Statement of the most necessary (indications) about the expressions of the divine Symbol, where they are collected from and against whom they are placed

Composition by St. Simeon of Thessalonica “Exposition of the most necessary (indications) about the expressions of the divine Symbol, where they are collected from and against whom they are placed” contains quotations from the Holy Scriptures confirming one or another member of the Creed, each expression of which is analyzed in fragments. The author shows that the Fathers of the Church, when compiling the Creed, did not invent dogmas of their own, but carefully collected them from Divine Scripture. He indicates against what heresies and errors each article of the Creed was formulated. Among the refuted doctrines are the errors of the Hellenes, Jews and pagans, Arianism, Macedonianism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Monotheliteism, Apollinarism, Origenism, etc. Saint Simeon, relying on the Gospel testimony, defends the Orthodox teaching about the procession of the Holy Spirit only from the Father. It is also useful to explain on what grounds the Divine Fathers composed the most sacred Symbol, in order to know that they did not come from themselves, but borrowed expressions and thoughts from the Divine Scriptures and composed it in the spirit of piety. Thus almost all the sayings of the divine symbol are (taken) from the holy Scriptures: we will show this in relation, separately, to each expression. Against Greeks, Jews and pagans, and all other wicked people who either do not confess God at all, or even acknowledge Him, but do not confess Him as the Father of the only begotten Word and the Source of the Holy Spirit: The Gospel (says): “Do you believe in the Son of God” (John 9:35)? “Believe in God, and believe in Me” (John 14:1). Apostle: “believe in the Lord Jesus” (Acts 16:31). In the Gospel: “that they may know Thee the only true God” (John 17:3). Brother of God: “You believe, for there is only one God” (James 2:19). Paul: “But to us there is one God the Father, from Whom are all things, and we are with Him: and there is one Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom are all things” (1 Cor. 8:6). In the Gospel (it is said): “I will ascend to My Father and your Father” (John 20:17). “Righteous Father, you do not know the world” (John 17:25). “I go to My Father” (John 16:10). “I will ask the Father” (John 14:16). “Or do you think that now I cannot pray to My Father” (Matthew 26:53)? “Father, in Your hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23:46). Peter (says): “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:3). Paul: “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the message” (2 Cor. 11:31). Zechariah: “Here saith the Lord Almighty; to the church of the Lord Almighty; says the Lord Almighty” (Zech. 1:3, 4:14, 7:4, 8 and many others). Ezekiel: “Adonai the Lord” (Ezekiel 2:4, etc.), which means Almighty. The Almighty also means the name of Hosts, which Isaiah appropriates to the entire Holy Trinity, saying: “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Is. 6:3). In the Gospel: “Father, Lord of heaven and earth” (Matthew 11:25). David: “All the ends of the earth are in His hand” (Psalm 94:4). Confidant (Christ, John): “To the Almighty, who is and is and is to come” (Apoc. 11:17). Against the Greeks, who do not recognize God as the author of everything, (creating everything) from nothing, and the Provider of everything: Moses: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen. 1:1). In the Gospel: “Father, Lord of heaven and earth” (Matthew 11:25). Visible to everyone and invisible. Paul: “visible and invisible” ... “all things were created by Him and in Him” (Col. 1:16), that is, by the Father through Christ. David: “As He spoke, He commanded and was created” (Psalm 32:9): Against Greeks and Jews who reject Christ: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. Paul: “we have one God the Father... and one Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 8:6). In the Gospel: “that they may know thee the one true God, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). “And I saw and testified that this is the Son of God” (John 1:34). “Do you believe in the Son of God” (John 9:35)? “Now these things were written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). “The Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, is the One who confesses” (John 1:18). “God so loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son to eat” (John 3:16). Beloved (disciple of Christ): “Let you know that you have eternal life, and believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). Against Arius, who called the Son a creature: Like the Father who was born before all ages. In the Gospel: “I departed from the Father... and I go. I departed from the Father and came into the world” (John 16:28). John: “Whoever loves Him who begot him also loves Him who is born of Him” (1 John 5:1). In the Gospel: “And now You, Father, have glorified me with Your own glory, since before You I had no peace” (John 17:5). “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). “He is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18). “This is from time immemorial” (John 1:2). Apostle (Paul): “In these last days He spoke unto us in the Son, ... In Him also made the worlds” (Heb. 1, 2). In Proverbs: “Before the world was the foundation of Me... before all the hills did He give birth to Me” (Prov. 8, 23, 25). Against those who impiously blaspheme the passionless birth of the only begotten Son: In the Gospel: “let it testify to the Light; This is the true Light, which enlightens every man who comes into the world" (John 1:8-9). David: “in Your light we will see light” (Psalm 35:10). Paul: “Who is the brightness of glory” (Heb. 1:3). God is true from God is true. Beloved (disciple of Christ): “This is the true God and the eternal Life... That we may be in His true Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 5:20). In the Gospel: “I am... the Truth” (John 14:6). Paul: “waiting for... the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). In Proverbs: “Before all the hills I give birth” (Prov. 8:25). In the Gospel: “I was born for this and for this I came” (John 18:37). Beloved: “He who loves Him who is begotten loves Him who is born of Him” (1 John 5:1). He was born, and not created together with creatures: since He Himself is the Creator of everything. Paul: “To him also made the eyelids” (Heb. 1:2). In the Book of Wisdom: “having created all things by Thy Word” (Wisdom 9:1). Against Arius, Eudoxius and their wicked associates: In the Gospel: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John 14:10)? “He who saw Me saw the Father” (John 14:9). Paul: “Who is the radiance of glory and the image of His hypostasis” (Heb. 1:3). “Who is in the form of God, not to be equal to God by admiration, but has diminished himself, and has taken on the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:6). Paul: “To him also made the eyelids” (Heb. 1:2). “Everything was created by Him and in Him” (Col. 1:16). “He is before all, and in Him all things are accomplished” (Col. 1:17). In the Gospel: “all things came into being, and without Him nothing came into being” (John 1:3). In Proverbs: “Formerly the foundation of Me” (Prov. 8:23). This last signifies the eternal and motionless foundation of His living Wisdom in the Father; just as the words: “The Lord made Me the beginning of His ways for His works” (Prov. 8:22) foreshadow the incarnation through which He (Christ) accomplished the great works of our salvation; and the words: “God is the foundation of the earth through wisdom” (Prov. 3:19); “You have created all Wisdom” (Psalm 103:24); “who created all things by Thy Word” (Wisdom 9:1) - point to His works from the beginning. However, “The Lord created Me” - it is also said instead of: “Through Me, His Wisdom, He deigned to create and do His works.” David also testifies to this, saying: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established” (Psalm 33:6). But in the clearest way they teach about His appearance in the flesh, as we said, in the words: “The Lord created Me.” Against the Manichaeans and other wicked people who reject the dispensation of the Word: Paul: “all for your sake” (2 Cor. 4:15). “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Rom. 8:31)? “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up to eat for us all” (Rom. 8:32). “Before... the children partook of flesh and blood, and He sincerely partook of the same” (Heb. 2:14). Isaiah: “not an intercessor, lower than an angel, but the Lord himself saved them” (Is. 63:9). Peter: “In Him I sought salvation” (1 Peter 1:10). In the Gospel: “I did not come, that I might judge the world, but that I might save the world” (John 12:47). “Let the world be saved by Him” (John 3:17). “For there is salvation from the Jews” (John 4:22). “This is the Savior of the world, Christ” (Luke 2:11). Prophetic against Nestorius and other wicked people who do not confess the incarnation of God the Word and blasphemously say that He appeared ghostly: Apostle: “He who descended is also He who ascended” (Eph. 4:10). In the Gospel: “as if he had come down from heaven” (John 6:38). Paul: “God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3). Against heretics who talk idlely that the Word took on a body different from ours: And incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. Isaiah: “Behold, the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son” (Is. 7:14). In the Gospel: “how will this be, even if I don’t know the man” (Luke 1:34)? “Don't be afraid, Mariam. Behold, conceive in your womb and give birth to a Son... The Holy Spirit will come upon You and the power of the Most High will overshadow You” (Luke 1:30–31, 35). Joseph (Angel): “That which is born in her of the Spirit is Holy” (Matthew 1:20). “And without knowing Her, you gave birth to your firstborn Son” (Matthew 1:25). Paul: “God sent His only begotten Son, born of a Woman” (Gal. 4:4). In the Gospel: “and the Word became flesh and dwelt in us” (John 1:14). Against Apollinaris, who called human nature (Christ) alien to the mind; against Eutyches, Dioscorus, as well as Severus and other madmen, who babbled that the Word of God even after the incarnation has one nature, as well as against Pyrrhus and other monothelites: Paul: “who was in the form of God was not equal to God by admiration, but was humbled in the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of humanity” (Phil. 2:6-7). “One God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:6). “There is one mediator for God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). In the Gospel: “Because the Son of man is, do not marvel at this” (John 5:27–28). “When the Son of man comes... then He will sit on the throne of His glory” (Matthew 25:31). Against the wicked, who madly claimed that the Lord did not suffer in the flesh, but appeared ghostly to suffer: He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried. Paul: “I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified to the good confession under Pontius Pilate” (1 Tim. 6:13). In the Gospel: “Seek Jesus the Nazarene crucified” (Mark 16:6)? Paul: “I gave... for (Christ) to die, and to be buried, and to rise on the third day, according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). Against Jews and Greeks, and all other wicked people: And rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures. In the Gospel: “Jesus rose again on the morning of the first Saturday” (Mark 16:9). “We shall have this third day today, from the same time as this was” (Luke 24:21). “Jesus rose from the dead, a hundred disciples in the midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you” (John 20:19). “Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee, saying that it became the Son of Man to be delivered into the hand of man as a sinner, and to be drunken, and to rise on the third day” (Luke 24:6-7). And ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. In the Gospel: “Now the Lord, when He spoke unto them, ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19). “And when you had blessed them, you departed from them and ascended to heaven” (Luke 24:51). In Acts: “to those who saw Him He was taken away, and a cloud was lifted up from before their eyes” (Acts 1:9). And again the future will be judged with glory by the living and the dead. In Acts: “Men of Galilee, why stand gazing at heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11). In the Gospel: “And then they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds with power and glory” (Luke 21:27). “Then the Son of Man will sit on the throne of His glory, and all the nations will be gathered before Him” (Matthew 25:31-32). In Acts: “those who were with him were eaten and beaten after His resurrection from the dead; and commanded us to preach to the people and testify that He is the one named by God as Judge, living and dead” (Acts 10:41-42). Daniel: “In vain, until the throne was set up, and the Ancient One sat down for a day: and behold, the Son of man walked on the clouds of heaven; and to Him was given power and honor” (Dan. 7:9, 13–14). There will be no end to His kingdom. Daniel: “His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all powers will work and listen to Him” (Dan. 7:14). In the Gospel: “And He will reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:33). Against the Macedonian Doukhobor: In the Gospel: “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). “The Comforter is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name” (John 14:26). David: “And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 50:13). Paul: “But the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17). Peter: “Why... did you lie to the Holy Spirit? Thou didst not lie to man, but to God” (Acts 5:3-4). In the Gospel: “There is a Spirit who gives life; the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63), David: “follow Thy Spirit, and they shall be created,” “and renew the face of the earth” (Psalm 103:30). Moses: “And I will blow into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7). Ezekiel: “the prophets of Dus, the prophets, the son of man... and the spirit of life came into her, and she lived” (Ezek. 37:9-10). Prophetically against the innovation of the Latins: In the Gospel: “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father...”. (John 15:26). “And abye, rising from the water, saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending like a dove, Nan” (Mark 1:10). Paul: “We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God” (1 Cor. 2:12). David: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their strength” (Psalm 33:6). That there is one glory and worship of the Trinity, and that one Father is the one Author of both the Only Begotten and the Spirit. This (symbol) is taught very clearly by the fact that, having first said: Who proceeds from the Father, then he says, Who with the Father and the Son is worshiped: Let us worship and glorify those who are with the Father and the Son. In the Gospel: “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Paul: “Who is the message of man, even in man... and no one is the message of God, but the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11). In Isaiah and Ezekiel, the Angels (cry): “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, fill heaven and earth with His glory” (Is. 6:3; Ezek. 10:4), that is, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one in the Trinity of God. Against heretics who reject the law and the Prophets. Zechariah: “As His prophet has spoken through the mouth of the saints from the beginning, salvation is from our enemies” (Luke 1:70–71). Mother of God: “like the verb to our fathers” and so on. (Luke 1:55). In the Acts: “about this all the Prophets testify to the remission of sins through His name to everyone who believes in Him” (Acts 10:43). Also: “it is fitting for heaven to accept even until the years of the dispensation of all, even as God spoke in the mouth of all his saints, the prophet from everlasting” (Acts 3:21). In the Gospel: “David spoke by the Holy Spirit: The Lord said to my Lord: sit at My right hand” (Mark 12:36). In Acts: “And those who prayed to them moved to the place where they gathered together, and were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). In the book of Numbers: “When the Spirit came upon them, and prophesied... in the midst” (Num. 11:25–26). Against those who say that the Old Testament is contrary to the Gospel, and do not accept prophetic visions: Into one holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Paul: “who made both one” (Eph. 2:14). “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:5). “Holy brethren...” (Heb. 3:1). “On the foundation of the former apostle and prophet, I am the chief cornerstone of Jesus Christ himself” (Eph. 2:20). “You eat the body of Christ and eat part of it” (1 Cor. 12:27). “God has placed in the Church first the apostles, second the prophets, third the teachers” (1 Cor. 12:28). “Yes, the Church accepts creation” (1 Cor. 14:5). “You are the church of God” (1 Cor. 3:16). “Ask also for the building up of the Church” (1 Cor. 14:12). “I am the cornerstone of Jesus Christ himself... in Him you also are created” (Eph. 2:20-21). “He is the Head of the body of the Church” (Col. 1:18). Moreover, just as the seven conciliar epistles are so named because they were written to all the faithful, so the totality of all Orthodox is called in the symbol the conciliar Church. Against the Bogomils and all wicked people who do not accept or do not respect baptism: I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. Paul: “thou hast confessed a good confession” (1 Tim. 6:12). “He believes in the truth in his heart, but confesses with his lips for salvation” (Rom. 10:10). “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:5). “Let every one of you be baptized for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). In the Gospel: “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Against the Greeks and Origenists, who rejected the resurrection of the dead, and therefore also the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ: Tea of the resurrection of the dead. In Acts: “I accept judgment regarding the hope and the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 23:6). Isaiah: “the dead will rise again and those in their graves will rise” (Is. 26:19). Paul: “For the creatures long for the revelation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19). In the Gospel: “When they are dead they will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard they will live” (John 5:25). Against Origen, who foolishly allowed a change (of conditions) in the next century and accepted the end of punishment: And the life of the next century. Amen. In the Gospel: “Those who hate their souls in this world will keep them in eternal life” (John 12:25). In Acts: “I speak to him about righteousness and self-control and about the judgment that is about to come” (Acts 24:25). Isaiah: “Father of the age to come” (Is. 9:6). In the Gospel: “I live, ... and he who eats Me, and he will live for My sake” (John 6:57). “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). “These go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life” (Matthew 25:46). You might be interested in: