On the Holy Symbol

The treatise “On the Holy Symbol” (end of 438) was written by St. Cyril of Alexandria in the form of a letter to the Syrian monks. The work dates back to the time of the dispute about Diodorus of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia and was compiled at the request of the “deacon and archimandrite” Maximus. The message was conveyed not only to the monks of Antioch, but also to the emperor. Theodosius II, empresses, Venerable. Akaki Melitinsky. St. Cyril notes that the condemnation of Nestorius at the Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus applies to all who taught the same as him, even if they lived “before him.” Most of the message is devoted to the question of the incarnation of God the Word and the refutation of the Antiochian teaching of “the two Sons.” The saint speaks of the unity of Christ and the assimilation by the Word of the flesh and redemptive suffering, rejects the Apollinarian terms “mixture” and “coexistence.” The author of the letter also writes about the Holy Spirit: He proceeds “as from His fountain from God the Father” and is given to creation “through the Son.” *The title of the work in Greek is Εἰς τὸ ἅγιον σύμβολον. To the chosen and beloved Athanasius, Alexander Martinian, John, Parigorios the presbyter, and Maximus the deacon, and other Orthodox monastic fathers, who together with you lead the monastic life and are confirmed in the faith of God, Cyril wishes every good thing in the Lord. Even now I cannot praise the care and diligence of your love only moderately, but I consider it worthy of all praise; because to love the Divine Scriptures and try to follow the holy dogmas is worthy of surprise. This brings endless and blissful life, and the labor incurred for this will not remain without retribution. For our Lord Jesus Christ says to the Heavenly Father and God: This “is the eternal life, that they may know Thee the only true God, and whom Jesus Christ sent” (John 17:3). Truly right and impeccable faith, which is accompanied by the light of good deeds, fills us with every good and brings brilliant glory to those who have it. But the light of affairs, if it is alien to right dogmas and intact faith, I think, will not bring any benefit to the human soul. For just as “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20), so the opposite is true. So, let the glory and integrity of faith shine together with an honest life. For in this way we will be perfect according to the law of the wise Moses. “Perfect,” he says, “that you may be before the Lord your God” (Deut. 18:13). And those who, out of recklessness, do not consider it necessary to have the right faith, although they are adorned with good deeds, are in some way similar to people with a noble face and slanting, wandering eyes, and therefore what is said by the Lord through the prophet about Jerusalem, the mother of the cities of Judah, applies to them: “Behold, thine eyes are not, lower than thy heart is good” (Jer. 22:17). Therefore, we must first of all have a sound mind and remember the words of Holy Scripture: “Let your eyes see rightly” (Proverbs 4:25). And direct vision of the eyes within the hidden ones consists in being able to discern sharply and accurately, as it should, the judgments pronounced about God. For we see in the mirror fortuitously and know in part (1 Cor. 13:12), but He who opens the abyss out of darkness (Job 12:22) will shed the light of truth on those who want to form correct knowledge about Him. Therefore, one must cry out to the Lord, as if reclining before him: “Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep into death” (Ps. 12:4), because to deviate from the correctness of the holy dogmas is nothing other than to clearly fall asleep into death; We deviate from such righteousness when we do not follow the God-inspired scriptures, but are carried away either by prejudices, or by zeal and attachment to those who hold faith incorrectly, when we begin to bend the power of our mind and harm, first of all, our souls. We must, therefore, agree with those who carefully examined the right faith according to the reason of the sacred sermons, which were handed down to us by the Holy Spirit, who in the beginning themselves saw and were teachers of the word, in whose footsteps even our most holy fathers learned to follow, who, having once gathered in Nicaea, composed the venerable universal symbol, with whom Christ himself sat, who said: “Where there are two or three gathered in My name, there I am.” in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20). For how can one doubt that Christ presided over this holy and ecumenical council, because here a certain foundation and foundation was solid, indestructible, and even extended to the entire universe, i.e. it is a holy and blameless confession. If this is so, then how could Christ be absent when He is the foundation, according to the words of the wise Paul: “No one can lay other foundations than he who lies down, which is Christ Jesus” (1 Cor. 3:11). Why was the faith they set forth and defined sacredly preserved by those who followed them - the holy fathers, and the shepherds of the people, and the luminaries of the Church, and the most skillful builders of the sacraments. And that nothing is left or omitted from what is necessary for benefit, everyone can see this in the confessions of the fathers, i.e. in the expositions of the right and intact faith, which they compiled for the denunciation and refutation of all heresies and ungodly blasphemies and for the strengthening and establishment of those who rightly hold the faith and to whom the star has risen with light and the day has shone (2 Pet. 1:19), as the Scripture says, and for the sake of holy baptism the light of truth is imparted. And since your piety has written that some people take what is contained in the symbol where it should not, either because they do not correctly understand the power of the words of the symbol, or because, having been carried away by the writings of some, they came to a false meaning, and, thus, it is necessary that I also offer you a word about these very subjects and clearly interpret the power of the presentation (of faith), then I considered it necessary to briefly express what has now come to me mind Then, moving on to a correct and impartial study of what the holy fathers said, we will constantly adhere to the order of their confessions and opinions. For the holy council itself - I mean the council that gathered in Ephesus by the will of God - having pronounced a correct and precise judgment on the false teaching of Nestorius, together with him condemned, under the condition of the same punishment and innovation, others who, after or before him, thinking the same way as him, dared to teach or write. Yes, it should be so: when someone is once condemned for ignorant innovations, then the condemnation should apply not to one, but to any, so to speak, heresy or blasphemy that the innovators composed against the pious dogmas of the Church, giving honor to two sons, dividing the indivisible and giving reason to accuse heaven and earth of human service; because together with us the holy host of heavenly spirits worships the one Lord Jesus Christ. And so that everyone knows the power of the symbol, content and preached in all the holy Churches of God, I included in my interpretations the very opinions of the holy fathers, or a statement of their opinions. Thus, those who listen or read these opinions will see how they should be understood in the presentation made by the holy fathers, or will understand the pure symbol of the right faith. I think that your love came across a book we wrote about this. Now, as I said, I will first present the literal symbol, and then turn to the clear interpretation of each of its words, because I know what the all-glorious Peter wrote: “Prepare... It is necessary to give an answer to everyone who asks you about the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Symbol of the Nicene Fathers: “We believe in one God, the Almighty Father, Creator of everything visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, i.e. from the essence of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, through whom everything happened both in heaven and on earth, for the sake of us men, and for the sake of our salvation, who descended, became incarnate and became man, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven and will come to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit. Those who say that there was a time when there was no (Son), that He did not exist before His birth and came from non-existence, or from another being or essence, or who claim that the Son of God is changeable or transmutable - such are anathematized by the Apostolic and Catholic Church. The Fathers said: “We believe in one God” - this is for the purpose of destroying at the very foundation, or in the depths, the opinions of the pagans, who, “professing to be wise, became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the corruptible image of man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things, ... having served the creature more than the Creator” (Rom. 1:22-25), served the elements of the world, having invented not only many, but also countless gods. That is why the fathers, in order to eradicate the errors of polytheism, call God one, without deviating at all from the Holy Scriptures and clearly showing the beauty of the truth to everyone living in the universe. The wise Moses did the same: he clearly says: “Hear to Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). And the Creator of the existence of everything and the Lord himself says: “Let you have no gods other than Me” (Ex. 20:3). He proclaims the same thing through the mouth of the holy prophets: “I am the first, and I am hereafter, besides Me there is no God” (Is. 44:6). That is why the all-praised fathers, in their intention to give a firm foundation to faith, namely, that one must both think and confess that God is one and unique by nature and in truth, beautifully said: “We believe in one God.” At the same time, they call God “Father Almighty,” so that by the mention of the Father they point to the Son, for whom He is the Father, the Son coexistent and coeternal with the Father, because God the Father did not become the Father in time, but always was what he is, i.e. Father, above all created things and in heights inaccessible. And that He holds everything and rules over everything - this means His bright and incomparable glory. By calling him “the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth,” the fathers thereby let us understand his dissimilarity with any creation, because the difference between the Creator and the creature, between the unborn and the begotten, between a subordinate, servile nature, and a nature adorned with sovereign virtues, having divine and premium glory, is incomparable. Further, having mentioned the Son, the fathers, so that it would not seem that they ascribe to Him a common name, which is also appropriated to us - and we are also called sons - very wisely add something from which one can see the dignity of His natural glory inherent in the Son - a dignity not inherent in any creation. The Fathers say that the Son is “begotten, and not made,” showing by the word “not made,” that He, by His very essence, is outside all creations, or, better, asserting that He was born from the being of God the Father, timeless and incomprehensible, because “in the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). Then, trying to explain birth in the best possible way, judging from a human perspective, for the sake of benefit, it is not superfluous to say about this, the fathers called the Son “God, born of God,” because where there is true birth, there, of course, according to all our considerations, we cannot imagine or say anything else, except that what is born cannot be different in essence from the one who gave birth, that the special, distinctive properties of the being of the one who gave birth must also belong to the one who is born, so how what is born comes from the being or essence of the one who gave birth in a manner decent and corresponding to this essence. The incorporeal, of course, does not give birth in the image of the corporeal, but the most closely indicated image of birth, characteristic of the incorporeal, is the origin of light from light: light, poured out by brilliant light, is thought of by us as nothing other than light; the origin of the latter from the former is mysterious and ineffable, and the latter is contained in the former due to unity and physical identity. That is why we say: “The Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son,” since the Son in His nature and in His glory represents the Father to us. The Son Himself said this clearly to one of His disciples, Philip: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? Seeing Me, seeing the Father. I and the Father are one” (John 14:9–10; John 10:30). Therefore, the Son is “consubstantial” with the Father. That is why it is believed that “the true God is born of the true God.” True, birth is also appropriated to creatures, according to what God said about the fleshly descendants of Israel: “They gave birth to sons and raised them up” (Is. 1:2), but creatures are awarded the name of those born according to the order of grace; about the Son, by nature, everything is said in the true sense, and not in a figurative sense, therefore He only says about Himself: “I am... the truth” (John 14:6), so that in relation to Him, whether anyone uses the word “birth” or the word “sonship”, he will not fall into a lie, because He is the truth. This is how the all-glorious secret leaders strengthen our children, constantly using the words “Father”, “Son”, “birth”, also saying that the true God has shone from the true God, light from light, so that we recognize birth as incorporeal and simple and coming from Him (the Father) and abiding in Him, and so that everyone (i.e. the Father and the Son) is thought to exist personally. For the Father is the Father, and not the Son; The Son is the begotten, not the Father; and with the identity of nature, each of Them is what it is. Having spoken about the Father as the Creator of everything visible and invisible, the fathers say that everything was created through the Son. By this they do not diminish the glory of the Son, as if attributing to Him only some participation in the creation of the world. Far from it. Is it possible to look for more and less where there is consubstantiality? But in the nature of God and the Father is the property that He does not produce anything and calls it into existence except through the Son in the Spirit - through the Son as His strength and wisdom, because it is written: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth is all their power” (Ps. 33:6). Likewise, the wise John, having said: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word,” necessarily added: “all things were made by Him, and without Him were nothing” (John 1:1-3). Having shown that the Son is consubstantial, equal in honor and equal in power to the Father, the fathers very opportunely then move on to His incarnation. They reveal the mystery of His economy in the flesh, fully comprehending that through this mystery alone the tradition of faith becomes perfect and completely sufficient. It is not enough for those who believe in the Son to harbor within themselves those feelings and thoughts that He, as God, was born of God the Father, is consubstantial with the Father, and is the “image of the hypostasis” of the Father (Heb. 1:3); they also need to know that for the salvation and life of all He descended to humiliation, took upon Himself the form of a servant, and became a man, being born in the flesh from a woman. That is why the fathers say: “For the sake of us, men, and for the sake of our salvation, who descended, became incarnate, became human.” Notice what a harmonious arrangement, what a beautiful order in the words of the fathers! They say “descended” so that we understand that this is the Lord, surpassing everything in nature and glory, and that He descended for us according to His desire, I say, to become like us and to shine in the world with the flesh, because in the book of Psalms it is written: “God will come, our God, and will not be silent” (Ps. 49:3). Anyone can understand “descent” differently, i.e. in the sense of descending from heaven, from above, or even from the Father himself, because Holy Scripture has the custom of expressing what exceeds our understanding in such words as we have in use. So, talking with His disciples, Jesus Christ said: “I departed from the Father, and came into the world, and again I leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16:28), also: “You are from below, I am from above,” and again: “I... am from God and come” (John 8:23, 42). The Divine John writes: “He who comes from above is above all” (John 3:31). Thus, existing in lofty heights, surpassing everything in His essence together with His Father, even crowned with the identity of nature with His Father, He (the Son) “not by the admiration of being equal to God, but He humbled Himself, receiving the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of humanity, and being found in the image of a man, He humbled Himself” ( Phil.2:6-8). Since God the Word, having taken on our flesh, remained God, that is why the most sacred Paul says that He became like us, men, and became like a man in appearance. And God, as I said, having clothed ourselves in our image, took upon Himself not soulless flesh, as some heretics like to philosophize, but animated by a rational soul. So, according to the mind of the holy fathers, the Word Himself, which came from the essence of the Father - the only begotten Son, true God from true God, light from light, He Himself through Whom everything received being - descended, became incarnate and became man, i.e. deigned to undergo birth from a wife and appear in our image - this means “to become human.” So, one and the same Jesus Christ, the very only-begotten Word of the Father, having become man, did not cease to be what it was; and in humanity He remained God, and in the form of a slave - the Master, and in our humiliation - with the fullness of the Divine, and in the weakness of the flesh - the Lord of powers, and in human measure - with all the properties that place Him above all creation. What It was before taking flesh remained the same after taking flesh, i.e. God, the true and only begotten Son, light, life and power; and what It was not before taking on the flesh, He took upon Himself according to the economy, because It took upon Himself everything that belonged to the flesh: the flesh He took on was not alien, but became His own flesh, incomprehensibly and ineffably accepted by Him into unity with Himself. That is why the wise John says: “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14), - flesh became flesh without transformation, or transformation, or change into the nature of the flesh, also without any impurity, or confusion, or coexistence disclosed by some (συνουσίωσις) - all this is impossible, because by its nature the Word is not subject to any transformation and change; It “became flesh”, having received flesh, animated by a rational soul, from a virgin and pure body and making it His own. And besides, it is the custom of the Inspired Scripture to sometimes call the whole person only flesh. Thus, it says: “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28). Of course, God announced that He would not send His Spirit to flesh alien to the rational soul, but to people consisting of soul and body. Therefore, the Word, without ceasing to be what it was, became a man, and also, appearing in our image, It remained the same Word. And here let there not be the thought that Christ first appeared as a man, and then achieved that he became God - no, God the Word became a man, so that He is both God and man together. Therefore, those who divide Him into two sons and dare to say that God the Word united himself with man, descended from the seed of David, imparted to this man the glory, honor and dignity of His sonship and prepared him to suffer death on the cross, resurrection, ascend into heaven and sit at the right hand of the Father, so that every creature may bow before him as one worthy of divine honors, firstly, they proclaim two sons and, secondly, they ignorantly pervert the power of the mystery. For, as I said, it was not Christ from man who became God, but God the Word became flesh, i.e. person. In the same way, His humiliation is spoken of because before His humiliation, He, as God, had all the fullness of Divinity in His own nature: it was not out of humiliation that He rose to the fullness of Divinity, but humbled Himself, descending from divine heights and ineffable glory; He was exalted not because he was glorified as a humble man. And He accepted the image of a slave as free, and did not pass from slavery into the glory of freedom. In human likeness He was in the image of God and equal to the Father, and not, being a man, He was enriched with the gift of being the image of God. And why pervert the doctrine of the economy and distort the truth contrary to all the inspired Scriptures, which, knowing God and the Son made man, everywhere call Him one? Thus, in the book of the universe, Moses wrote that the divine Jacob, having led his children across the stream of Jabbok and being left alone for the night, fought with man even until the morning and called that place “the sight of God.” “I saw God,” says Jacob, “God face to face, and my soul was saved. But the sun rose upon him, when the sight of God had passed away: but he was lame with his lash” (Gen. 32:30–31). God showed the patriarch that His only begotten Word would one day become man, and that Israel would oppose Him, and that they would do wrong to Him and would become, as it were, lame in relation to Him, as He speaks more clearly in the lyre of the psalmist: “The sons of strangers have lied to Me, the sons of strangers have promised, and are lame from their paths” ( Ps.17:45-46). This, I think, is indicated by the fact that Jacob became lame “with his lash.” In addition, note: although a man struggled with Jacob, he, in his own words, saw “God face to face” and calls His appearance “the appearance of God.” So the Word of God, having become man, was at the same time in the “image” of the Father as a spiritual, I say, His image and as completely unchangeable. That is why It, showing us that with the flesh in Him is the “image of the hypostasis” of the Father, said to Philip: “He who has seen Me, has seen the Father also” (John 14:9). Also, having met in the church a man who had been healed by Him, blind from birth, It asked him: “Do you believe in the Son of God?” Then, to the question of the man born blind who received his sight: “And who is it, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” It answered: “And you saw Him, and said to you, He is” (John 9:35–37). The blind man, who received his sight, saw Him not in a pure or incorporeal form, but in our human form, and believed in what he saw not as a son united with another son, but as the One by nature and in truth, who shone forth not without flesh for the earthly. Further, the divine Moses says in the blessed: “Give to Levi what was revealed to him, and the truth to his reverend husband, who was tempted by temptation, reproaching him at the water of discord: say to your father and to your mother: I have not seen you, and I have not known my brethren” (Deut. 33:8-9). The God of all things set up for Aaron a multi-colored subdir 1 . The wearing of a podir was appropriate and was assigned only to the bishop. On the podir, certain stones, 12 in number, were hung on the bishop’s chest, and in the middle of these stones were two more stones, bearing the names “appearance” and “truth.” Typical 12 stones signified the host of holy apostles surrounding Emmanuel, who is “appearance” and “truth,” because He showed us the truth, putting an end to worship in shadows and images. And that the only begotten Word of God, having given Himself for humanity, was also a bishop, can one doubt this, when the divine Paul wrote this: “Consider the messenger and saint of our confession Jesus Christ: this being is faithful to him who made him” (Heb. 3:1-2)? And the dignity of the priesthood, as is known, is not indecent to what is in human measure. It may be lower than the nature and glory of God the Word, but it is not inconsistent with His economy in the flesh. That is why Moses says: “Give it to Levi,” i.e. to the priest, “the truth revealed.” What Levi, or priest, he showed this with the words “Reverend Man,” because our Lord Jesus Christ did not commit sin; as a result of this, Paul writes about Him: “This is the kind of bishop that is fitting for us, reverent, gentle, undefiled, excommunicated from sinners, and exalted above heaven” (Heb. 7:26). “I tempted him with temptation, reproaching him at the waters of discord” (Deut. 33:8). Oh, amazing thing! Moses immediately calls the man named God, whom Israel grieved and tempted in the wilderness and by the waters of dissent, which he assures each of the words of the psalmist: “Open a stone in the desert, and give me water as in the depths of the depths: and I brought forth water from the stone, and brought down water like rivers.” What's next? “And having tempted God in your hearts... and slandering God, and deciding: food, will God be able to prepare a meal in the desert? Smite the stone, and the water flows, and the sweat floods: can he provide food and bread or prepare a meal for his people?” (Ps.77:15–16; Ps.78:18–20). So, you see how the Jews tempted the miracle-working God whom Moses called man. In the same sense, the divine Paul writes: “For the stone that follows is spiritual: the stone is Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4). Consequently, the husband, “his own reproach,” was the same one Whom the Israelites tempted before the incarnation. And this Son, before the incarnation, was not different from the Son who came from the seed of David, contrary to the opinion of those who dare to assert such a difference, but was one and the same - before the incarnation, the pure Word, and after birth from the Holy Virgin - incarnate and made man, as the holy and divine fathers wrote - this was also shown by Moses with the special sign of a “venerable husband.” It was as if someone, wanting instruction, asked Moses: what kind of man was he talking about, the man who, according to him, was tempted and reviled by the Israelites? And Moses, as if stretching out his hand, points to Jesus; he says: “Say to your father and your mother: you have not seen, neither have you known your brothers” (Deut. 33:9). Let us remember what one of the holy evangelists wrote. When one day Christ was teaching and secretly teaching some, and His Mother and brothers stood outside, and when one of the disciples, approaching Him, said: “Your mother and your brethren stand outside, wanting to see You,” then He, pointing with His hand at the disciples who were listening to Him, answered: “These are My mother and My brothers, who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:20-21). “Whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven is My brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). This, I think, means the words of Moses: “Say to your father and mother: I have not seen you, neither have you known my brethren.” And again, the wise Daniel says that he saw the only begotten Word of God in our image. He saw, according to him, “Old Day” sitting on the throne, saw “thousands of those” standing before Him and “thousands of thousands” serving Him. Then, having spoken about some other objects of his vision, Daniel adds: “I saw in a dream at night, and behold, like a son of man walking on the clouds of heaven, and even unto the Ancient of Days he came, and was brought before Him: and unto him was given... honor and a kingdom, and all... nations and nations shall serve him" (Dan. 7:9-10, 13–14 ). It is abundantly clear that Daniel saw Emmaiuel ascending to Heavenly Father and God. The heavenly cloud lifted Him up. And Daniel calls Him not just a man, but “like the son of man,” because God the Word was in an image similar to ours (Dan. 7:13). Understanding this in the same way, the wise Paul says that God the Word was in “the likeness of mankind... and was found in the likeness of man” (Phil. 2:7), and the earth-born saw Him in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3). If he were a person awarded divine honor only because of his closeness to God, then the prophet would say that he saw as if God or as if the Son of God walking on the clouds, but the prophet did not say so, but says that he saw “as a son of man” - therefore, he saw the Son as God and as made man, i.e. who was “in the likeness of humanity,” according to Paul. But, although the prophet saw Him in the flesh “as a son of man,” yet He “even reached the Ancient Day,” i.e. ascended again to the throne of the eternal Father. “And to him was given honor and a kingdom, and all the nations and nations would serve him.” Jesus Christ said the same thing: “Glorify Me, O Father, with Your own glory, since before You there was no peace” (John 17:5). And that the incarnate Word of God is co-throne and equal in honor even with the flesh to God and the Father, remaining one and the same Son even after His incarnation - this is clearly shown to us by the wise Paul when he writes: “Such are the imams of the high priest, who sits on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 8:1). And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself answered the question of the Jews: Is He truly the Christ? - says: “Even if I give you a river, you do not have faith; even if you ask, you do not answer Me... From now on the Son of Man will sit at the right hand of the power of God” (Luke 22:66-69). This means that another host of holy prophets saw the Son incarnate on the thrones of the Divine. Now let's look at the preachers of the New Testament, the universal masters of the secrets, to whom Christ Himself said: “It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you!” (Matthew 10:20) And now we meet the divine Baptist, who says: “For me he who comes before me is swift: for he was before me” (John 1:15). How then was he who came after the Baptist before him? Doesn’t everyone know that in terms of the time of carnal birth, John precedes Christ? How can the question be resolved? The question was resolved by the Savior himself, who said to the Jews: “Amen, amen, I say to you, before even Abraham was not" (John 8:58). It goes without saying that before Abraham He was in Godhead, and in humanity He appeared after Abraham. Then, although God the Father clearly declared: “My glory I will not give to another” (Is. 42:8), since there is no other God besides Him (Is. 45:5), yet Christ told us: “The Son of man... will come in the glory of the Father.” His own with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). And what we should expect for the coming of the Son of Man from heaven, the wise Paul writes about this: “He appeared... God’s saving grace to all mankind, chastening us, so that, having rejected ungodliness and worldly lusts, we may live chastely and righteously and godly in this present world: waiting for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13). And in another place, speaking of the fleshly descendants of Israel, Paul said: “Whose... are the covenants and the statutes... and the promises... and from these is Christ according to the flesh, who is God blessed above all forever, Amen” (Rom. 9:4-5). Continuing to follow steadily in the footsteps of the confession of the fathers, we say that the only begotten Son Himself, born of God the Father, or His Word Himself, became incarnate and became man, suffered, died, and rose from the dead on the third day. Without a doubt, the Word of God, by its own nature, is inaccessible to suffering. No one, of course, would be so foolish as to admit the idea that a nature that exceeds everything can be capable of suffering. But since It became man, having taken upon Himself flesh from the Holy Virgin, then, adhering to the doctrine of the economy, we affirm that in His own flesh He suffered according to humanity, Who, as God, is above all suffering. For, if God became man without ceasing to be God, if He became part of creation, remaining above all created things, if the Lawgiver, by divine dignity, was under the law, still retaining the dignity of a legislator, if the Ruler by Divinity took upon Himself the form of a servant, invariably retaining the dignity of His dominion, if the Only Begotten became “the firstborn of many brothers” (Rom. 8:29), remaining the only begotten, - what is strange in the fact that the one who suffered in the flesh according to humanity remained and confessed to be inaccessible to suffering according to the Divinity? So the wise Paul says that the same Word, who is the image of God the Father and equal to God the Father, was “obedient even to death, even death on the cross” (Phil. 2:8). In another of his epistle he speaks of the only begotten Son: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: for by him all things were created, both in heaven and on earth... . And He is before all, and all things are found in Him,” also: “And He is the head of the body of the Church, the firstfruits of those who have died, the firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:15–18). But the Word of God the Father is life and the creator of life as born from life, i.e. from His Father - how did He become “the firstborn from the dead and the firstfruits of those who died”? Here's how: having taken upon Himself flesh capable of accepting death, It, as the wise Paul says, “by the grace of God tasted death for all” (Heb. 2:9), “tasted” flesh capable of undergoing death, without ceasing to Itself be life. Therefore, he who confesses that It suffered in the flesh will not allow Him to suffer according to the Divine nature, but, as I said, accepts His suffering with His own flesh, which is capable of accepting suffering. Even the blessed prophet Isaiah, knowing that God, who had become man, would suffer in the flesh, said about Him: “Like a sheep led to the slaughter, and like a lamb that is silent before its shearers, so it does not open its mouth. In his humility his judgment will be taken: who can confess his generation? as if his belly were lifted from the ground” (Is. 53:7-8). True, the introducers of ungodly dogmas say: “Let someone become a man, let it be, in particular, the Son who is in unity with God - is there really such a simpleton who could not tell anything about His race? For the Son was of the seed of Jesse and David.” But the point is this: who is able to explain the birth, or, better, the way of birth of God the Word? “His belly will rise from the earth,” i.e. His visible presence (ύπαρξις). The Prophet, instead of “visible presence,” put “belly,” or life: It (the Word) ascends to heights, ascends above everything earthly; By its unspeakable nature, It is incomprehensible and completely inaccessible to human thoughts. Then to what has been said I will add this: “There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:5), as the most sacred Paul says. If “there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” who is this Lord and in whom have we believed and been baptized? Of course, everyone will say that in the highest degree, and to the same extent, it befits the Word of God the Father both dominion and our faith, and that saving baptism should be performed in Him, because He Himself commanded this to the holy apostles, saying to them: “Going... teach all languages, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Yes, and the divine Paul presents to us in the light the glory of dominion, the confession of faith and the power of holy baptism when he says: “Do not say in your heart: Who will ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ together. Or: who will go down into the abyss? that is, to raise Christ from the dead. But what does the scripture say? Near is the verb in your mouth, and in your heart... . If you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:6-9). He also writes: “Or do you not understand, just as we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized into His death?” ( Rom. 6:3 ) Thus it is evident that the apostle wisely refers the profession of dominion and faith, as well as the grace of holy baptism, to him who has suffered death and been raised from the dead. Do we really believe in two sons? Shall we, ignoring the Word that shone forth from God the Father, appropriate as another son, distinct from Him, who endured suffering, the glory of dominion, the confession of faith, and heavenly baptism? Isn’t it stupid and, even more, not downright wicked to think or speak like that? What should we say? It is true that “there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” since there is one Son and Lord, not because the Word took a special person into unity with Himself, made this person a participant in His own merits, imparted to him His sonship and His dominion, as some madmen say and even wrote, but because the Word Himself from God, like light from light, became man and became incarnate. We were baptized into the death of the Word, who suffered according to humanity in His own flesh, but according to Divinity is inaccessible to suffering and eternally alive, because It is life from life, i.e. from God and the Father. In this way, our damage is corrected, and the dominion of death over us is weakened. That is why Christ said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you” (John 6:53). This means that the holy body and holy blood of Christ are life-giving. And His body is not, as I said, the body of some other person, perceived by Him, life, into unity with Himself, but the body of Himself, life itself by nature - the body of the Only Begotten Himself. The Christ-loving host of holy fathers, as well as our most reverend and most godly brother and co-bishop Proclus, who now adorns the throne of the holy Church of Constantinople, think the same with us. This is what he wrote to the most God-loving eastern bishops: “An alien of every kind is incarnated without any change; born according to the flesh without beginning; he who is all-perfect by nature “advances in age” (Luke 2:52) in body; He who exceeds suffering undergoes suffering, enduring reproach not in His pure form, but accepting the suffering of the body in the image He has assumed.” So, those who think differently and write differently are thus exposed in their treachery, which everywhere stems from ignorance and therefore disagrees with the dogmas of truth. Having finished their speech about Christ, the blessed fathers mention the Holy Spirit. They said that they believe in the Holy Spirit in the same way as in the Father and the Son, because He is consubstantial with Them, is poured out, i.e. comes, as from its source, from God the Father and is communicated to creation through the Son. Thus, the Son breathed the Holy Spirit into the holy apostles, saying: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). So, the Spirit is from God and is God; he is not different from the Being that exceeds everything, but from Him, in Him and to Him inalienably belongs. Here is a direct faith, alien to any error, or a direct and infallible confession of the faith of the holy fathers! But Paul also said: “The God of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ will not shine upon them” (2 Cor. 4:4). Therefore, some, leaving the straight path of truth, are dashed against the rocks, “not understanding the things they say, or the things they affirm” (1 Tim. 1:7). Attributing the glory of sonship only to the Word, begotten of God the Father, they say that it was as if another son from the seed of David and Jesse was united with Him, became a participant in His sonship and divine honor, as His abode, and received everything from Him, but has nothing of its own. About such people, I think, the disciples of the Savior wrote: “There are men who have considered the wickedness of ancient times to this condemnation, turning the grace of our God into defilement, and rejecting the only Master God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4). No, Jesus Christ is truly called the Word manifested in human form. People of the opposite opinion, who, out of great foolishness, were not afraid to think and speak in the same way with Nestorius and Theodore, answer the questioners this way: you do not recognize as God and the true Son of God and the Father born of the Holy Virgin, attributing suffering to him alone and separating him from God the Word, so as not to call God subject to suffering. Such are the inventions of their excessive jealousy, such are their current opinions. Therefore, the Word of God the Father should not be called Christ (anointed) in the literal sense. Just as suffering is not characteristic of Him when It is conceived outside the flesh, so anointing is not characteristic and alien to Him. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 10:38), and the Word of God is completely perfect and has no need for anointing from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, you reject the economy (salvation) and take away from the Only Begotten the love for the world, just so that you do not call Him Christ. Was it worthy for Him to appear in the measure of our nature? And since this is unworthy of Him, no one should confess that He became a man. Christ will also tell you: “You are deceived, not knowing the Scripture or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). So, recognizing as enemies of the truth those who would instill anything similar to this, let us avoid their disastrous innovations, let us rather adhere to the teachings of the holy fathers and the tradition of the holy apostles and evangelists, because through them the Word made man himself spoke, through whom and with whom to God and the Father there is honor, glory, power, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Podir is a long bishop's robe (see Ex. 28:4, 13–35). You might be interested in: