Accordingly, calling the Messiah “son” cannot be taken to mean that the Lord—or one of His attributes—has united with him; it is no different from His calling David a “son,” or His calling Israel a “son” when He said, “You are My son, My firstborn.” This, as already noted, is found in their own scriptures. (If what their books contain is truly the word of God, it still proves nothing, for God meant a servant He had nurtured; and if it is not the word of God and His messengers, it likewise proves nothing, for the statement of one who is not infallible carries no authority.)

Third: the phrase, “Today I have begotten you,” indicates that this act took place in time. Yet they themselves assert that the begetting of the Word, which they call “the Son,” from the Father is eternal and without beginning, as they say in their creed: “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages—Light from Light, true God from true God, of the same substance as His Father, begotten not created, equal to the Father in essence, through whom all things came to be.” Thus, according to them this Son was begotten of the Father before every age, whereas that one was born