About the appearance in the flesh of God the Word, and against the Arians

The writing of the short essay “On the Appearance of God the Word in the Flesh, and Against the Arians” (22 chapters) dates back to the time of the third exile of St. Athanasius the Great (356-361). The authenticity of this treatise has been questioned on the grounds that it uses the formula of the Cappadocian fathers “one God in three Persons.” But already at the Council of Alexandria in 362 St. Athanasius argued that the term “hypostasis” can be used to mean “person” and, therefore, we can talk about three Hypostases. According to its content, the work presents an exegetical proof of the deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit and is divided into three parts: 1) refutation of the objections made by the Anomeans (New Arians) against the deity of Jesus Christ; 2) proof of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and sending into the world by the Son; 3) evidence from the Holy Scriptures of the consubstantial Word. In addition, we are talking about many other dogmatic truths: about the birth of God the Son according to the flesh without a father from the Virgin Mary the Mother of God, about the saving consequences for man of His incarnation, life and suffering, about the Eucharist as the true body of the Lord, etc. *Title of the work in Greek – Περὶ τῆς ἐνσάρκου ἐπιφανείας τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου καὶ κατὰ ̓Αρειανῶν. *The title of the work in Latin is De incarnatione Verbi Dei et contra Arianos. 1) Those who intend to misunderstand the divine Scriptures, in support of their blasphemy, put forward statements relating to humanity about the impoverishment of the Son of God. But in these derogatory words and actions one can see all the certain precision of Christianity. Therefore, if they could listen to Blessed Paul, who writes to the Corinthians: “For the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ knows that because of our poverty he is rich, so that we through His poverty may be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9); then they would not have dared to call the Son unlike the Father, especially knowing what kind of poverty He had and what the power of His cross was. Therefore, in another place the same Paul says: “That you may be able to understand with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and understand the love of Christ that surpasses understanding, so that you may be filled with all the fulfillment of God” (Eph. 3:18, 19). For this reason, he boldly writes about His poverty and suffering: “Let me not boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom peace was crucified to me, and to the world” (Gal. 6, 14); and again: “For I judge not the things that are in you, but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2); and: “Even if they had understood, they had not crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). And now these heretics, if they understood the divine Scriptures, would not dare to blaspheme the Creator of all things, calling Him a creature or a creature. They raise the objection: “How can the Son be like the Father, or be from the Father’s essence, when it is written: “Just as the Father had life in Himself, so He gave the Son also to have life in Himself” (John 5:26). They say: the giver has superiority over the receiver; It is also written: “Why do you say that I am good? no one is good except one God” (Mark 10:18); and again: “My God, my God, you have forsaken me everywhere” (Matthew 27:46)? and also: “about the days... of the last... no one knows, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32); and again: “Whom the Father hath holy and sent into the world” (John 10:36); and again: God the Father raised “him from the dead” (Galat. 1:1). How, they say: “He who is raised from the dead can be like Him who raised him, or consubstantial with Him? 2) Of the many objections, we have proposed these few, so that, having resolved them, it would be possible to understand the others without difficulty. Therefore, we are obliged, if possible, to explain their power. If blessed Paul says that the Father raised His Son from the dead; then John narrates: “said... Jesus: Destroy this church, and in three days I will raise it up. The verb, he adds, is about the church of his body” (John 2:19, 21). From this it is clear to those who are attentive that, since the body was resurrected, Paul says that the Son was raised from the dead, because what refers to His body is said about His face. Therefore, in the same way, when it is said that the Father gave life to the Son, we must understand the life given to the flesh. For if the Son is life, why should life receive life? And if He himself makes a promise, saying: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they will come after Me, and I will give them eternal life, and they will not perish forever” (John 10:27,28); if He is God's Wisdom; if by Him all ages were created; then why does it say: “Jesus excelled in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52)? If the Father created everything through His own Word and through the Son, then it is clear that through Him He also accomplished the resurrection of His flesh; and therefore, through Him He raised Him up, and through Him He gives Him life. He is resurrected in the flesh as a man, and receives life as a man, “being found in the same way as a man” (Phil. 2:7): but, as God, He Himself resurrects His church and gives life to His flesh. If he also says: “His Father is holy and sent into the world” (John 10:36); then in another place he says: “for their sake I will sanctify myself, that they also may be holy indeed” (John 17:19). And if he says: “My God, my God, you have forsaken me everywhere” (Matthew 27:46)? then he says this on our behalf; because “we took on the form of a servant, having become in the likeness of mankind, and was found in the likeness of man: He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, death on the cross,” and so on. (Phil. 2, 7, 8); and as Isaiah says: “This one bears our sins, and suffers for us” (Is. 53:4). Therefore, he is not sick about Himself, but about us; It was not He himself who was abandoned by God, but we who were abandoned, and for the sake of us who were abandoned He came into the world. And when the Apostle says: “In the same way God has exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name” (Phil. 2:9); He says this about the church, that is, about His body. 3) For it is not the Most High that is exalted, but the flesh of the Most High is exalted, and the flesh of the Most High is “given a name above every name.” It was not God's Word by grace that received the name God; but His flesh together with Him is called God. It is not said: the Word became God, but: “God is the Word” (John 1:1), that is, there was always God the Word, and this very God became flesh, so that His flesh became God the Word; just as Thomas, touching His flesh, exclaimed: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28), calling both together God; Likewise, John wrote: “from the beginning we heard, we saw with our eyes, we saw with our hands, we touched the Word of the living things” (1 John 1:1). From this it is clear that the Son and the Father’s Word were tangible in the flesh, and that both in divine Scripture are called the tangible Word of life. And when he says: “The Holy Spirit was not with him, for Jesus was not glorified” (John 7:39), about His flesh he says, “for Jesus was not glorified.” For it is not the Lord of glory that is glorified, but the flesh of the Lord of glory; she receives glory, ascending to heaven together with Him. Therefore, the Spirit of sonhood was not yet in men, because the firstfruits received from us had not yet ascended into heaven. 4) Therefore, since Scripture says that the Son accepted that the Son was glorified, it says this about Him according to humanity, and not according to Divinity. And when the Son says: He who sent Me, “My Father is painful to me” (John 14:28), calls Himself greater than the Father, because He became a man; and as the Father's Word, He is equal to the Father. For he says: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30); and: “seeing Me, seeing the Father” (John 14:9). And He does not acquire by robbery, so that He may be equal with the Father, but is equal in nature and consubstantial with the Father, because He is born of the Father's essence. And when the Apostle says that in Christ “lives all the bodily fulfillment of the Divinity” (Colossians 2:9); must understand that “every fulfillment of the Godhead... lives” in His flesh. And having said: “Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32), in another place he says: “As Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it” (Eph. 5:25). 5) The immortal God did not come to save Himself, but those who had been killed; He did not suffer for Himself, but for us; and therefore He took upon Himself our humiliation and our poverty in order to bestow upon us His wealth. For His suffering is our deliverance from suffering; His death is our immortality; His tears are our joy; His burial is our resurrection; His baptism is our sanctification. For he says: “for their sake I will sanctify myself, that they also may be holy indeed” (John 17:19). His plague is our healing; for “by His stripes we are healed” (Is. 53:5). His punishment is our peace; for “the punishment of our peace is upon Him” (Is. 53:5), that is, for our peace He is punished. His dishonor is our glory; therefore, for our sake He asks for glory, saying: “Glorify Me, Father, with Yourself with glory, since before You there was no peace” (John 17:5); for in Him we are glorified. His descent is our ascension, according to what is written: “And rise with Him, and make us sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; and: may he show forth in the world to come the exceeding riches of his grace, showing goodness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6, 7). And when he says on the cross: “Father, in Your hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23:46), He commends to the Father all men who are quickened in Him; because they are members of Him; and these many members are one body, that is, the Church, as blessed Paul writes to the Galatians: “For you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Therefore; betrays everyone in Himself. 6) So when he says: “The Lord made Me the beginning of His ways” (Proverbs 8:22), he says this about the Church being built up in Him; because the Creator of all things is not a creature and a work, but in the Creator the creation is renewed, according to what Paul said: “Of him we are a workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:10); and as he also says: “Let the manifold wisdom of God now be revealed as the beginning and power on the heavenly Church, according to the proposal of the ages, which he did in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom the imams were bold and brought to the hope of His faith” (Eph. 3:10-12); and again: “For since He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before Him in love, Jesus first named us as sons as sons in Him” (Eph. 1:4,5); and also speaks of two peoples: “that both may create by themselves a single new man, creating peace: and reconcile both in the one body of God by the cross, killing the enmity therein” (Eph. 2:15, 16). 7) And if he says: “Why do you say good things to Me? no one is good except one God” (Mark 10:18); then God says this, counting Himself among men according to His flesh, and conforming to the concept of those who came to Him; because the young man considered Him to be a simple man, and not God. And the answer has the following meaning: “if you consider Me a man and not God; then do not call Me good: for “no one is good,” because goodness is not characteristic of human nature, but of God.” Then he adds: “weigh the commandments”? When to answer the young man’s question: which ones? The Lord said: “Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill,” etc., and the young man answered, saying: “I have kept all this from my youth: what am I not yet finished with?” then he says to him: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your property, give it to the poor, and have your treasure in heaven: and take up your cross, come after Me” (Matthew 19, 16–21, Mark 10, 17–21, Luke 18, 18–22). And by this the Lord showed that goodness is also characteristic of Him. For whoever follows what is not good can inherit eternal life? And when he speaks about the last day: “no one knows, ... not the Son, only the Father” (Mark 13:32), he speaks according to humanity. For if he knows the Father, how can he not know the last day? “No one knows... the Father,” He says, “except the Son, and whom the Son wills to reveal” (Matthew 11:27). And if the Holy Spirit knows everything of God, then how can the Son not know the day that He created? And if the ages and times were created by Him, then it is obvious that the last day is included in these ages and times, and it is impossible for Him not to know this day. 8) Therefore, all the derogatory words used by the Lord refer to His impoverishment, so that we might become rich in Him, and not blaspheme the Son of God through them. And for this reason the Son of God became the son of man, so that the sons of men, that is, the sons of Adam, would become sons of God. For the Word, unspeakable, ineffable, incomprehensible, eternally born again from the Father, is born down in time from the Virgin Mary, Theotokos, so that those who were originally born before will be born a second time from above, that is, from God. Therefore, the Son has one Mother on earth, and we have one Father in heaven. For this reason He calls Himself the Son of man, so that men may call God Father in heaven. It is said: “Our Father, who art in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). Just as we, the servants of God, became the sons of God: so the Lord of the slaves became the mortal son of his own servant, that is, Adam, so that the sons of Adam, being mortal, became the sons of God, according to what was said: “he gave them the realm to become children of God” (John 1:12). Therefore, the Son of God tastes death for the sake of his carnal father, so that the sons of men may partake of the life of God for the sake of God their Father in the spirit. He is the Son of God by nature, and we are sons by grace. And again: He became the son of Adam for our sake, and we are sons of Adam by nature. Therefore he says: “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17); because God, as I said above, is His Father by nature, and our Father by grace; and He became God according to dispensation, since He Himself became man, and to us He is Master and God by nature. And therefore, “The Word... is the Son of the Father, united with the flesh, became flesh” (John 1:14) and perfect man, and men, united with the Spirit, will become one Spirit. So, He is the flesh-bearing God, and we are spirit-bearing men. For from the essence of man, that is, from the seed of Adam, having received the firstfruits, that is, “the form of a servant, and becoming in the likeness of mankind” (Phil. 2:7), He gave us from the Father’s essence the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit, so that we may all become sons of God “in the likeness” of the Son of God. He, the true and by nature Son of God, carries us all within Himself, and we all carry within us the one God (John 1:12-16). 9) It is also impious to assert that the Spirit of God is created or created, when all the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments join Him to the Father and the Son and glorify Him with Them; because the Spirit of the same Deity, the same power and essence, as the Lord himself says: “believe in Me,... rivers of living waters will flow out of his belly. This is what he says about Dus, whom believers want to receive... in Him" (John 7:38, 39); as in Joel, he speaks on behalf of the Father: "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy" (Joel 2:28). And therefore, blowing in the faces of the Apostles, he says: "Take The Holy Spirit" (John 20:22), so we know that from the fullness of the Divinity the Spirit is given to the disciples; for it is said: in Christ, that is, in His flesh, “all the fulfillment of the Divinity lives bodily” (Col. 2:9); just as John the Baptist says: “from the fulfillment of Him we have all received” (John 1:16). abiding in Him, the firstfruits and guarantee of the Godhead live in us; in Christ is “all the fulfillment of the Godhead” (Col. 2:9). For He sent the Spirit from above, as God, and He received Him below, as man. Therefore, from Him the Spirit descends upon Him, from His Divinity upon His humanity. And Isaiah, on behalf of the Father, cries out, saying: “To this says the Lord your God, who created you, and formed you from the womb: Fear not, my servant Jacob, and beloved of Israel, whom I have chosen. Because I will give water to those who thirst in the abyss, I will put My Spirit on your seed, and My blessings on your children” (Is. 44: 2, 3). In the Gospel, the Son promises to give water to “those who walk thirsty,” speaking to the Samaritan woman about the Holy Spirit: “If you knew the gift of God, and who He is, give me to drink: you would ask Him, and He would give you living water” (John 4:10); and soon afterwards he says to her: “Whoever drinks of the water that I sow will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will be in him a fountain of water flowing into an everlasting belly” (John 4:13, 14). Therefore, David sings to God: “For with You is the source of life, in Your light we will see light” (Psalm 35:10); for he knew that God the Father is the Son - the source of the Holy Spirit. 10) And through Jeremiah the Son says: “My people have done two evils: they have forsaken Me the fountains of living water, and dug up for themselves treasures of brokenness that cannot contain water” (Jer. 2:13). And when the Seraphim glorify God, crying three times: “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:3); then they glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Therefore we are baptized, both in the name of the Father and the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit; and we become sons of God, and not of Gods, because the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the Lord of hosts; – one Divinity and one God in three hypostases. Therefore, what the Father said in Isaiah, according to John, the Son said, and according to Paul in Acts, the Holy Spirit said. For Isaiah says this: “I saw the Lord of hosts sitting on the throne, high and exalted, and the house was filled with His glory. And the Seraphim stood around Him, six kril to one and six kril to another: and two were the veils of their faces, and two were the veils of their feet, and two were the veils of the fly. And I cried to one another and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the heavens and all the earth are filled with His glory” (Isa. 6, 1–3); and soon afterwards he says: “I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom will I send, and who will go to this people? And he said: Behold, I am, send me. And he said to me: go to this people, and say to them: with hearing you will hear, and you will not understand; and with seeing, you will see, and you will not see; for the heart of this people is clothed, and their ears are heavy with hearing, and their eyes are closed, lest they see with their eyes, and with their ears hear, and with their hearts understand, and be converted, and I will heal” (Is. 6, 8–10). The Evangelist John says: “For this reason I cannot believe... the Jews in Jesus, as Isaiah said: blind their eyes, and harden their hearts, lest... when they see with their eyes, and understand in their hearts, they will be converted, and I will heal them. This is what Isaiah spoke when he saw His glory” (John 12:39–41), that is, the glory of the Son; and therefore the Son is the Lord of hosts. For the Lord of hosts is interpreted: the Lord of hosts, and “the Lord of hosts, He is the king of glory,” as David said (Psalm 23:10); The Lord of glory, according to Paul, is the crucified Christ (1 Cor. 2:8). And since David said: “The Lord shepherds me, and will deprive me of nothing” (Psalm 23:1); and in another place: “He who shepherds Israel, teach him like Joseph’s sheep: he who sits on the Cherubim appears” (Ps. 79, 2); in the Gospels the Son says: “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:14); then it follows that He is “the one who sits on the Cherubim,... the shepherd of Israel” (Ps. 79:2). And Paul in Acts says that “the Holy Spirit spoke to Isaiah” (Acts 28:25) is the same thing that Isaiah said: “as the Lord of hosts spoke to me” (Isaiah 22:25). So the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is the Lord of Hosts. 11) And when Scripture says of the Father that He created “all things, visible and invisible” (Col. 1:16): then in another place the same Scripture teaches us that all things were created through the Son. And the Father did not create one thing separately, but another the Son; but whatever the Father does, He does by His own power, which is the Son, for “all things were made by Him” (John 1:3). So, when the Son says: “Destroy this church, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19), he says this, as noted, about His body; then another Scripture says that the Father raised His Son from the dead (Gal. 1:1) - and says rightly, because by His Word and the Son He raised up the flesh of His Son. We do not say that the body is the Son of God by nature; We say that it is the body of the Son of God. “Therefore, when the body is resurrected, the Son appears to be raised from the dead. Therefore, regarding the flesh, we say that the Son died, and was buried, and was raised from the dead; in spirit He was everywhere, both in heaven and on earth. So, since he was originally rich, that is, God, later he became poor, that is, man, and became like us in everything except sin; the way a person accepts life is the One who has life in Himself; because He Himself is life; - accepts for our sake; how man advances in wisdom and age by He Who is the eternal Power of God and Wisdom; as a person is sanctified by the One who is holy and has no need of sanctification; for he says: “For their sake I will sanctify Myself, that they also may be holy indeed” (John 17:19); and how a person is exalted, having received a name, “more than any name” (Phil. 2:9) - a name that He always has by nature; for it is said: “God is the Word” (John 1:1). 12) Therefore, what the Scripture says, that the Son received, it says this for the sake of His body; and this body is the firstfruits of the Church; for it is said: “Christ is the firstfruits” (1 Cor. 15:23). since the Firstfruits received a name, “more than any name” (Phil. 2:9); then by His power the “confusion” was raised and planted (1 Cor. 5:7), according to what was said: “Rise and plant with Him” (Eph. 2:6). This is why people have received the grace to be called gods and sons of God. So, the Lord first raised from the dead and lifted up His body within Himself, and then He also resurrects the members of His body, and, as God, He bestows on them everything that He Himself received as man. Therefore, He gives life to Himself, sanctifies Himself, and exalts Himself. When it is said that the Father sanctified Him, and raised Him up, and gave Him “a name above every name” (Phil. 2:9), and gave Him life; It is clear that through Him the Father does everything: through Him he resurrects Him, through Him he sanctifies Him, through Him he exalts Him, through Him he gives Him life. And when He gives His spirit into the hands of the Father, He gives Himself to God as a man, and gives Himself to God all men; because He is the “hand” and “hand” of the Father. And when he says: “I am born before all the hills” (Proverbs 8:25), he says this on behalf of the Church, which was originally created, and then born of God. Why, in the parable it first says: “The Lord created Me” (Proverbs 8:22), and subsequently: “gave birth” (Proverbs 8:25). 13) If Scripture speaks of the Father: “Is not God one who created us” (Malach. 2:10); then he speaks similarly about the Son, “for by him all things were created” (Col. 1:16). And the same is said about the Holy Spirit. “Take away,” it is said, “their spirit, and they will disappear, and return to their dust: send forth Your Spirit, and they will be created, and renew the face of the earth” (Psalm 103:29,30). And if the Son says to Peter about the Father: “Blessed are you,... for flesh and blood have not been revealed to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17); then he says the same thing about himself: “no one knows... the Father,... except the Son, and whom the Son wills to reveal” (Matthew 11:27). And Paul says the same about the Holy Spirit: “God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit tests everything, including the depths of God. Who is the message from man who is in man, even the spirit of man living in him? In the same way, no one knows God’s message, but the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:10, 11). Therefore, just as the spirit in man is inseparable from his humanity and essence, so the Spirit in God is not alien to His Divinity and essence. And if the Lord says in Isaiah: “They gave birth to sons and raised them up, but they rejected Me” (Is. 1:2); then in the Gospel He says: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6); and again: “The spirit breathes wherever it wills, and you hear its voice, but do not consider where it comes from or where it goes: this is every person born of the Spirit” (John 3:8); and at the beginning of the Gospel, John says: “And the little ones received Him, and gave them the power to become children of God, who believe in His name: who was not born of blood, nor of carnal lust, nor of manly lust, but was born of God” (John 1:12, 13). Therefore, all who are born of the Holy Spirit are born of God; and as many as were baptized into Christ were baptized into the Father and the Holy Spirit. And again, when Peter says to Ananias: “Why would Satan fill your heart, lie to the Holy Spirit, and hide the price of the village?.. Thou didst not lie to man, but to God” (Acts 5:3,4); It is clear from this that he who lied to the Holy Spirit lied to God, who lives in men through His Spirit. For where the Spirit of God is, there is God. It is said: “We understand this, because God abides in us, because He has given us food of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13). 14) And if Scripture says that the Holy Spirit “spoke in the Prophets”; then in another place Blessed Paul says that in the Prophets the Father spoke: “God spoke in many parts and in many ways of old by the Father as a prophet, in these last days he spoke to us in the Son” (Heb. 1:1,2); and in another place he says that the Son also speaks, saying: “Before temptation, seek Christ speaking in me” (2 Cor. 13:3). The Son called the Spirit speaking in the Apostles: “When you are handed over ... to the assemblies, do not worry about how or what you say: for in that hour it will be given to you that you say: for you will not be the ones who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matthew 10:19,20). And the Apostle sometimes says that the bodies of believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit; and sometimes that their members are members of Christ; sometimes, that they are the church of the Father: “you are the churches of a living God, as God said: for I will dwell in them, and walk, and be their God, and they will be my people” (2 Cor. 6:16); and: “If anyone corrupts God’s church, God will corrupt him” (1 Cor. 3:17); and again: “Do you not know that you are the church of God and the Holy Spirit of God lives in you” (1 Cor. 3:16)? For whoever is the church of the Spirit is the church of the Son and Father; Where the Spirit of God dwells, there God dwells. And: “Just as the Father raises the dead and lives, so the Son also lives what He wants” (John 5:21); and similarly he speaks of the Spirit: “There is a Spirit who gives life; the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63); and Paul writes to the Corinthians: “The Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). You see that the works of the Father are called by the Scriptures the works of the Son and the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle taught, saying: divisions are gifts, and the same is the Spirit: “and divisions of ministries are, and the same is the Lord; and divisions of actions are, and the same is God, working all in all” (1 Cor. 12:5, 6). Thus, having said that the Father “is... acting all in all” (1 Cor. 12:6), a little lower he calls the Holy Spirit acting “all in all”, saying: “all these things work in one and the same Spirit, dividing power to each as he wills” (1 Cor. 12:11). 15) And if blessed Paul teaches about the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of the inheritance; then David calls the Lord heritage. For he says: “The Lord is the portion of my wealth and my cup” (Psalm 15:5); and in another place: “I cried to You, O Lord, and said: You are my hope, You are my portion in the land of the living” (Psalm 141:6); and Jeremiah says: “He who created everything is... Jacob’s heritage, the Lord is His name” (Jer. 10:16). When the Prophets of the Lord call the inheritance of the saints, then Paul calls the inheritance of the Holy Spirit and says: “in him also having believed was signified by the Holy Spirit of promise: Who is the betrothal of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:13, 14); like the face of Moses, when he received the law from God, it was marked by the Holy Spirit, and none of the sons of Israel could look at it (Ex. 34, 29, 30): because on it “is marked ... the light of the face of the Lord” (Psalm 4, 7), according to what is written in the Gospel: “then the righteous women will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13, 43). For light is God, and likewise light is the Son; because He is of the same essence of true light, as Isaiah says: “And the light of Israel will become fire, and he will sanctify it with burning fire” (Is. 10:17); in the Gospel, John the Baptist says about the Lord: “He who you baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). In another place, Scripture calls the Lord the sanctifier: “I am the Lord who sanctifies them” (Lev. 22:16). And if he calls God fire: “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29); then, similarly, he says about the Holy Spirit: “appearing... to the apostles, the nations divided like fire, sitting on one of them, and were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them to speak” (Acts 2, 3, 4). And all those who carry the Spirit of God within themselves, are luminous; and those who are luminous are clothed in Christ; and those who put on Christ put on the Father, “for it is fitting for this corruptible to be clothed with incorruptibility, and for this mortal to be clothed with immortality” (1 Cor. 15:53); 16) And David; saying: “many people say: who will show us good” (Ps. 4:7)? - this says about the Holy Spirit. And in another place he said: “The Lord will not deprive the good of those who walk in kindness” (Ps. 83:12). And Matthew says this about the Father: “If you, who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him” (Matthew 7:11)? And Luke, narrating the same thing, interprets what “goods” mean, saying: “If you, who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13)? If the Holy Spirit were not from the essence of the only Good, then he would not have been called good, when the Lord, since he became a man, does not allow Himself to be called good, saying: “Why do you say that I am good? no one is good except one God” (Mark 10:18). Scripture does not deny calling the Holy Spirit good, in agreement with David, who says: “Your good Spirit will guide me to the right land” (Ps. 143:10). And again, if the Lord says about Himself: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:51); then in another place he calls the Holy Spirit the bread of heaven, saying: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). For He taught us in prayer to ask in the present age for our daily bread, that is, for the future, the firstfruits of which we have in this present life, partaking of the flesh of the Lord, as He himself said: “The bread that I will give, my flesh is, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). For the flesh of the Lord is the life-giving Spirit, because it was conceived of the life-giving Spirit; The Spirit is the Spirit” (John 3:6). 17) And if Jeremiah says about God that He led Israel in the wilderness: “and did not say where the Lord is, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness” (Jer. 2:6); Then Isaiah said about the Holy Spirit that He led Israel in the wilderness. For, we hear, he says: “You will lead them through the abyss, like a horse through the desert, and without wearying, and like cattle through the field; and the Spirit came from the Lord, and instructed them” (Isa. 63, 13, 14). The Apostle writes to the Corinthians that Christ was the guide: “I drink from the spiritual stone that follows, and the stone is Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4). And if Paul says that he is called by God, namely: “God chose me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him to the nations” (Gal. 1:15, 16); then he calls the Romans those called by Christ, writing to them: “In whom you also are, call Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1:6). And about Paul and Barnabas “the Holy Spirit spoke” (Acts 13:2), that by Him they were called to preach Christ to the pagans; and this is surprising, because Jesus “said... to Paul in the Church: “Go, for I will send you into the nations far off” (Acts 22:21); and Paul writes to the Galatians: “Paul is an Apostle, neither of man nor by man, but Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead” (Gal. 1:1); and a little lower: “I tell you, brethren, the gospel... This, as it was not done by man, was received neither from man nor by learning, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:11, 12). However, the Holy Spirit appears to send Paul and Barnabas to preach Christ to the pagans (Acts 13:2). 18) And the Prophets sometimes speak on behalf of the Father, as for example in the Psalms God says: “I have sworn one oath about My Holy One, lest I lie to David: His seed will endure forever, and his throne is like the sun before me” (Psalm 88:36,37); and again: “I will set you on your throne from the fruit of your womb” (Psalm 132:11), just as Peter said: David “who is a prophet, and who knows, as God swears to him by an oath from the fruit of his body according to the flesh... to set... Christ... on his throne” (Acts 2:30); and sometimes on behalf of the Son, as for example Isaiah says: “Thus says the Lord: For your sake my name is blasphemed among the nations; For this reason my people will know my name in that day, for I am myself, saying, I am” (Isa. 52:5,6); sometimes on behalf of the Holy Spirit, as for example the Prophet Agav says: “Thus says the Holy Spirit: a man whose belt is” (Acts 21:11); and Paul also writes to Timothy: “The Spirit speaks clearly, that in the last times some will depart from the faith” (1 Tim. 4:1); and also: “the Spirit said to Philip: Come and cleave to this chariot” of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:29). And the Prophet Ezekiel, complaining about the old people, said: “And they made me sad in all of them, says... the Lord” (Ezek. 16, 43); and Paul writes to the new people: “and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you are marked on the day of deliverance” (Eph. 4:30). David speaks of the Jews: “and made God bitter in the wilderness” (Psalm 77:40); and Isaiah said about them: “but they did not submit, and angered the Holy Spirit, and turned to enmity against them” (Is. 63:10); and Stephen says in the Acts: “with stiff-necked and uncircumcised hearts and ears, you Always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did” (Acts 7:51). And Paul sometimes says about the Father: “God justifies whoever condemns” (Rom. 8:33,34); and similarly the same thing is said about the Son and about the Holy Spirit: “but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). The Lord says to Satan about Himself: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matthew 4:7); and Peter said to Sapphira: “Why will you agree to tempt the Spirit of the Lord” (Acts 5:9)? 19) God contains and fills everything, as he says through Isaiah: “Heaven and earth... I fill, says the Lord” (Jer. 23:24) 1 .; and Paul writes similarly about the Son: “He who came down and ascended above all the heavens, that he might fulfill all things” (Eph. 4:10). David says the same about the Holy Spirit: “When I go from Thy Spirit, and from Thy presence will I flee” (Psalm 139:7)? Having said: “Where will I go from Thy Spirit,” he showed us that the Holy Spirit fills everything. “And from Thy presence will I flee?” But who went to hell except the Son who rose from the dead? And if Stephen says in Acts: “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham” (Acts 7:2); then Paul says the same about the Son: “Even if they had understood, they had not crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8); and David says like this: “The Lord of those hosts is the King of glory” (Psalm 23:10). For the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is one: “My glory,” the Scripture says, “I will not give to another” (Is. 48:11). And the Son is not a second God, but the Word of the one and only God, spoken of by God in the Father, just as the Father is spoken of by God in the Son. This is what Isaiah says, with the Father calling the Son God: “And they will worship You, and pray in You: for in You there is God, and... there is no God except You. For you are God, and know not, the God of Israel, the Savior. All who resist Him will be ashamed and put to shame” (Is. 45:14-16). Those who do not confess that He and His Spirit are of one and the same essence with the Father, and that there is no God besides Him, and also those who are ashamed of His suffering and impoverishment, oppose Him. For no one can know God unless he confesses Him who was crucified and risen from the dead with the Apostle Thomas as Lord and God (John 20:28). He says to His Apostles: “If you knew Me quickly, you knew My Father, and from now on you knew Him and saw Him. Philip said to Him: Lord, show us the Father, and it will be sufficient for us. Jesus said to him: I have been with you so long, and you have not known Me? Philip, who saw Me, saw My Father; and how do you say: show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The verbs that I say, I do not say about Myself: But My Father abides in Me, It is He who does the works. Believe in Me, for I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me; otherwise, have faith in Me for these works” (John 14:7-11). The business of God the Father is to cast out demons; and the Lord says that by the Holy Spirit he casts out demons: “If I,” it is said, “by the Spirit of God I will cast out demons” (Matthew 12:28); and according to what was said in Luke: “What if... I will cast out demons through the finger of God” (Luke 11:20). For Scripture, when Christ calls the arm of the Father, then calls the Holy Spirit the finger of God; and when he calls the Son the Word of God, then he calls the Holy Spirit the breath of God. 20) And the Apostle also says: “When He gives up the kingdom to God and the Father, when He abolishes all rulership and all authority and power: It is fitting for Him to reign until He puts all enemies under His feet. The last enemy will be eliminated by death. Subdue everything under His nose; Sometimes you say that everything is subjugated to Him, but it is true that everything is subjugated to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will submit all things to Him who put all things under Him, so that God may have all things in all” (1 Cor. 15:24-28). This is what the Apostle says about the submission of the world, subjugated in His flesh. For about His Divine kingdom Daniel expressed that there would be no end to His kingdom (Dan. 3:100; Dan. 7:14); how, according to Luke, the Angel Gabriel said to the Virgin about the Lord: “and He will reign... forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:33). The Apostle says that His kingdom has an end, it is said: “For it is fitting for Him to reign until He puts all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:25); Likewise, David says: “The Lord said to My Lord: Sit at My right hand, until I will make Your enemies Your footstool” (Psalm. 109, 1); and by the word "sedi" means the beginning; and with the words: “until then” “Thy enemies” will be laid down - indicates the end. “When all things are put under Him, then the Son Himself will submit all things to Him, that all things may be in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). This means: when we all submit to the Son, we turn out to be His members, and become sons of God in Him, - “for you,” it is said, “are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28); then He Himself will submit for us to the Father, as the Head for His members. And while not all of their members have yet been subjugated to Him, until then their Head, waiting for His members, has not yet been subjugated to the Father. What if and He was one of those who were subject, He would have submitted to the Father in the beginning, and not in the end He would have done this. For in Him we submit to the Father, we reign in Him until our enemies are placed under our feet. Because of our enemies, the Lord of heaven appeared in our likeness, and took the human throne of David, His father according to the flesh, to recreate and rule it, and when we are all ruled; let us reign in Him, - He will hand over the governed human kingdom to the Father, “that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28), and will reign through Him, as through the Word of God, having reigned through Him first, as through the man Savior. 21) And when Peter says: “Let all the house of Israel surely understand that God created both the Lord and His Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36); It is not about His Divinity that he says: “For He created both His Lord and Christ,” but about His humanity, which is the whole Church, ruling in Him and reigning after His crucifixion, and anointed to the kingdom of heaven in order to co-reign with Him, who exhausted Himself for her and received her through the adoption of a slave's image. For the Son of God, God's Word, has always been Lord and God; and not by crucifixion was he created Lord and Christ, but, as was said before, His Divinity created that His humanity became Lord and Christ. And when he says: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me” (Matthew 26:39): “Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42); and: “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41); then he shows by this two wills: human, characteristic of the flesh, and Divine, characteristic of God; and human, due to the weakness of the flesh, renounces suffering, but His Divine will is ready for it. And how Peter, hearing about the suffering, was afraid and said: “You are merciful, Lord”; The Lord, reproaching him, says: “Follow Me, Satan: You are the temptation of Me, because you think not of God, but of man” (Matthew 16, 22, 23); so of course here too. “Becoming in the likeness of mankind” (Phil. 2:7) He renounces suffering as a man: but as God, not involved in suffering in the Divine essence, he readily accepted suffering and death. Therefore, “without any power I hold Him back from death” (Acts 2:34); because in human likeness there was God, both dying according to His will and resurrected by His own power, like God, as David also said: “Let God rise again, and let His enemies be scattered” (Psalm. 67, 2); and then: “Arise, O Lord my God, by the commandment which Thou hast commanded, and a multitude of people will surround Thee. And regarding this, turn to the heights: the Lord judges people” (Psalm 7:7-9). The Apostle also says in another place: “I suffered from weakness, but I live because of the power of God” (2 Cor. 13:4). But the power of God is the Son, who suffered from weakness, that is, from conjugation with the flesh, and prayed for liberation from suffering as a man, but remains alive because of His power. 22) And if the Lord in the Gospel of John says: “This is the eternal life, that they may know the one true God, and whom Jesus Christ sent” (John 17:3); then this same John in another place calls the Son true God. For he says: “We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, that we may know the true God, and that we may be in the true Son Jesus Christ: this is the true God and the eternal life” (1 John 5:20). Therefore, the Son is true God both before he became man, and after he became the Mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ. This is what the words mean: “whom thou didst send, Jesus Christ,” Who is in unity with the Father in spirit, and with us in the flesh, and thus became the Intercessor of God and men. One and the same is not just a man, but also God, as Jeremiah says: “This God is our God, it will not be imputed to Him. Find out every way of cunning, and give unto Jacob to His servant, and To the beloved of Israel from Him, therefore he appeared on the earth, and lived with men” (Bar. 3:36-38). When did he “live with men”? And in another place Jeremiah says: “His heart is deep above all others, and there is a man, and who knows Him” (Jer. 17:9)? And like this, Isaiah says: “For unto us a Child was born, and unto us a Son was given, whose rulership was upon His frame: and His name is called: Great of counsel, Angel, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Ruler, Prince of Peace, Father of the Age to Come” (Is. 9:6); and in another place: “Behold, the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call His name Immanuel, which is what we say: God is with us” (Matthew 1:23, Isaiah 7:14). So, He who was born from the Virgin and made man from the Mother of God Mary is God. And in another place Isaiah says: “And we saw Him, and neither was the name of the form nor the kindness” (Is. 53:2). For he had seen Him before in a divine and glorious form, sitting on a high and exalted throne, and glorified by the Seraphim, who cried out: “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:3); and after this he sees Him taking on the form of a servant and in human likeness. Therefore he says: “I saw Him, and neither the name of the form nor the kindness: but His appearance is dishonorable, less than the sons of men: a man in the ulcer, and knowing to endure illness, as if he turned away His face, he became dishonorable, and was not accounted for. We bear this disease, and it hurts about us, and we impute His being in labor, and in ulcers, and in embitterment. The same plague was for our sins, and we were tormented for our iniquities” (Is. 53:2-5); and in another place he says about Him: “Behold, our God rewards judgment, and He will reward, He will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear. Then the lame will leap like a tree, and the tongue of those who perish will be clear” (Isa. 35:4-6); and in another place: “not an Advocate, less than an Angel, but the Lord Himself saved” us (Is. 63:9). And David says: “Mother Zion says: man and man are born in her: and His foundation is the Most High” (Psalm 86:5). For this Man, born in Zion, is the Most High himself, as David says in another psalm: “And let them know that Your name is Lord, You are the only Highest in all the earth” (Psalm 82:19). We wrote this in part, “but to no one,” as the Apostle said, “we are... infants, tossed about and tossed about by every wind of doctrine, in the lies of men, in the deceit of the wiles of flattery” (Eph. 4:14). This text is read in the book of the prophet. Jeremiah – 23, 24: “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth with food? speech of the Lord" A. Sh. You might be interested in: