The Most Expansive Word on Faith

The work “The Most Extensive Word on Faith” (39 chapters) is a compilation from other works of St. Athanasius the Great, mainly from the “Tale of the Incarnation of God the Word”, and is directed against the Arians and other heretics of his time. The authorship of St. Athanasius the Great is questioned. The work contains clear signs of the Antiochian school. The treatise reveals the doctrine of the Divinity of the Incarnate Word and its relationship to human nature, and provides a large number of texts of Holy Scripture pointing to both the human and Divine nature in Christ. *The title of the work in Greek is Περὶ πίστεως λόγος ὁ μείζων. *The title of the essay in Latin is Sermo maior de fide. 1) The phrase “be” refers to His Divinity; and the expression: “flesh became” - to humanity. “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14), not being resolved into flesh, but bearing the flesh on Himself. If you say: “So-and-so was old,” this does not mean that he was first born old. Or if we say: “he was a distinguished warrior,” this does not mean that he was initially the same as he later became. It is said: “I John... was in the island... Patmos... on a weekday” (Apoc. 1, 9, 10). This does not mean that John was born there or was born there. On the contrary, he said: “I was in Patmos” - instead of: I came to Patmos. Thus, the Word descended into the flesh, which is expressed by this saying: “The Word became flesh.” Listen to the one who says: “Like a vessel that is destroyed” (Psalm 30:13); and: “like a man without help, there is freedom in the dead” (Psalm 87:5,6). 2) Man or God - raised from the dead? Knowing this better than us, the Apostle Peter interprets and says: “He was taken down from the tree and laid in a tomb. God raised Him from the dead” (Acts 13:29–30). The dead body of Jesus was taken down from the tree, laid in the tomb and buried by Joseph of Arimathea; it was this that was resurrected by the Word, which said: “Destroy this church, and in three days I will raise you up" (John 2:19). For the One who gives life to all the dead also gave life to the man He took upon Himself from Mary, Christ Jesus. And if, having been on the cross, He raised up the dead bodies of the saints long before, then all the more could He raise up the body that God the Word Himself bore upon Himself, as Paul says: “The Word of God is living and active.” (Heb. 4:12). 3) Life cannot die, and what’s more, it itself gives life to the dead. So, according to Divinity from the Father, the Lord is the source of life; but the Man who is from the Virgin Mary died, and what is more, and was raised from the dead, who intercedes for us and for whose sake the Divinity of the Word took upon Himself. Therefore, what is written: “in the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1) clearly designates the Divinity; and what is said: “The word became flesh” (John 1:14) indicates the humanity of the Lord. 4) Lazarus died of illness; The Lord’s Man did not die involuntarily and not from illness. On the contrary, He Himself went forth into the dispensation of death, strengthened by the Word of God who dwelt in Him, saying: “No one will take My soul from Me, but I lay it down for Myself. The imam will lay down the area, and the imam... will accept the area” (John 10:18). Why does the Divinity of the Son posit and accept the soul of man, whom He bore on Himself, because He took on a whole man, in order to revive the whole man, and with him the dead. 5) Himself, as the Almighty and Creator of all things, prepares for Himself a church in the Virgin - a body and assimilates it to Himself as an instrument, inhabiting it and allowing Himself to be known in it. For this reason, He takes upon Himself a body that can die, so that, having become a partaker of God the Word, it would endure death for all and for the sake of the Word indwelling in it would remain incorruptible. 6) Over all, the existing Word of God, having offered His church and His bodily instrument as an atoning sacrifice for all, repaid in all justice the debt of those guilty of death; and the incorruptible Son of God, as being coexistent with us in our likeness, has rightly clothed all with incorruptibility with the promise of resurrection. The very corruption that death brings to humanity no longer has a place in people because of the Word, which entered into them through a single body. Just as upon the entry of a great King into any large city and upon his residence in one of the houses of the city, that city is awarded great honor, and is no longer disturbed by any enemy or predator, but for the sake of the King, who has settled in one of its houses, every care is taken about it, so understand about our Savior. After His coming to our country and after His indwelling in one of the bodies similar to ours, all malicious intent against man ceased. 7) He was not enclosed in a body and was not so in it that He was no longer separate; and He set the body in motion, but everything else was not devoid of His providence; and what is most incomprehensible of all, He, as the Word, did not contain anything, but, moreover, He Himself contained everything. After the descent of the Word into the body, it was no longer subject to corruption, which was characteristic of its nature, but for the sake of the Word of God that dwelt in it, it became beyond corruption. The suffering body, although it suffered, as was in accordance with the nature of the body, nevertheless received the property of incorruptibility from the Word that dwelt in it. 8) The Son of God Himself revealed the body, immortal and incorruptible, which had been dead for three days. And it became clear to everyone that it was not because of the weakness of the nature of the indwelling Word that the body died, but that by the power of the Savior death was destroyed in it. 9) What should be the end of the body after the descent of the Word into it? It could not help but die as a mortal and offered to die for everyone, which is what the Savior prepared for it. But it was impossible for it to remain dead, because it had become a church of life. Therefore, although the body died as a mortal, it nevertheless came to life because of the life existing in it. 10) What incredible thing do we affirm when we say: since humanity fell into error, the Word, having taken up residence in it, appeared as a man in order to save the overwhelmed humanity by His helm and His goodness?.. 11) The task of the soul is to consider with thought what is inside its body, and not to direct its activity to what is outside its body, or to set in motion with its presence what is far from the body. And this distant thing can no longer be set in motion by a person and cannot be transferred from one place to another. If someone sits in his house and meditates on what is in the sky, then through this he does not yet set the sun in motion and does not rotate the sky. On the contrary, although he sees what moves and happens, he himself is not able to produce it. This is not, of course, the Word of God in man; because it was not connected by a body, and moreover, it itself possessed it; and therefore It was in the body, but it was also in everything, it was even outside of all, in the one Father. 12) Look, I ask you: are they not in ignorance, exposing themselves to ridicule? The Hellenic sages say that the world is a great body, and in this they do not sin against the truth, because we see both the world and parts of the world as subject to the senses. If in the world, this body, there is God’s Word, and It descended into the whole and into all parts of the whole, then what is surprising or incongruous in what we affirm, that the Word descended into man? If there is no incongruity for the Word to be in a creature that has received the beginning of being, then there is no incongruity for Him to be in man. So, there is nothing indecent at all for the Word to be in a person, and from Him and by Him everything should be enlightened and set in motion. 13) The Creator of the universe, God the Word, seeing that Adam, seduced by the devil, transgressed the commandment of his Creator and became under the oath and restraint of death, from one of the daughters of Adam, from the Virgin Mary, having created for himself a most pure body that could contain both the fullness of the Divinity physically, and the suffering inherent in humanity, voluntarily gave it up for the whole world, so that by the death of his body he could put to death the one who once reigned over the death of the devil. But the blood is shed not by the Spirit of the Divinity of the Word, but by man, whom the Word bore upon Himself. 14) Saying: “I am the vine” (John 15:1), and: “My painful Father is not Me” (John 14:28), and: “created Me” (Proverbs 8:22); and: “I... am a worm, and not a man” (Psalm 21:7); also, everything that the Son said humiliatingly about Himself in the Gospels and the Prophets is said about the body that He bore on Himself for our sake. But we do not attribute this suffering body, which the Son bore on Himself for the salvation of the universe, to the Father. For all things were created by the Father through the Son; one Son is born of the Father. Why is God the Word “the firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15), and He is immutable from the Immutable. Therefore, the body that the Son bore on Himself for our sake is a creature. 15) For in Adam, who was named Jesus, having put on everything, even with Adam’s infirmities, except sin, so that through Him he might bring to the Father the lost sheep, “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent” (Isa. 53:7). Paul writes about Him: “the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself redemption for all” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6), and in another place says: “by man was death, and by man life.” Just as in Adam all die, so in Christ will all live” (1 Cor. 15, 21, 22). 16) Everything came into being and was created by the Word Himself, but the Word has no beginning of being; Scripture names man as having received the beginning of being and created, whom the Word bore on Himself for our sake. For the Lord says: every rod abiding in Me brings forth “fruit” (John 15:4,5). And in man, whom He bore on Himself from Adam's race, He quickened those who were of Adam's race. 17) Take into account that until now no one knew the Son of God as He is until He revealed Himself to us. But we know the Son of Man, whom He bore for our sake. Paul said about him: “Keep in mind Jesus, the Apostle and Holy One of our confession... being faithful to Him who made Him” (Heb. 3:1,2); Stephen also says about Him: “I see... the Son of man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). He did not say: I see the Word or the Wisdom of the Father; but: “Son of man” is the Lord’s body from Mary. 18) As for the expression: “Jesus excelled in age, and in wisdom, and in grace” (Luke 2:52), then it speaks of a person, understood in the Savior; He was once a child, and grew in age, wisdom and grace; He “began to be about thirty years old,” as the Evangelist Luke narrates (Luke 3:23). The body, which allows progress and age, is a creature and a creature. Jesus Christ, the man understood in the Savior, accepts the advancement of age, is once a baby, and then a man, “beginning at about thirty years old,” as Luke says. So, the man who accepts growth, Christ Jesus, the Messenger and Holy Hierarch, faithful to Him who created Him, is the one who allows prosperity. 19) Stephen says: “I see... the Son of man standing at the right hand of the power of God” (Acts 7:56). He did not say that he saw the Word or the Wisdom of the Father, but the “Son of Man,” the Lord’s body from Mary; Paul says of Him that he sits at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). About His body, David prophetically speaks on behalf of God: “Sit at My right hand, until I will make Your enemies Your footstool” (Psalm 109:1), for he foresaw future enemies, that is, the devil and the opposing forces assisting him, who were at enmity against the Lord Man, knowing that by His death both they and themselves were rendered inactive. the devil, who has the power of death. For those who disparage the Divinity of the Word think that the Lord cannot take revenge on His enemies by Himself, and therefore the Father said to the Son: “Sit on My right hand, until I make Your enemies the footstool of Your feet.” Let these ignorant people know that this is written about a Man, understood according to the flesh; the enemy is against You" (Psalm 88:23). Consequently, God says to the body: “Sit at My right hand.” The devil and the evil forces, as well as the Jews and Greeks, became His enemies. 20) Blessed Paul, having said about the Lord that in Him “all things... were created,” says about Him alone: that “He is before all” (Col. 1, 16, 17), because, having learned from the ancients, he was versed in the Law, penetrated into the meaning of Solomon’s parables and found that the Lord is said in two ways: one is said about the man whom He had received from Mary, and the other about the Word, who was eternally begotten of the Father before all ages. And about Jesus, who is from Mary, the apostle writes to Timothy: “Remember Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead, from the seed of David according to the flesh” (2 Tim. 2:8). About the Word of God who is always with the Father, he said: “He is before all” (Col. 1:17). Therefore, let all the saints be convicted who claim that the Word of God was created in the beginning of works, and let them hear from David that the Word is not a work, but the Creator of works, as He says: “The works of Your hand are the heavens.” They will perish, but You remain” (Psalm 101, 26, 27). 21) “Jesus Christ yesterday and today, the same forever” (Heb. 13:8) is also said about man, understood in the Savior, who is sometimes a baby, sometimes prospers in age and grace, as the Evangelist Luke says: “as he began to be thirty years old” (Luke 3:23). The body allows for prosperity and growth, and it is a creature and a creature. Therefore, those who claim that the Word that is from the Father is a creature, having been convicted by the saints, either let the evil blasphemies cease, or let them all be proclaimed as Christ-fighters; because in the very thing in which they are defeated, they rely on the words of Him who spoke in parables: “The Lord made Me the beginning of His ways for His works” (Proverbs 8:22). They stumble in this too. For Solomon, prophesying about that man of the Lord from Mary, who was to be created for the benefit of the whole world, said this on His behalf: “The Lord made Me the beginning of His ways for His works.” 22) “Let all the house of Israel know that God created both the Lord and His Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). Pointing their finger at Him, the crucified man of the Lord, the apostles said: “This Jesus, Christ and Lord, was created by God.” He is this Lord's man, obviously, created by the beginning of the paths destined for good deeds, He is both the ruler over all the saints, who are called paths, and created and crucified by the Lord Jesus Christ. About Him, Jeremiah, according to the publication of seventy interpreters, said: “The Lord created salvation for me as a new planting: in it shall men walk in salvation” (Jer. 31:22); and according to the translation of the same saying by Aquila, he says: “The Lord created a new salvation in a woman.” And what does he call salvation new, and not old, created for us, and not before us, and what he calls new, created in wife, by this he means a man in the Savior - Jesus. For Jesus is interpreted as both “Savior” and “salvation”, as from the light of Jesus the prophet called salvation created for us, new in a woman. in Mary, or better yet, from Mary. Therefore, having proven from the Scriptures that this Christ Jesus, whom Solomon called created the beginning of the ways and Jeremiah calls created a new salvation and a new woman, Wisdom built for us and for our sake a house for herself, we also adhere to what follows, which others, whether out of ignorance or prejudice, being in error, do not want to teach or learn the right. 23) If Divine words could comprehend everything spiritually, then there would be no need to teach them spiritual talent. The Lord would not give milk to drink if everyone were able to take solid food. On the contrary, those who are still infancy in the very teaching of theology, like infants feeding on milk, are allowed to accept the catechumens teaching, because they are still incapable of receiving the angelic bread for food - in the human body of the hidden God the Word. 24) Therefore, we, as knowledgeable builders of the Divine mysteries, must teach the word to the extent that each one can comprehend. For old wineskins are broken, not containing the new wine of the true Vine, that is, the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, since others, or better yet, many, without yet becoming disciples, have recklessly entered into the rank of teachers, “not understanding what they say, nor what they affirm” (1 Tim. 1:7), being blind with mental eyes, not having a mind that sees God, like Jacob, and a pure heart that will see God, about the man whom the Savior for our sake bore on Himself, written sayings, and debased deeds, and words expressing impoverishment, when applied to the Divinity of the Word, are themselves mistaken, and mislead the unlearned and unestablished - then, as Jude writes (1 Tim. 1:3), we have the need to set forth in the epistle which sayings are befitting of the Divinity of the Word and which ones are appropriate for man assumed by Him for our sake. Just as gold and silver coins are put into one bag, bearing the image and inscription of the name of one king, but the trader who keeps them knows the superiority of the gold coin over the lower price of the piece of silver, so although in one Scripture it is written about the Divinity of the Son and about the body of Mary, which the Son bore on Himself for our sake, yet we, as meaningful disciples of the one true Teacher, recognize every saying of Scripture. Therefore, consider all humiliating sayings and deeds to be written about the body of Jesus, but all glorious writings are about the Divinity of the Word. When one becomes hungry after fasting, this is a deficiency in the body. And when with five loaves he feeds five thousand, besides children and wives, and twelve pots of tricks remain in abundance, this is the work of the Divinity of the Word. When one sleeps in a ship “on the head” (Mark 4:38) - this is a matter of bodily peace. And when, walking on the sea, he threateningly forbids the waves and winds: “Be silent, cease” (Mark 4:39), then he immediately hears those in the ship confessing with an oath: “Truly you are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33). When, standing at the tomb of Lazarus, he cries and when, preparing for suffering, he says: “My soul is sorrowful even to death” (Matthew 26:38), and he grieves, and calls the Spirit of the Divine vigorous for all dispensation, and the flesh weak, then he grieves and grieves because of the weakness of the body. And when he commandingly says: “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43), and the four-day dead man, still bound, rises up alive, which has not happened since the beginning of creation, this is a sign of the Divine. When, “weary from the daily journey, he sits at the source” (John 4:6), wearyness is characteristic of the body. And when he says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28), this is the work of the Divine - to heal from bodily illnesses and labors, and from spiritual troubles. When he is baptized by John, “Whoever commits no sin, flattery is found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22), the cleansing of the body is accomplished for us. And when he commands the apostles to baptize all nations in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), this is befitting of His Divine power. When one kneels and prays as a person, this is a confession of the body offered for us. And when, during His transfiguration on the mountain, Peter, James and John are not able to bear the glory and, from the glory of the Divine, bow their faces and knees to the ground (Matthew 17:6), this is the power of the Word. When he strengthens the apostles, saying: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28), this is the hidden and firm consolation of the Divine. And when one refuses to die, this is a disease of the body. For before Adam’s crime there was no sorrow, no fear, no weariness, no famine, no death. 25) “I am,” he says, “the way” for those who are being saved, “and the life” for the dead, “and the truth” for those who flee lies (John 14:6). The verb “to those who are in darkness, open yourselves” (Isa. 49:9), “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). For in Adam, who was named Jesus, having put on Adam’s infirmities, except sin, He brought the lost sheep to the Father, “like a sheep led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent” (Isa. 53:7). Paul writes about Him: “the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself redemption for us and for our sins” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6). And in another place the apostle says: “by man was death, and by man was life. Just as in Adam we all die, so in Christ we all will live” (1 Cor. 15, 21, 22). And in another place he writes: “The first man is from the earth, with a ring; the second man... is from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47). Therefore, the name of Adam the first denotes the first created in the world, and the name of Adam the second - Man, understood in the Savior, who is called the Son of man, the sheep, the vine, bread, tree, grain of wheat and similar names; is also called Adam, although there is a great difference between Adam the second and Adam the first. For one came from the earth, and the other, the Father’s Word, “became flesh” (John 1:14), without ceasing to be the Word because he bore flesh on Himself, just as gold does not lose its glory, being imprisoned in an alien vagina. 26) When our teacher says: “Keep in mind the Apostle and Holy Hierarch of our confession Jesus... being is faithful to Him who created Him” (Heb. 3:1,2), do not think that from the beginning God, the Word, who existed with the Father, is a creature. For the apostle commands us to understand not the invisible Godhead, but the Lord’s man, whom Paul called “the Mediator for God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself redemption for us” (1 Tim. 2:5). This is what he commanded to understand Jesus, “being is faithful to Him who created Him”; just as the Lord says: “Behold the ravens, for they do not sow,” and so on. (Luke 12:24); also: “look at the village trees, how they grow” (Luke 12:27); therefore, it commands us to pay attention to what is visible, and not to angels or other invisible creatures. If Habakkuk the prophet says: “I understood Your works and was horrified” (Habakk 3:2), then this means that he understood the works, and not the Creator of the works. And the apostle commands us to understand the visible body of the Lord, and not the invisible Divinity of the Word; because “no one can see God anywhere” (1 John 4:12), “he can see God below” (1 Tim. 6:16). “God is the Word,” as the Theologian John says (John 1:1). Therefore, whom we are commanded to understand, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a deliverance for us, whom we say, “The Messenger and Holy One is faithful,” the apostle commands us to understand as a creature. Everything is created; but God’s Word, that is, the Son, is not a creature, but a birth by nature. For the Father created everything by the Word, as Paul says: “by this were all things created” (Col. 1:16); and as John says: “all things were made by Him, and without Him they became nothing” (John 1:3). The Word itself does not create, but God gives birth. For everything came into existence and was created by the Word Himself; only the Word itself did not receive existence. On the contrary, the Man Who was borne on Himself for our sake is portrayed in the Scriptures as having received being and being created. 27) For the Lord says: every rod that abides in Me will bear fruit (John 15:5); and in Man, Whom He bore on Himself from the earth-born Adam, He quickened the race that was from Adam, “having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit,” as Peter writes (1 Peter 3:18), because He calls Him put to death in the flesh for us, and not the immortal life-giving Divinity. For the Lord says: “I am... life” (John 14:6); but life does not die, and what’s more, it gives life to the dead. Just as light does not suffer harm in a dark place, so life, having visited mortal nature, cannot suffer anything, because the Divinity of the Word is immutable and unchangeable. 28) It is said: “Who understands the mind of the Lord, or who is His adviser, who will teach Him?” (Isa. 40, 13) One adviser of the Father is the Son, and “the mind” of the Father “understands” He who says: no one knows the Father, only the Son, and no one knows the Son, only the Father or to whom the Son will reveal (Luke 10, 22). Therefore, John says about Lord: “When He appears, we will be like Him, and we will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). Until now, until the Son of God has revealed Himself to us, no one knows what He is like in Himself. We know the Man Whom for our sake He bore on Himself. Paul said about Him: “Keep in mind the Apostle and Holy One of our confession... Jesus is true. being to Him who created Him” (Heb. 3:1, 2). Stephen also says about Him: “I see... the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). He did not say: I see the Word or the Wisdom of the Father; Concerning His body, David prophetically speaks from the Father’s face: “Sit at My right hand, until I will make Your enemies Your footstool” (Psalm. 109, 1), he understands the future enemies, whom he foreknew, that is, the devil and the opposing forces assisting him (who were at enmity against the Lord Man, knowing that by His death both they themselves and the devil, who has the power of death, were rendered inactive), as well as the Jews who were at enmity against Him, over whom is fulfilled what is written: “you hated Me” (John 15, 25). For those who were taught useful things dared to beat and crucify Him for this, calling Him a Samaritan, a demon-possessed and a sinful man, although He condemned sin and it was written about Him: “They will look upon Nan, whose blood is broken” (Zechariah 12:10). Having seen Him in judgment, judging the living and the dead, as John says about the Son: “Let Him execute judgment, as the Son of man is” (John 5:27), they will repent, and one tribe will say to another: this is He whom we laughed at, saying to Him: You saved others, Can you not save Yourself? Therefore, David wrote about the Lord’s body: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Heb. 1:13). For before this prophecy of David, the Word was in the bosom of the Father and had no enemies in heaven, because before the creation no one was with the Father except the Son and the Holy Spirit. And the Father, through the Son, created limitless ages, principles and powers, and all creation. Therefore, God the Word, Who has no common property or possessions with anyone and Who, on the contrary, is the Lord of all, so that no one can resist Him, could he have enemies? For those who belittle the Divinity of the Word think that the Lord cannot take revenge on His enemies by Himself, and therefore the Father said to Him: “Sit at My right hand, until I will make Your enemies Your footstool.” But at least now let these ignorant ones know that this is written about a Man, understood in the Savior, because the same David wrote about the Lord’s Man: “The enemy will not succeed in anything against You” (Psalm 88:23), and also: “The wound will not come near Your village” (Psalm 90:10). 29) It is said: “The Lord has prepared His throne in heaven” (Psalm 102:19). Another means: “heaven is My throne” (Acts 7:49), and another: to prepare a throne in heaven, as if in some place. It would take a lot to talk about this to explain the present place; at least the thrones mentioned express the submission of all creation. We previously noted this about the saying: “Sit at My right hand” (Heb. 1:13), to certify that it was said about the Lord’s body. For if “I fill the heavens and the earth,” says the Lord, as it is said in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 23:24), and God contains everything in Himself, but Himself is not contained by anything, then on what throne does He sit? Therefore, God says to the body: “Sit at My right hand.” The devil with his evil forces, as well as the Jews and Greeks who opposed Christ’s preaching, became his enemies. Through this body the Lord became and was named Holy Hierarch and Messenger in the sacrament which He taught us, saying: This is My body given for you, and the blood of the New Testament, and not of the Old Testament, which is shed for you (Matthew 26:26-28). The deity has neither body nor blood; the culprit of this became the Man of Mary, Whom the Divinity bore upon Himself. The apostles said about Him: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man known among you from God” (Acts 2:22). The city of Nazareth is called earthly, not heavenly; and they call Him husband, and not God, when addressing the Jews and those who, from that time until now, like the Jews, have been wise according to the flesh. And the apostles spoke, and the Lord Himself answered about Himself as a man, saying: “Why are you seeking to kill Me, a man who told you the truth” (John 8:40)? He did not say: you are seeking to kill Me, God, because God, impassive and immortal, brings death into inaction, but gives life to the dead, saying: “I am... life” (John 14:6). turns his speech to Philip, who with faith accepts what he hears, then he and the other apostles, and everyone like them who are capable of understanding spiritually, teaches: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9); “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), and: “I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John 14:10). 30) So, in the very indication of the Scriptures we have the Man of the Savior. About Him we learn to understand that He is a creature, and not the invisible Divinity of the Word, hidden in the bosom of the Father, Whom no one has seen until now. And Paul knew this better than us, saying: “Much light fell upon Me, and fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? You are cruel against the enemy. And I said: Who are you, Lord? And the Lord says to me: I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (Acts 22:6–8; Acts 9:5). He confesses that from the glory of the light of the Lord he was struck with blindness and after three days he received his sight according to the revelation and command of the Lord. If “the chosen vessel” (Acts 9:15) Paul is stricken with blindness, not having the strength to see the glory of the Lord, then how does he teach us to understand the Divinity of the Word Himself? On the contrary, I have repeatedly said and now repeat that Paul commanded us to understand Jesus, the Savior Man, “being faithful to Him who made Him” (Heb. 3:2). 31) “Be like me,” says the apostle, “as I am Christ” (1 Cor. 4:16); Obviously, he means man - this is the underlying foundation (1 Cor. 3:10). For neither Paul nor anyone else can become like the Divinity of the Word, unless they can become like Christ in suffering and meekness. What Peter commands us to do is “let us follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21), just as Paul said that he makes up for the deprivation of Christ’s sorrows in his flesh (Col. 1:24). Therefore, it is indisputable that the age previously laid as the foundation was hidden in the foreknowledge of the Father's mind that Lord's Man, whom he had to create from Mary. About the Lord’s body, the prophecy was clearly spoken to Judas: “Out of you will come forth an Elder for Me... and His beginning was from the beginning from the days of the world” (Mic. 5:2); although God the Word at the end of the ages took upon Himself a Man from the tribe of Judah. 32) It is said: “When all things are put under Him, then the Son Himself will submit all things to Him who put all things under Him” (1 Cor. 15:28). Therefore, let us ask: who is he who does not submit to God until all things are submitted to Him? What was not subjugated to the Word that was from the Father even before the dispensation in the Man He took upon Himself for our sake? For all creatures submit to the Creator. But even to this day, not everything has been subjugated to the Man He has taken upon Himself. For Paul says: “We do not see that all things are subject to Him” (Heb. 2:8). “To the Jews it is a temptation, to the pagans foolishness, but to us who believe in Him Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23, 24). Therefore, when all creation comes to meet the Son in the clouds and submits to Him, then the Son Himself will submit to the Father, becoming more than all creation the faithful Messenger and Holy Hierarch, “that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28), that is, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one Dominion and Divinity and Kingdom. If anyone says: the apostle did not call Jesus submissive, but the Word, then let him hear that Jesus is called and is the Son of God because of the Word hidden in Him, as Luke said in his genealogy: “Jesus was about thirty years old, beginning, as it were, the son of Joseph,” and continuing the genealogy in order to Adam, concluded: “Adam, God’s” (Luke 3, 23:38), showing that He bore His body from Adam, and His Divinity from the Father. 33) What the Father does and shows in the Son, it also belongs to all this to know the day and hour of judgment. “And all judgment was given to the Sons: yea, as they honor the Father, they also honor the Son” (John 5:22,23). If the Father handed over to the Son to carry out all the judgment, then it is clear that he also handed over to Him the knowledge of the judgment, when and how it will take place. Therefore, he who does not know about the day of judgment is Jesus, born of Mary, because there is nothing that God the Word, who is from the Father’s heart, does not know, who knows everything before it comes into being. 34) Therefore, if Jesus says: “My Father is sick with me” (John 14:28), and calls Himself equal to God, then we should know why He calls the Father both greater than Himself and equal to Himself. The Father is greater than the Son because of the painful body that the Son bore; equal to the Son, since the all-perfect Father begot the all-perfect Son from all eternity. 35) So Ezra prophesies on behalf of Zerubbabel, speaking about the Son of God: Truth lives, conquers, possesses and abides forever and ever (2Ezra 4:38), meaning that the body that He has to bear for us will die for us, and not the Truth hidden in this body, that is, the Father's Word. The truth in Jesus who died for us descended into the heart of the earth, so that He who is the Truth could free those deceived by lies. Just as a king, having entered the prison to visit the prisoners held there, does not suffer harm from it, but provides benefit to those in custody, so God the Word, not suffering in the least the loss of the mortal body He suffered for us, by the Spirit of the Divine provided benefit to those imprisoned in hell. 36) Jacob, blessing Judah, from whom the Lord was to receive a human body, says: “He will stain his garments with wine, and his garments with the blood of grapes” (Gen. 49:11). However, if we understand this in a historical sense, he did not do this; for he did not wash his clothes in wine. And what does the expression mean: “and with the blood of the grapes,” said after the words: “he will drink his clothes with wine”? Is there really one “wine” and another “the blood of the grape”? Isaiah knew this better than us, who says: “His clothing is like a winepress that has been trampled? Full of trampling” (Isa. 63:2, 3). So, he prophesies about clothing washed with wine and the blood of grapes. The tunic is the artist himself, for it is contrary to reason and order to wash clothing in wine, which, as is known, none of the foolish people did. And since he knew in advance from the Holy The Spirit that the Son of God for our sake has to bear the body from the Jewish people, called the vine and the vineyard, then he said: “Thou hast risen up from the growth, my son Judah” (Gen. 49:9). 37) Therefore, let those who separate the Son from the Father, as the Vine from the Worker, be ashamed now, having been convinced from the Scriptures that the parable refers to the Body of the Lord, and not to His Divinity. For, while performing the holy sacrament, He blessed and said: “Drink of it, all of you, this is My Blood of the New Testament,” which is shed for you (Matthew 26, 27, 28), although the wine is not the blood of the Lord, but of the vine. Therefore, the Lord said about his own Body: “I am the vine” (John 15:1). The blood comes not from the Spirit of the Divinity of the Word, but from the Man whom He has borne. 38) God says through the prophet Ezekiel: “Ole, shepherds, shepherds! Is the food shepherds themselves grazing? Aren't they grazing sheep? But you did not convert the erring, you did not recover the lost, you did not heal the weak, you did not oblige the lame; but you also seriously insulted the laborer. For this reason I will raise up for myself a faithful shepherd, my servant David, and he will be a shepherd and a prince forever (Ezek. 34: 3, 4, 23, 24). But when Ezekiel prophesied this in Babylon, fourteen generations had already passed after David died. Therefore he prophesied about the Lord's Man, raised up from the seed of David, about whom Paul writes to Timothy: “Remember... Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, from the seed of David according to the flesh” (2 Timothy 2:8). 39) Those who are wise in the flesh, not wanting to learn from the spiritual, who have acquired an undoubted knowledge of the Scriptures, even dreaming of teaching simple-minded people themselves, drag them into the abyss; and what is written on them is fulfilled: “If a blind man leads a blind man, both of them will fall into the pit,” that is, they will “fall into hell” (Matthew 15:14). In the historical sense, of course, a blind man cannot lead a blind man. But being blind in the knowledge of the Divine mysteries, they inspire each of the unlearned people: didn’t the Son say to you through Solomon: “The Lord made Me the beginning of His ways for His works” (Proverbs 8:22)? Doesn’t the Son say about Himself: He who sent Me, “I am a great Father” (John 14:28)? Didn’t he also say: “I do not speak from Myself... the Father gave Me a commandment, what I will say and what I will speak” (John 12:49)? And also: “I have come down... not to do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 6:38)? The Father has another will, and another Son; so they reason! If they have separate wills, then why? says the Father: Let us create man, etc.? So they do not distinguish which sayings are appropriate for the Divinity and which for Man, Whom the Divinity bore upon Himself. You might be interested in: