Wigbod

English

M[aster]. Let us say that in a Beginning coeternal with himself God made heaven and earth — in the only-begotten Son, who is the Wisdom of the Father, of whom the Apostle says: Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24).

Fresh draft (Claude), approved by Wilson Pruitt · cc-by

Latin

PL 96, col. 1115A · pd

Notes

The Carolingian dialogue's answer to the question its pupil has just asked — in what beginning, the beginning of time, or a beginning that was the start of the creature? — and it refuses the alternative by making the Beginning a person: one coeternal with God himself, the only-begotten Son who is the Father's Wisdom, with 1 Cor 1:24 for the identification. What the schoolroom form makes visible is how short the step is. The pupil asked a question about time; the master answered with a doctrine of the second person, and neither notices that the question has been changed.

Threads

• → echoes · Augustine
  'In principio sibi coaeterno fecit Deus coelum et terram, in unigenito Filio qui est sapientia Patris' is Augustine's 'in Principio sapientiae nostrae quod est tua Sapientia de te nata, aequalis tibi et coaeterna, id est in Filio tuo' with the possessives dropped and 1 Cor 1:24 put in for the identification. The Carolingian dialogue asked a question about time and was answered with a person.
• ← echoes · Remigius of Auxerre
  The same identification with the same proof text, and Remigius adds the guard the dialogue does not have: God the Father too is a beginning, but not from a beginning, since he is begotten of none. Once 'in the beginning' names the Son because the Son is a principium, the word will fit the Father as well, and only Remigius notices.