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| Letter or Address of Theodoret to the Monks of the Euphratensian, the Osrhoene, Syria, Phœnicia, and Cilicia.
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CLI. Letter or
Address of Theodoret to the Monks of the Euphratensian, the Osrhoene,
Syria, Phœnicia, and Cilicia.2156
| 2156 This document did not appear in the original edition of the
Letters. A fragment in Latin was published in the Auctarium of
Garnerius. The complete composition is given by Schulze from a ms. in the Imperial Library at Vienna. The date may
be assigned as early in 431. As Cyril had weaned the monks of Egypt and
even of Constantinople from the cause of Nestorius, so Theodoret
attempts to win over the solitaries of the East from Cyril. |
When I contemplate the condition
of the Church at the present crisis of affairs,—the tempest which
has recently beset the holy ship, the furious blasts, the beating of
the waves, the deep darkness of the night, and, besides all this, the
strife of the mariners, the struggle going on between oarsmen, the
drunkenness of the pilots, and, lastly, the untimely action of the
bad,—I bethink me of the laments of Jeremiah and cry with him,
“my bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart, my heart
maketh a noise in me,”2157
and to put away
despondency’s great cloud by the drops from my eyes, I have
recourse to founts of tears. Amid a storm so wild it is fitting that
the pilots be awake, to battle with the tempest, and take heed for the
safety of the ship: the sailors ought to cease from their strife, and
strive to undo the danger alike by prayer and skill: the mariners ought
to keep the peace, and quarrel neither with one another nor with the
pilots, but implore the Lord of the sea to banish the darkness by His
rod. No one now is willing to do anything of the kind; and, just as
happens in a night-engagement, we cannot recognise one another, we
leave our enemies alone, and waste our weapons against our own side; we
wound our comrades for foes, while all the while the bystanders laugh
at our drunken folly, enjoy our disasters, and are delighted to see us
engaged in mutual destruction. The responsibility for all this lies
with those who have striven to corrupt the apostolic faith, and have
dared to add a monstrous doctrine to the teaching of the Gospels; with
them that have accepted the impious “Chapters” which they
have sent forth with anathematisms to the imperial city, and have
confirmed them, as they have imagined, by their own signatures. But
these “Chapters” have sprouted without doubt from the sour
root of Apollinarius; they are tainted with Arian and Eunomian error;
look into them carefully, and you will find that they are not clear of
the impiety of Manes and Valentinus.2158
| 2158 “Nihil contumeliosius,” remarks Garnerius, “in Cyrilli personam et doctrinam dici
potest.” Some have even thought the expressions too bitter
for Theodoret. But the mild man could hit hard sometimes. He felt
warmly for Nestorius and against Cyril, and (accepting
Tillemont’s date) he was now about 38. |
In his very first chapter he
rejects the dispensation2159
| 2159 οἰκονομία. Vide p. 72. | which has been
made on our behalf, teaching that God the Word did not assume human
nature, but was Himself changed into flesh, thus laying down that the
incarnation took place not in reality but in semblance and seeming.
This is the outcome of the impiety of Marcion, Manes, and
Valentinus.
In his second and third
chapters, as though quite oblivious of what he had stated in his
preface, he brings in the hypostatic union, and a meeting by natural
union, and by these terms he represents that a kind of mixture and
confusion was effected of the divine nature and of the form of the
servant. This comes of the innovation of the Apollinarian
heresy.
In his fourth chapter he denies
the distinction of the terms of evangelists and apostles, and refuses
to allow, as the teaching of the orthodox Fathers has allowed, the
terms of divine dignity to be understood of the divine nature, while
the terms of humility, spoken in human sense, are applied to the nature
assumed; whence the rightminded can easily detect the kinship with
impiety. For Arius and Eunomius, asserting the only begotten Son of God
to be a creature, and made out of the non-existent, and a servant, have
ventured to apply to His godhead what is said in lowly and human sense;
establishing by such means the difference of substance and the
unlikeness.
Besides this, to be brief, he argues that the very impassible and
immutable Godhead of the Christ suffered, and was crucified, dead, and
buried. This goes beyond even the madness of Arius and Eunomius, for
this pitch of impiety has not been reached even by them that dare to
call the maker and creator of the universe a creature. Furthermore he
blasphemes against the Holy Ghost, denying that It proceeds from the
Father, in accordance with the word of the Lord, but maintaining that
It has Its origin of the Son. Here we have the fruit of the
Apollinarian seed; here we come near the evil husbandry of Macedonius.
Such are the offspring of the Egyptian, viler children of a vile
father. This growth, which men, entrusted with the healing of souls,
ought to make abortive while yet in the womb, or destroy as soon as it
is born, as dangerous and deadly to mankind, is cherished by these
excellent persons, and promoted with great energy, alike to their own
ruin and to that of all who will listen to them. We, on the contrary,
earnestly desire to keep our heritage untouched; and the faith which we
have received, and in which we have been ourselves baptized, and
baptize others, we strive to preserve uninjured and undefiled. We
confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man, of a
reasonable soul and body, was begotten of the Father before the ages,
as touching the Godhead; and in the last days for us men and our
salvation (was born) of the Virgin Mary; that the same Lord is of one
substance with the Father as touching the Godhead, and of one substance
with us as touching the manhood. For there was an union of two natures.
Wherefore we acknowledge one Christ, one Son, one Lord; but we do not
destroy the union; we believe it to have been made without confusion,
in obedience to the word of the Lord to the Jews, “Destroy this
temple and in three days I will raise it up.”2160
If on the contrary there had been mixture
and confusion, and one nature was made out of both, He ought to have
said “Destroy me and in three days I shall be raised.” But
now, to show that there is a distinction between God according to His
nature, and the temple, and that both are one Christ, His words are
“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,”
clearly teaching that it was not God who was undergoing destruction,
but the temple. The nature of this latter was susceptible of
destruction, while the power of the former raised what was being
destroyed. Furthermore it is in obedience to the divine Scriptures that
we acknowledge the Christ to be God and man. That our Lord Jesus Christ
is God is asserted by the blessed evangelist John “In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made.”2161
And again, “That was the true light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”2162
And the Lord Himself distinctly teaches
us, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”2163
And “I and my Father are
one”2164
and “I am in the Father and
the Father in me,”2165
and the blessed
Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews says “Who being the brightness
of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all
things by the word of His power”2166
and in the epistle to the Philippians “Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus; who being in the form of God thought it
not robbery to be equal with God but made Himself of no reputation and
took upon Him the form of a servant.”2167
And in the Epistle to the Romans,
“Whose are the fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ
came who is over all God blessed for ever. Amen.”2168
And in the epistle to Titus
“Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the
great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”2169
And Isaiah exclaims “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name
shall be called, Angel of great counsel, Wonderful, Counsellor, The
mighty God, powerful, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the Age to
come.”2170
And again “In chains they
shall come over and they shall fall unto thee. They shall make
supplication unto thee saying, surely God is in thee and there is none
else, there is no God. Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God
of Israel, the Saviour.”2171
The name
Emmanuel, however, indicates both God and man, for it is interpreted in
the Gospel to mean “God with us,”2172
that is to say “God in man,”
God in our nature. And the divine Jeremiah too utters the prediction
“This is our God and there shall none other be accounted of in
comparison with him. He hath found out all the way of knowledge and hath
given it unto Jacob His servant and to Israel His beloved and afterward
did He show Himself upon earth and conversed with men.”2173
And countless other passages might be
found as well in the holy gospels and in the writings of the apostles
as in the predictions of the prophets, setting forth that our Lord
Jesus Christ is very God.
That after the Incarnation He is
spoken of as Man our Lord Himself teaches in His words to the Jews
“Why go ye about to kill me?” “A man that hath told
you the truth.”2174
And in the
first Epistle to the Corinthians the blessed Paul writes “For
since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the
dead,”2175
and to show of whom he is speaking
he explains his words and says, “For as in Adam all die even so
in Christ shall all be made alive.”2176
And writing to Timothy he says,
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the
man Christ Jesus.”2177
In the Acts in
his speech at Athens “The times of this ignorance God winked at;
but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; because He hath
appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto
all men, in that He hath raised him from the dead.”2178
And the blessed Peter preaching to the
Jews says, “Ye men of Israel, hear these words Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which
God did by Him in the midst of you,”2179
and the prophet Isaiah when predicting
the sufferings of the Lord Christ, whom but just before he had called
God, calls man in the passage “A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief.” “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows.”2180
I might have
collected other consentient passages of holy Scripture and inserted
them in my letter had I not known you to be practised in the divine
oracles as befits the man called blessed in the Psalms.2181
I now leave the collection of evidence
to your own diligence and proceed with my subject.
We confess then that our Lord
Jesus Christ is very God and very man. We do not divide the one Christ
into two persons, but we believe two natures to be united without
confusion. We shall thus be able without difficulty to refute even the
manifold blasphemy of the heretics: for many and various are the errors
of those who have rebelled against the truth, as we shall proceed to
point out. Marcion and Manes deny that God the Word assumed human
nature and do not believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a
Virgin. They say that God the Word Himself was fashioned in human form
and appeared as man rather in semblance than in reality.
Valentinus and Bardesanes admit
the birth, but they deny the assumption of our nature and affirm that
the Son of God employed the Virgin as it were as a mere
conduit.
Sabellius the Libyan, Photinus,
Marcellus the Galatian, and Paul of Samosata say that a mere man was
born of the Virgin, but openly deny that the eternal Christ was
God.
Arius and Eunomius maintain that
God the Word assumed only a body of the Virgin.
Apollinarius adds to the body an
unreasonable soul, as though the incarnation of God the Word had taken
place not for the sake of reasonable beings but of unreasonable, while
the teaching of the Apostles is that perfect man was assumed by perfect
God, as is proved by the words “Who being in the form of God took
the form of a servant;”2182
for
“form” is put instead of “nature” and
“substance” and indicates that having the nature of God He
took the nature of a servant.
When therefore we are disputing
with Marcion, Manes and Valentinus, the earliest inventors of impiety,
we endeavour to prove from the divine Scriptures that the Lord Christ
is not only God but also man.
When, however, we are proving to
the ignorant that the doctrine of Arius, Eunomius and Apollinarius
about the œconomy is incomplete, we show from the divine oracles
of the Spirit that the assumed nature was perfect.
The impiety of Sabellius,
Photinus, Marcellus, and Paulus, we refute by proving by the evidence
of divine Scripture that the Lord Christ was not only man but also
eternal God, of one substance with the Father. That He assumed a
reasonable soul is stated by our Lord Himself in the words “Now
is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father save me from this
hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour.”2183
And again “My soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death.”2184
And in
another place “I have power to lay down my soul (life A.V.) and I have power
to take it again. No man taketh it from me.”2185
And the angel said to Joseph,
“Take the young child and His mother and go into the land of
Israel; for they are dead which sought the young child’s soul
(life A.V.)”2186
And the
Evangelist says “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in
favour with God and man.” Now what increases in stature and
wisdom is not the Godhead which is ever perfect, but the human nature
which comes into being in time, grows, and is made perfect.
Wherefore all the human
qualities of the Lord Christ, hunger, I mean, and thirst and weariness,
sleep, fear, sweat, prayer, and ignorance, and the like, we affirm to
belong to our nature which God the Word assumed and united to Himself
in effecting our salvation. But the restitution of motion to the
maimed, the resurrection of the dead, the supply of loaves, and all the
other miracles we believe to be works of the divine power. In this
sense I say that the same Lord Christ both suffers and destroys
suffering; suffers, that is, as touching the visible, and destroys
suffering as touching the ineffably indwelling Godhead. This is proved
beyond question by the narrative of the holy evangelists, from whom we
learn that when lying in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes, He
was announced by a star, worshipped by magi and hymned by angels. Thus
we reverent discern that the swaddling bands and the want of a bed and
all the poverty belonged to the manhood; while the journey of the magi
and the guiding of the star and the company of the angels proclaim the
Godhead of the unseen. In like manner He makes His escape into Egypt
and avoids the fury of Herod by flight,2187
| 2187 Vide note on Page 203. | for He was man; but as the Prophet
says “He shakes the idols of Egypt,”2188
for He was by nature God. He is
circumcised; He keeps the law; and offers offerings of purification,
because He sprang from the root of Jesse. And, as man, He was under the
law; and afterwards did away with the law and gave the new covenant,
because He was a lawgiver and had promised by the prophets that He
Himself would give it. He was baptized by John; and this shews His
sharing what is ours. He is testified to by the Father from on high and
is pointed out by the Spirit; this proclaims Him eternal. He hungered;
but He fed many thousands with five loaves; the latter is divine, the
former human. He thirsted and He asked for water; but He was the well
of life; the former of His human weakness, the latter of His divine
power. He fell asleep in the boat, but he put the tempest of the sea to
sleep; the former of His human nature, the latter of His efficient and
creative power which has gifted all things with their being. He was
weary as he walked; but He healed the halt and raised dead men from
their tombs; the former of human weakness, the latter of a power
passing that of this world. He feared death and He destroyed death; the
former shows that He was mortal, the latter that He was immortal or
rather giver of life. “He was crucified,” as the blessed
Paul says “through weakness.”2189
But as the same Paul says “Yet He
liveth by the power of God.”2190
Let that word
“weakness” teach us that He was not nailed to the tree as
the Almighty, the Uncircumscribed, the Immutable and Invariable, but
that the nature quickened by the power of God, was according to the
Apostle’s teaching dead and buried, both death and burial being
proper to the form of the servant. “He broke the gates of brass
and cut the bars of iron in sunder”2191
and destroyed the power of death and in three days raised His own
temple. These are proofs of the form of God in accordance with the
Lord’s words “Destroy this temple and in three days I will
raise it up.”2192
Thus in the one
Christ through the sufferings we contemplate the manhood and through
the miracles we apprehend the Godhead. We do not divide the two natures
into two Christs, and we know that of the Father God the Word was
begotten and that of the seed of Abraham and David our nature was
assumed. Wherefore also the blessed Paul says when discoursing of
Abraham “He saith not and to seeds as of many; but as of one, and
to thy seed which is Christ,”2193
and
writing to Timothy he says “Remember that Jesus Christ of the
seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.”2194
And to the Romans he writes
“Concerning His son Jesus Christ…which was made of the seed
of David according to the flesh.”2195
And again “Whose are the fathers and of whom as concerning the
flesh Christ came.”2196
And the
Evangelist writes “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ,
the Son of David, the Son of Abraham,”2197
and the blessed Peter in the Acts says
David “being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an
oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, He would raise up Christ to
sit on his throne, he seeing this before spake of his resurrection,”2198
and God says to Abraham “In thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,”2199
and Isaiah “There shall come forth
a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of His
roots; and there shall rest upon Him2200
| 2200 Here
in the LXX comes in “The spirit of God.” It is unlikely
that Theodoret should have intended to omit this, and the omission is
probably due as in similar cases to the carelessness of a copyist in
the case of a repetition of a word. | the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit
of knowledge and of piety and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall
fill Him.”2201
And a little
further on “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which
shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek;
and His rest shall be glorious.”2202
From these quotations it is made
plain that according to the flesh, the Christ was descended from
Abraham and David and was of the same nature as theirs; while according
to the Godhead He is Everlasting Son and Word of God, ineffably and in
superhuman manner begotten of the Father, and co-eternal with Him as
brightness and express image and Word. For as the word in relation to
intelligence and brightness in relation to light are inseparably
connected, so is the only begotten Son in relation to His own Father.
We assert therefore that our Lord Jesus Christ is only begotten, and
first born Son of God; only begotten both before the incarnation and
after the incarnation, but firstborn after being born of the Virgin.
For the name first-born seems to be in a sense contrary to that of only
begotten, because the only Son begotten of any one is called only
begotten, while the eldest of several brothers is called first-born.
The divine Scriptures state God the Word alone to have been begotten of
the Father; but the only begotten becomes also first-born, by taking
our nature of the Virgin, and deigning to call brothers those who have
trusted in Him; so that the same is only begotten in that He is God,
first born in that He is Man. Thus acknowledging the two natures we
adore the one Christ and offer Him one adoration, for we believe that
the union took place from the moment of the conception in the
Virgin’s holy womb. Wherefore also we call the holy Virgin both
Mother of God2203
| 2203 On
the word Θεοτόκος cf. note on Page 213.
Jeremy Taylor (ix. 637
ed. 1861) defends it on the bare ground of logic which no doubt
originally recommended it. “Though the blessed virgin Mary be not
in Scripture called Θεοτόκος ‘the mother of God,’ yet that she was the mother
of Jesus and that Jesus Christ is God, that we can prove from
Scripture, and that is sufficient for the
appellation.” | and Mother of
man, since the Lord Christ Himself is called God and man in the divine
Scripture. The name Emmanuel proclaims the union of the two natures. If
we acknowledge the Christ to be both God and Man and so call Him, who
is so insensate as to shrink from using the term “Mother of
man” with that of “Mother of God”? For we use both
terms of the Lord Christ. For this reason the Virgin is honoured and
called “full of grace.”2204
What
sensible man then would object to name the Virgin in accordance with
the titles of the Saviour, when on His account she is honoured by the
faithful? For He who was born of her is not worshipped on her account,
but she is honoured with the highest titles on account of Him Who was
born from her.
Suppose the Christ to be God
only, and to have taken the origin of His existence from the Virgin,
then let the Virgin be styled and named only “Mother of
God” as having given birth to a being divine by nature. But if
the Christ is both God and man and was God from everlasting (inasmuch
as He did not begin to exist, being co-eternal with the Father that
begat Him) and in these last days was born man of His human nature,
then let him who wishes to define doctrine in both directions devise
appellations for the Virgin with the explanation which of them befits
the nature and which the union. But if any one should wish to deliver a
panegyric and to compose hymns, and to repeat praises, and is naturally
anxious to use the most august names; then, not laying down doctrine as
in the former case, but with rhetorical laudation, and expressing all
possible admiration at the mightiness of the mystery, let him gratify
his heart’s desire, let him employ high names, let him praise and
let him wonder. Many instances of this kind are found in the writings
of orthodox teachers. But on all occasions let moderation be respected.
All praise to him who said that “moderation is best,”
although he is not of our herd.2205
| 2205 Cleobulus of Lindos is credited with the maxim ἄριστον
μέτρον.
Theognis, (335) transmits the famous μηδὲν ἄγαν
attributed by Aristotle (Rhet. ii. 12, 14) to Chilon
of Sparta. Ovid makes Phœbus say to Phæthon “Medio
tutissimus ibis” (Met. ii. 137); and quotations from many
other writers may be found all
“Turning to scorn with
lips divine
The falsehood of
extremes!” |
This is the confession of the
faith of the Church; this is the doctrine taught by evangelists and
apostles. For this faith, by God’s grace I will not refuse to
undergo many deaths. This faith we have striven to convey to them that
now err and stray, again and again challenging them to discussion, and
eager to show them the truth, but without success. With a suspicion
of their probably plain confutation, they have shirked the encounter;
for verily falsehood is rotten and yokefellow of obscurity.
“Every one,” it is written “that doeth evil cometh
not to the light lest his deeds should be reproved”2206
by the light.
Since, therefore, after many
efforts, I have failed in persuading them to recognise the truth, I
have returned to my own churches, filled at once with sorrow and with
joy; with joy on account of my own freedom from error; and with sorrow
at the unsoundness of my members. I therefore implore you to pray with
all your might to our loving Lord, and to cry unto Him,
“‘Spare Thy people, O Lord and give not Thy heritage to
reproach.’2207
Feed us O Lord
that we become not as we were in the beginning when Thou didst not rule
over us nor was Thy name invoked to help us. ‘We are become a
reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round
about us,’2208
because wicked
doctrines have come into Thy inheritance. They have polluted Thy holy
temple in that the daughters of strangers have rejoiced over our
troubles. A little while ago we were of one mind and one tongue and now
are divided into many tongues. But, O Lord our God, give us Thy peace
which we have lost by setting Thy commandments at naught. O Lord we
know none other than Thee. We call Thee by Thy name. ‘Make both
one and break down the middle wall of the partition,’2209
namely the iniquity that has sprung up.
Gather us one by one, Thy new Israel, building up Jerusalem and
gathering together the outcasts of Israel.2210
Let us be made once more one flock2211
and all be
fed by Thee; for Thou art the good Shepherd ‘Who giveth His life
for the sheep ’2212
‘Awake,
why sleepest Thou O Lord, arise cast us not off forever.’2213
Rebuke the winds and the sea; give Thy
Church calm and safety from the waves.”
These words and words like these
I implore you to utter to the God of all; for He is good and full of
loving-kindness and ever fulfils the will of them that fear Him. He
will therefore listen to your prayer, and will scatter this darkness
deeper than the plague of Egypt. He will give you His own calm of love,
and will gather them that are scattered abroad and welcome them that
have been cast out. Then shall be heard “the voice of rejoicing
and salvation in the tabernacles of the righteous.”2214
Then shall we cry unto Him we have been
“glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us and
the years wherein we have seen evil,”2215
and you when you have been granted your prayer shall praise Him in the
words “Blessed be God which not turned away my prayer nor His
mercy from me.”2216
Proof that after the Incarnation
our Lord Jesus Christ, was one Son.
The authors of slanders against
me allege that I divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons. But so
far am I from holding this opinion that I charge with impiety all who
dare to say so. For I have been taught by the divine Scripture to
worship one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God,
God the Word incarnate. For we confess the same to be both God eternal,
and made man in the last days for the sake of man’s salvation;
but made man not by the change of the Godhead but by the assumption of
the manhood. For the nature of this godhead is immutable and
invariable, as is that of the Father who begat Him before the ages. And
whatever would be understood of the substance of the Father will also
be wholly found in the substance of the only begotten; for of that
substance He is begotten. This our Lord taught when He said to Philip
“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”2217
and again in another place “All
things that the Father hath are mine,”2218
and elsewhere “I and the Father
are one,”2219
and very many
other passages may be quoted setting forth the identity of
substance.
It follows that He did not
become God: He was God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God; and the Word was God.”2220
He was not man: He became man, and He so became by taking on Him our
nature: So says the blessed Paul—“Who being in the form of
God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no
reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant.”2221
And again: “For verily He took not
on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of
Abraham.”2222
And again;
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He
also Himself likewise took part of the same.”2223
Thus He was both passible and
impassible; mortal and immortal; passible, on the one hand, and mortal,
as man; impassible, on the other, and immortal, as God. As God He
raised His own flesh, which was dead;—as His own words declare:
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up.”2224
And as man, He was passible and
mortal up to the time of the passion. For, after the resurrection, even
as man He is impassible, immortal, and incorruptible; and He discharges
divine lightnings; not that according to the flesh He has been changed
into the nature of Godhead, but still preserving the distinctive marks
of humanity. Nor yet is His body uncircumscribed, for this is peculiar
to the divine nature alone, but it abides in its former
circumscription. This He teaches in the words He spake to the disciples
even after His resurrection “Behold my hands and feet that it is
I myself; handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as
ye see me have.”2225
While He was
thus beheld He went up into heaven; thus has He promised to come again,
thus shall He be seen both by them that have believed and them that
have crucified, for it is written “They shall look on Him whom
they pierced.”2226
We therefore
worship the Son, but we contemplate in Him either nature in its
perfection, both that which took, and that which was taken; the one of
God and the other of David. For this reason also He is styled both Son
of the living God and Son of David; either nature receiving its proper
title. Accordingly the divine scripture calls him both God and man, and
the blessed Paul exclaims “There is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom
for all.”2227
But Him whom
here he calls man in another place he describes as God for he says
“Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the
great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”2228
And yet in another place he uses both
names at once saying “Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came
who is over all God blessed for ever. Amen.”2229
| 2229 Rom. ix. 5. The first
implicit denial of the sense here given by Theodoret to this remarkable
passage is said to be found in an assertion of the Emperor Julian that
neither Paul nor Matthew nor Mark ever ventured to call Jesus God. In
the early church it was commonly rendered in its plain and grammatical
sense, as by Irenæus, Tertullian, Athanasius, and Chrysostom. Cf.
Alford in loc. |
Thus he has stated the same
Christ to be of the Jews according to the flesh, and God over all as
God. Similarly the prophet Isaiah writes “A man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief.…Surely He hath borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows,”2230
and shortly
afterwards he says “Who shall declare His generation?”2231
This is spoken not of man but of God.
Thus through Micah God says “Thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah
art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall
come a governor that shall rule my people Israel, whose goings forth
have been as of old from everlasting.”2232
Now by saying “From thee shall
come forth a ruler” he exhibits the œconomy of the
incarnation; and by adding “whose goings forth have been as of
old from everlasting” he declares the Godhead begotten of the
Father before the ages.
Since we have been thus taught
by the divine scripture, and have further found that the teachers who
have been at different periods illustrious in the Church, are of the
same opinion, we do our best to keep our heritage inviolate;
worshipping one Son of God, one God the Father, and one Holy Ghost; but
at the same time recognising the distinction between flesh and Godhead.
And as we assert them that divide our one Lord Jesus Christ into two
sons to trangress from the road trodden by the holy apostles, so do we
declare the maintainers of the doctrine that the Godhead of the only
begotten and the manhood have been made one nature to fall headlong
into the opposite ravine. These doctrines we hold; these we preach; for
these we do battle.
The slander of the libellers
that represent me as worshipping two sons is refuted by the plain facts
of the case. I teach all persons who come to holy Baptism the faith put
forth at Nicæa; and, when I celebrate the sacrament of
regeneration I baptize them that make profession of their faith in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, pronouncing
each name by itself. And when I am performing divine service in the
churches it is my wont to give glory to the Father and to the Son and
to the Holy Ghost; not sons, but Son. If then I uphold two sons,
whether of the two is glorified by me, and whether remains unhonoured?
For I have not quite come to such a pitch of stupidity as to
acknowledge two sons and leave one of them without any tribute of
respect. It follows then even from this fact that the slander is proved
slander,—for I worship one only begotten Son, God the Word
incarnate. And I call the holy Virgin “Mother of God”2233
| 2233 Θεοτόκος. cf. p. 213. | because she has given birth to the
Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”2234
But the prophet who predicted the
Emmanuel a little further on has written of him that “Unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon
his shoulders; and his name is called Angel of great counsel,
wonderful, counsellor, mighty God, powerful, Prince of peace, Father of
the age to come.”2235
Now if the babe
born of the Virgin is styled “Mighty God,” then it is only
with reason that the mother is called “Mother of God.” For
the mother shares the honour of her offspring, and the Virgin is both
mother of the Lord Christ as man, and again is His servant as Lord and
Creator and God.
On account of this difference of
term He is said by the divine Paul to be “without father, without
mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of
life.”2236
He is without father as touching
His humanity; for as man He was born of a mother alone. And He is
without mother as God, for He was begotten from everlasting of the
Father alone. And again He is without descent as God while as man He
has descent. For it is written “The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.”2237
His descent is also given by the
divine Luke.2238
So again, as God, He has no
beginning of days for He was begotten before the ages; neither has He
an end of life, for His nature is immortal and impassible. But as man
He had both a beginning of days, for He was born in the reign of
Augustus Cæsar, and an end of life, for He was crucified in the
reign of Tiberius Cæsar. But now, as I have already said, even His
human nature is immortal; and, as He ascended, so again shall He come
according to the words of the Angel—“This same Jesus which
is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen Him go into Heaven.”2239
This is the doctrine delivered
to us by the divine prophets; this is the doctrine of the company of
the holy apostles; this is the doctrine of the great saints of the East
and of the West; of the far-famed Ignatius, who received his
archpriesthood by the right hand of the great Peter, and for the sake
of his confession of Christ was devoured by savage beasts;2240
| 2240 The
martyrdom of Ignatius may be placed within a few years of
110,—before or after. In the 4th c. Oct. 17 was named as the day
both of his birth and death. Bp. Lightfoot. Ap. Fathers II. i. 30 and
46. | and of the great Eustathius, who presided
over the assembled council, and on account of his fiery zeal for true
religion was driven into exile.2241
| 2241 i.e. Eustathius of Berœa and Antioch, who, according to
Theodoret (H. E. i. 6, p. 43.), sat at Nicæa on
Constantine’s right hand. (Contra. I. Soz. i. 19.) He was exiled
on account of the accusation got up against him by Eusebius of
Nicomedia. | This
doctrine was preached by the illustrious Meletius, at the cost of no
less pains, for thrice was he driven from his flock in the cause of the
apostles‘ doctrines;2242
| 2242 Meletius of Antioch. cf. pp. 92, 93. He presided at Constantinople
in 381, and died while the Council was sitting. | by Flavianus,2243
| 2243 Of Constantinople, murdered at the Latrocinium. | glory of the imperial see; and by the
admirable Ephraim, instrument of divine grace, who has left us in the
Syriac tongue a written heritage of good things;2244
by Cyprian, the illustrious ruler of
Carthage and of all Libya, who for Christ’s sake found a death in
the fire;2245
| 2245 cf. Ep. LII. St. Cyprian was beheaded at Carthage, Aug. 13, 258,
his last recorded utterance being his reply to the reading of the
sentence “That Thascius Cyprianus be beheaded with the
sword,” “Thanks be to God.” Theodoret’s
“fire” is either an error, or means the fiery trial of
martyrdom. | by Damasus, bishop of great Rome,2246
and by Ambrose, glory of Milan, who
preached and wrote it in the language of Rome.2247
The same was taught by the great
luminaries of Alexandria, Alexander and Athanasius, men of one mind,
who underwent sufferings celebrated throughout the world. This was the
pasture given to their flocks by the great teachers of the imperial
city, by Gregory, shining friend and supporter of the truth; by John,
teacher of the world, by Atticus, their successor alike in see and in
sentiment.2248
| 2248 i.e. Gregory of Nazianzus, put in possession of St. Sophia by
Theodosius I. Nov. 24, 380, Chrysostom, consecrated by Theophilus of
Alexandria, Feb. 26, 398; and Atticus, who succeeded Arsacius the
usurper in 406. | By these doctrines Basil, great
light of the truth, and Gregory sprung from the same parents,2249
| 2249 Gregory of Nyssa. cf. p. 129. | and Amphilochius,2250
| 2250 Of
Iconium. cf. p. 114. | who from him received the gift of the
high-priesthood, taught their contemporaries, and have left the same to
us in their writings for a goodly heritage. Time would fail me to tell
of Polycarp,2251
and Irenæus,2252
of Methodius2253
| 2253 Commonly known as bishop of Patara, though Jerome speaks of him as
of Tyre. The place and time of his death are doubtful. Eusebius calls
him a contemporary. (cf. Jer. Cat. 83, and Socr. vi. 13.) | and Hippolytus,2254
| 2254 According to Döllinger the first anti-pope. cf. reff. p.
177. |
and the rest of the teachers of the Church. In a word I assert that I
follow the divine oracles and at the same time all these saints. By the
grace of the spirit they dived into the depths of God-inspired
scripture and both themselves perceived its mind, and made it plain to
all that are willing to learn. Difference in tongue has wrought no
difference in doctrine, for they were channels of the grace of the
divine spirit, using the stream from one and the same
fount.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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