom he believes, and would see Him. For, He says, "No one can come to the Father, but by me." And therefore such a person will not only come to God the Father and know the Father Himself, but he ought also to hold this and be confident of it in mind and heart: that from now on he has not only known the Father, but has seen Him. For divine

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Supporting witness

...understood in different ways. One is called father because he is the parent of children whom he has begotten in a natural way. Another is called father because he is the guardian of children whom he has only brought up. Others, again, are called fathers because of the privileged standing that comes through time or age. So our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is said to have various fathers. For David was called His father, and Joseph was reckoned to be His father, although neither of these two was His father in the reality of nature. For David is called His father in regard to the prerogative of time and age, and Joseph is designated His father in regard to the law of upbringing. But God Himself is His only Father by nature, who was pleased to make all things plain to us in a short time by His word. And our Lord Jesus Christ, making no delay, within the space of one year restored multitudes of the sick to health, and gave back the dead to the light of life. He did indeed embrace all things in the power of His own word. And in what, then, did He make any delay, so that we should have to believe that He waited so long, even to these days, before He actually sent the Paraclete? No. Rather

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book I Supporting witness

... all, establishes a certain principle—that is, what was first-born by God, which he called both the only-begotten Son and God, in whom the Father, in a seminal way, brought forth everything. Through him, the Word was produced, and in him the entire substance of the Æons, which the Word later gave form to. Since he addresses the first origin of things, he rightly begins his teaching from the start, that is, from God and the Word. And he expresses himself like this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God.” Having first distinguished these three—God, the Beginning, and the Word—he again unites them, to show the production of each, that is, of the Son and the Word, and at the same time show their union with one another, and with the Father. For “the beginning” is in the Father and from the Father, while “the Word” is in the beginning and from the beginning. Very appropriately, then, did he say, “In the beginning was the Word,” for He was in the Son; “and the Word was with God,” for He was the beginning; “and the Word was God,” naturally, for what is begotten of God is God. “The same was in the beginning

Justin Martyr, The First Apology Supporting witness

and, becoming man according to His will, He taught us these things for the conversion and restoration of the human race: and (thirdly) that before He became a man among men, some, influenced by the demons before mentioned, related beforehand, through the instrumentality of the poets, those circumstances as having really happened, which, having fictitiously devised, they narrated, in the same manner as they have caused to be fabricated the scandalous reports against us of infamous and impious actions, of which there is neither witness nor proof—we shall bring forward the following proof.

John 1:18 Direct teaching

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

John 1:1 Direct teaching

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 5:26 Direct teaching

For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;

Hebrews 1:8 Direct teaching

But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

Hebrews 1:5 Direct teaching

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

Proverbs 8:23 Direct teaching

Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.

John 17:5 Direct teaching

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Psalms 2:7 Direct teaching

I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

John 3:16 Direct teaching

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Proverbs 8:22 Direct teaching

The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

Matthew 3:17 Supporting witness

and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Colossians 1:15 Supporting witness

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.