Anf-02 vi.iv.ii.xix Pg 4.1
Anf-02 vi.iv.ii.xix Pg 4.1
Anf-03 iv.ix.iii Pg 3
See Gen. xii.–xv. compared with xvii. and Rom. iv.
nor yet did he observe the Sabbath. For he had “accepted”1163 1163
Anf-03 iv.ix.iii Pg 5
There is, if the text be genuine, some confusion here. Melchizedek does not appear to have been, in any sense, “subsequent” to Abraham, for he probably was senior to him; and, moreover, Abraham does not appear to have been “already circumcised” carnally when Melchizedek met him. Comp. Gen. xiv. with Gen. xvii.
“But again,” (you say) “the son of Moses would upon one occasion have been choked by an angel, if Zipporah,1165 1165
Anf-01 ix.vi.ix Pg 11
This clause is differently quoted by Antonius Melissa and John Damascenus, thus: Πᾶς βασιλεὺς δίκαιος ἱερατικὴν ἔχει τάξιν, i.e., Every righteous king possesses a priestly order. Comp. 1 Pet. ii. 5; 9. [And with St. Peter’s testimony to the priesthood of the laity, compare the same under the law. Ex. xix. 6. The Western Church has recognised the “Episcopate ab extra” of sovereigns; while, in the East, it has grown into Cæsaropapism.]
And all the apostles of the Lord are priests, who do inherit here neither lands nor houses, but serve God and the altar continually. Of whom Moses also says in Deuteronomy, when blessing Levi, “Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not known thee; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, and he disinherited his own sons: he kept Thy commandments, and observed Thy covenant.”3889 3889
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xiii Pg 29
Ps. lxxxvii. 4, 5, according to the Septuagint.
So says Isaiah too: “Behold, these come from far; and these from the north and from the west;3931 3931 Mari.
and these from the land of the Persians.”3932 3932
Anf-03 v.ix.xxvii Pg 6
His version of Ps. lxxxvii. 5.
Now what Divine Person was born in it? The Word, and the Spirit which became incarnate with the Word by the will of the Father. The Word, therefore, is incarnate; and this must be the point of our inquiry: How the Word became flesh,—whether it was by having been transfigured, as it were, in the flesh, or by having really clothed Himself in flesh. Certainly it was by a real clothing of Himself in flesh. For the rest, we must needs believe God to be unchangeable, and incapable of form, as being eternal. But transfiguration is the destruction of that which previously existed. For whatsoever is transfigured into some other thing ceases to be that which it had been, and begins to be that which it previously was not. God, however, neither ceases to be what He was, nor can He be any other thing than what He is. The Word is God, and “the Word of the Lord remaineth for ever,”—even by holding on unchangeably in His own proper form. Now, if He admits not of being transfigured, it must follow that He be understood in this sense to have become flesh, when He comes to be in the flesh, and is manifested, and is seen, and is handled by means of the flesh; since all the other points likewise require to be thus understood. For if the Word became flesh by a transfiguration and change of substance, it follows at once that Jesus must be a substance compounded of8154 8154 Ex.
two substances—of flesh and spirit,—a kind of mixture, like electrum, composed of gold and silver; and it begins to be neither gold (that is to say, spirit) nor silver (that is to say, flesh),—the one being changed by the other, and a third substance produced. Jesus, therefore, cannot at this rate be God for He has ceased to be the Word, which was made flesh; nor can He be Man incarnate for He is not properly flesh, and it was flesh which the Word became. Being compounded, therefore, of both, He actually is neither; He is rather some third substance, very different from either. But the truth is, we find that He is expressly set forth as both God and Man; the very psalm which we have quoted intimating (of the flesh), that “God became Man in the midst of it, He therefore established it by the will of the Father,”—certainly in all respects as the Son of God and the Son of Man, being God and Man, differing no doubt according to each substance in its own especial property, inasmuch as the Word is nothing else but God, and the flesh nothing else but Man. Thus does the apostle also teach respecting His two substances, saying, “who was made of the seed of David;”8155 8155
Anf-01 v.iii.x Pg 7
Isa. lxii. 2; 12.
This was first fulfilled in Syria; for “the disciples were called Christians at Antioch,”700 700
Anf-01 viii.iv.cxix Pg 6
Isa. lxii. 12.
