The divine apostle immediately in the prologue demonstrates that Christ is better than all the prophets. Beginning with the divine nature, he shows him to be eternal—coeternal with the Father and the Creator of all. Next, contrasting him with the angels, he turns to sacred Scripture, which openly teaches that Christ is Son and God, while angels are ministers and creatures. He proceeds to show that the dispensation of our Lord Christ is greater than that of Moses, for Moses gave the Old Testament but Christ gave the New, which was promised through the prophets of old. The former promised that Palestine would be given; the latter, the kingdom of heaven. He compares the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek with the Levitical priesthood and demonstrates its superiority and excellence. In addition, he shows that even those who lived before the law or under the law and were nourished by piety were distinguished because of their faith. He speaks of them and their sufferings and courage, encouraging his hearers, who were in grave danger. Then, reminding his hearers of their own struggles and exhorting them to stand steadfast to the end and weaving together moral exhortation with doctrine, he closes the epistle.

In many and various ways God spoke, in the first place, to our fathers by the prophets. In fact, he evidently spoke in various and mutable manners to Noah, Abraham and Moses and to the people in the desert, appearing to them under the diverse guises of an old man, a giant and other characters.

The phrase in many ways, of course, indicates the manifold dispensations, various ways, the different kinds of divine visions. He appeared to Abraham in one way, to Moses in another, to Elijah in another, to Micaiah in another.^[1] Isaiah, Daniel and Ezekiel saw him under different guises. To bring this out the God of all said, It was I who multiplied visions, and took visible form at the hands of the inspired authors.^[2] After all, the divine nature is not pluriform, but without either shape or appearance, simple and uncomplicated. It was, therefore, not the incomprehensible nature that they saw but guises of some kind, which the unseen God revealed as need required. The phrase in many ways, of course, implies something else as well, that each of the inspired authors was entrusted with some particular dispensation, whereas their God—I mean Christ the Lord—did not provide for some single need, but by becoming man he set all to rights and secured the salvation of human beings. It became obvious, of course, that there is one lawgiver of the old and new.

In many ways, that is, according to the differences of the times in which the promises concerning us were imparted, such as at the creation of Adam, at the time of Cain, in the days of Noah, at the time of Abraham, at the time before the law, at the time after the law. For many are the manners of God’s administration on our behalf. And in a variety of ways, because one commandment was given to Adam, another to Noah, yet another to Abraham, and another through Moses, and yet different ones through the prophets.

Holy Scripture teaches that God was seen by Israel dimly, meaning the Word of God. In the book of Numbers Moses prays, saying, Since you are the Lord of this people who is seen by them face to face.^[1] . . . And it is said in Exodus, Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel.^[2] . . .

From the text, No one has ever seen God,^[3] perhaps it might be thought that the above quotations contradict the Savior’s words, implying that the invisible is visible. But if they are understood . . . as the Word of God, who was seen by the fathers in many ways and various ways, no contradiction is involved. The God of Israel here seen is shown to be the same being who was seen by Israel, when he wrestled with the one who first changed his name from Jacob to Israel, saying, You have striven with God.^[4] And when also Jacob, appreciating God’s divine power, called the place of the struggle the Sight of God, saying, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved^[5] . . . this was no other than the Word of God.

Those who are ready to toil in the most excellent pursuits will not desist from the search after truth until they have evidence from the Scriptures themselves. . . . Now all people have the same judgment. Some, following the Word, frame for themselves proofs. Others, giving themselves up to pleasures, wrest Scripture according to their lusts. . . . We have, as the source of teaching, the Lord, by the prophets, the gospel, and the blessed apostles in many and various ways leading from the beginning of knowledge to the end. . . . Thus we may not give our assent to people on a bare statement by them, who might equally state the opposite. . . . Rather, we establish the matter that is in question by the voice of the Lord, which is the surest of all demonstrations or rather is the only demonstration, in which knowledge those who have merely tasted the Scriptures are believers. On the other hand, those who have advanced further and have become correct expounders of the truth are Gnostics. As, in what pertains to life, craftsmen are superior to ordinary people and model what is beyond common notions, so, consequently, we also persuade from faith by demonstration, giving a complete exhibition of the Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves. Those who follow heresies also venture to avail themselves of the prophetic Scriptures; however, they will not make use of all the Scriptures, and they will not quote them entirely, nor as the body and texture of prophecy prescribe. Instead, selecting ambiguous expressions, they wrest them to their own opinions, gathering a few expressions here and there. They do not look to the sense of the words but simply make use of the words themselves. For in almost all the quotations they make you will find that they attend to the names alone, while they alter the meanings. They neither know as they claim to nor use the quotations they cite according to their true nature. However, the truth is not found by changing the meanings—for so people subvert all true teaching—but in the consideration of what perfectly belongs to and becomes the sovereign God and in the corroboration of each point demonstrated in the Scriptures from similar Scriptures.

Christ is called Wisdom by all the prophets. This is he who is the teacher of all created beings, the fellow counselor of God who foreknew all things; and he from above, from the first foundation of the world, in many and various ways trains and perfects; hence it is rightly said, Call no one your teacher on earth.^[1]

And again, it is written expressly in the name of the Lord, And speak to all that are wise in mind, whom I have filled with the spirit of perception.^[1] Those who are wise in mind have a certain attribute of nature peculiar to themselves. And they who have shown themselves capable receive from the supreme Wisdom a spirit of perception in double measure. For those who practice the common arts are highly gifted in what pertains to the senses: in hearing, those who are commonly called musicians; in touch, those who mold clay; in voice, the singers; in smell, the perfumers; in sight, the engravers of devices on seals. Those that are occupied in instruction train the sensibility according to which the poets are susceptible to the influence of measure; the sophists apprehend expression; the dialecticians, syllogisms; and the philosophers are capable of the contemplation of which they themselves are the objects. For sensibility finds and invents, since it persuasively exhorts to application. And practice will increase the application which has knowledge for its end. With reason, therefore, the apostle has called the wisdom of God manifold, and it has manifested its power in many and various ways—by art, by knowledge, by faith, by prophecy—for our benefit. All wisdom is from the Lord and is with him forever,^[2] as says the Wisdom of Jesus.

You see, those old sacrifices of the people of God also represented in a variety of ways this single one that was to come. Christ himself, I mean, was both a sheep, because of his innocence and simplicity of soul, and a goat because of the likeness of sinful flesh.^[1] And whatever else was foretold in many and various ways in the sacrifices of the old covenant refers to this single one which has been revealed in the new covenant.

Truly, as Paul says in Romans, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.^[1] He intimates this here also, in the very beginning of his epistle to the Hebrews, for it was likely that they [the recipients of the law] were afflicted and worn out by evils, and, judging things from that perspective, they would think themselves worse off than all other people. He shows here that they had rather been made partakers of a greater, even very exceeding, grace. Thus, with these words he arouses the hearer at the very opening of his discourse, saying, God . . . in these last days . . . has spoken to us by a Son.

The apostle did well to begin, In many and various ways, for he points out that not even the prophets themselves saw God. Nevertheless, the Son saw him. For the expression in many and various ways is the same as in various ways. It was I, says he, who multiplied visions and through the prophets gave parables.^[1] The excellence consists not in this alone, that to them prophets were sent, while to us was sent the Son. Rather, the excellence consists in that none of them saw God, but the only begotten Son saw God. The apostle does not at once assert this, but by what he says afterwards he establishes it, when he says, concerning Christ’s human nature, For to what angel did God ever say, ‘You are my Son,’^[2] and, Sit at my right hand?^[3]

The God proclaimed by the Old Testament and the New is the one who is celebrated and glorified in Trinity, for the Lord said, I have come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill.^[1] For he worked our salvation, for the sake of which all Scripture and every mystery has been revealed. Again, Search the Scriptures, for it is they that bear witness to me.^[2] And the apostle too says, In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son. Through the Holy Spirit, then, both the law and the prophets, evangelists, apostles, pastors and teachers spoke. Therefore, all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable,^[3] so that to search the sacred Scripture is very good and most profitable for the soul.

And the expressions of old and in these last days foreshadow some other meaning; when a long time had intervened, when we were on the edge of punishment, when the gifts had failed, when there was no expectation of deliverance, when we were expecting to have less than all—it was then that we were given more.

Paul says, through whom he made the worlds,^[1] that is, both the spiritual and material worlds.

He spoke of the Son as creator of the ages^[1] to bring out that he is eternal and to teach us that he was always beyond any temporal interval whatsoever. In these terms the Old Testament speaks of the God and Father as the one existing before the ages, that is, the one who always is.^[2]

He made the ages who exists before the ages, of whom the divine David says, From everlasting to everlasting you are^[1] and the divine apostle, By whom he made the ages.^[2]

Now one should note that the term age has several meanings, because it signifies a great many things. The span of life of every person is called an age, and a period of one thousand years is called an age. Moreover, this whole present life is called an age, and so is the age without end to come after the resurrection.^[3] Again, that is called an age which is neither time nor any division of time measured by the course and motion of the sun, that is, made up of days and nights; but it is coextensive with eternal things after the fashion of some sort of temporal period and interval. This kind of age is to eternal things exactly what time is to temporal things.

Through whom also he made the ages. An age is not a nature that is able to exist in substance but is understood to be a certain interval. This interval can be perceived from its having a beginning of existence until its end or until some other age has likewise taken its beginning. . . . The creator of the ages means nothing different than everlasting, existing beyond every age, having his own limitless existence. For the maker exists before the things which are made, but an interval of time must be perceived by its having a beginning. . . . When blessed David says, Who exists before the ages,^[1] he does not wish this to say that God exists before the latter ages, but that God has eternal existence, being earlier than every interval of time. When Paul says, through whom God also made the ages, Paul does not wish God to be the creator of the later ages but to be eternal and the cause of all ages that have a beginning.

For at the end of the ages the Son himself spoke to us through himself. No longer through the mediation of a prophet or the voice of saints but through himself, the only begotten, by being born into our condition, spoke with us. And we say that the Father spoke in the Son, not as through a human being somehow established as a special kind of mediator or as one declaring a message to us which was not his own but another’s. Rather, the Son spoke to us in his own voice through his own body. For the flesh belonged to the only begotten and not to anyone else. Though God by nature, he became human while remaining God.

He said, in these last days, for by this he both stirs up and encourages those despairing of the future. For as he says also in another place, The Lord is at hand; have no anxiety about anything,^[1] and again, For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.^[2] So also here. What then does he say? That whoever is spent in the conflict, hearing of the end of it, recovers his breath a little, knowing that it is the end indeed of his labors and the beginning of his rest.

Whom he appointed heir of all things. The divine apostle began with human beings, and after speaking first of the lowlier things he thus lays hold of the greater. In other words, Christ the Lord is heir of all things, not as God, but as man: as God he is maker of all things, and the creator of all things is Lord of all by nature, whereas the heir is made master of what he was previously not lord. In like manner the believers are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ^[1]: by grace they receive what they did not have before.

He spoke to us in^[1] his Son, instead of by the Son. For he did not speak in him as an instrument but rather through him as one indwelling the flesh. . . . For when he had said, He has spoken to us in his Son whom he appointed as an heir—not created as an heir—he applied the word to his existence before the ages. And he does this intelligently, now leading us up into theology, now bringing us down into the incarnation.

Whom he appointed the heir of all. Of what? Of all those who approach the undefiled divine nature. Indeed, the Son is the heir and partaker of the Father’s nature, dominion and power. If the Son is the heir of the Father’s attributes, it is necessary to explain, in what way. Through him, it says, he also created the ages [the world]. If the creation is a mutual deed of the Father and of the Son, then all that is in the world is also a shared property of the Father and the Son. If all in the spiritual universe belongs to both of them, then that is also true of what was created after the spiritual universe, that is, our world (cosmos) and everything in it. Yet in order that you would not dare to interpret heir as according to grace or favor rather than according to birth and nature, he adds, who is the reflection of [God’s] glory. The author had in mind to prevent you from a simpleminded yet ungodly conclusion after he stated that the Father appointed him an heir. I believe that appointed does not signify production or creation of the heir yet indicates relationship between the Son and the Father, who is the cause according to nature of their unity and convergence. [The writer does this] so that it would not appear as if the Son is deprived of the fatherly bond by his origin and hence the Father and the Son are two separate and unrelated entities. . . . He speaks in very clear terms, the very stamp of his nature, that is he [the Son] shares the same nature and mode of existence, that is he is God, all-powerful, omnipotent, creator, and shares in all other attributes of the Father, except that the Father is always the Father and the Son is always the Son. Therefore, everything is created, sustained and directed by his almighty word. See, he is truly the heir, as the Father handed everything to him.

He, who first spoke through patriarchs and prophets, afterwards spoke in his own person. As the Song of Songs says, that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.^[1] He is saying, therefore, Now, in my own person, I speak of him of whom I spoke through the prophets. The world could not hear him in his thundering, but may it hear him, at least, in his crying.

The fame of Anthony came even unto kings, for Constantine Augustus and his sons . . . wrote letters to him as to a father and begged an answer from him. He made nothing very much of the letters, nor did he rejoice at the messages; rather, he was the same as he had been before the emperors wrote to him. But when they brought him the letters, he called the monks and said, Do not be astonished if an emperor writes to us, for he is a man. Wonder rather that God wrote the law for men and has spoken to us through his own Son. And so he was unwilling to receive the letters, saying that he did not know how to write an answer to such things. But at the urgings of the monks because the emperors were Christians and lest the emperors take offense on the ground that they had been spurned, he consented that the letters be read. And he wrote an answer approving of them because they worshiped Christ, and he gave them counsel on things pertaining to salvation: not to think much of the present, but rather to remember the judgment that is coming, and to know that Christ alone was the true and eternal king. He begged them to be merciful and to give heed to justice and the poor. Having received the answer, they rejoiced. Thus he was dear to all, and all desired to consider him as a father. LIFE OF ST.

He does not say, God spoke to us in the Son but simply in a Son. By saying this and making no separation, he was able to signify both in a single expression. First of all, he signifies the true Son, and by true Son I mean the one who possesses sonship by his natural birth. In the second place, he also includes in this designation the one who shares truly in the dignity of sonship because of his union with God.

He clearly brought out the difference between Christ the Lord and the prophets, calling him alone Son. The opening resembles the parable of the Lord: in telling the parable about the vineyard to the Jews, the Lord showed that slaves were first sent to the wicked farmers, then after their murder a son arrived.^[1]

In my opinion, the Son is the reflection of the total glory of God, according to Paul who said, He reflects the glory of God, anticipating, however, a partial reflection on the rest of the rational creation from this reflection of the total glory. For I do not think that anyone except the Son can contain the whole reflection of the full glory of God.

I am the light of the world.^[1] Therefore the apostle uses the word radiance,^[2] showing that this was said in the sense of Light of Light. Nor is it this alone which he shows, but also that he has enlightened our souls.

The majesty of the Father is expressly imaged in the greatness of the power of the Son, that the one may be believed to be as great as the other is known to be. Again, as the radiance of light sheds its brilliance from the whole of the sun’s disk . . . so too all the glory which the Father has is shed from its whole by means of the brightness that comes from it, that is, by the true Light. Even as the ray is of the sun—for there would be no ray if the sun were not—the sun is never conceived as existing by itself without the ray of brightness that is shed from it. So the apostle delivered to us the continuity and eternity of that existence which the Only Begotten has of the Father, calling the Son the brightness of God’s glory.

Who, being the radiance of glory and the exact representation of his substance. Quite appropriately he does not say God but glory. In this way he does not allow us to meddle in the things of that nature when we are thunderstruck by his name, since of course the only glory worth mentioning is God’s nature. Paul uses the analogy of radiance for that which he deemed most essential, and by the next phrase he explicates the point of the analogy. For he says that Christ preserves an accurate representation of God’s nature, so that whatever you would think God’s nature to be, so you must also think Christ’s nature to be, inasmuch as Christ’s nature bears the accurate representation of God’s nature since Christ’s nature does not differ from God’s in the least.

The Spirit in the essence of divinity is Father, Son and Holy Spirit and is properly called one God. But according to the distinction of the persons, the Father’s unique characteristic is that he is by nature without a beginning, and he begot the Son before the ages. It is the unique characteristic of the Son that he is, as an essential part of his nature, begotten by the Father. It is the unique characteristic of the Spirit that he proceeds from the Father and the Son. Their eternity and power, equally part of the essence of each person, performs everything that the Godhead desires in heaven and earth by inexpressible love and cooperation. Although these things are presently understood as incomprehensible and unexplainable to us in their essential nature, still many of the Fathers propose a certain comparison with physical and existent objects. We find these three properties in the sun: first, there is a bodily substance, which is the sun. Then there is the brightness of the sun that remains in it. Third, is the heat that comes forth even to us from its brightness. If there is even any comparison for such a great matter that can be devised, I think that this comparison should be construed in this way: the bodily substance in the sun could be understood as the person of the Father. The brightness that is in the sun could stand for the person of the Son in the Trinity, as the Apostle says: the brightness of his glory. The heat in the sun could be understood as the person of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, as one reads in Scripture: Who is able to hide himself from his heat?^[1]

The glory is eternal. Therefore, the brightness is also eternal. Brightness is of the same nature as fire. Therefore, the Son is of the same nature as the Father. And since the metaphor of brightness so manifestly demonstrates their coeternity and consubstantiality, he allows an opportunity for those sick with the blasphemy of Sabellius and Photinus, according to which the brightness does not subsist by itself. By another metaphor he excludes this blasphemy, for he goes on to say and the very stamp of his nature.

Indeed, there is a great deal of similarity [between the opening of John’s Gospel and] the apostle’s statement. After Paul calls him the brightness of his glory, he adds, the very stamp of his nature. With great care he turns from a statement of their distinction^[1] to an indication of their perfect likeness.^[2]

Seeking to present more clearly that the Word was begotten of the essence of the Father, he makes mention of the radiance. For the radiance is from the essence of that of which it is an efflux of light, and it is continuously conceived both from it and never apart from that of which it is the radiance. But since radiance implies a lesser nature than that of which it is the radiance and existence not in the same nature, he uses a different word and states that Christ is the exact image of his nature. The first phrase (radiance of his glory) demonstrates that Christ cannot be separated from the essence as God; the second phrase (exact image of his nature) proves that he is not without God’s nature. For just as John, calling Christ the Word, adds, he was with God and was God,^[1] so also Paul, having said radiance, added, and the exact image of his nature.

He is the Father of glory in that Paul is accustomed to use the word glory to refer to the divine nature, because it is glorious and marvelous. So in Hebrews he says the Son is the brightness of his glory. Instead of this he might have said God^[1] or divine nature.

As the apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says, who being the brightness of his glory and the stamp of his nature, and David too in the eighty-ninth Psalm, And the brightness of the Lord be upon us,^[1] and in your light shall we see light.^[2] Who has so little sense as to doubt the eternity of the Son? For when did anyone see light without the brightness of its radiance, that one may say of the Son, There was once when he was not, or Before his generation he was not. And the words addressed to the Son in the hundred and forty-fourth Psalm, Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,^[3] forbid anyone to imagine any interval at all in which the Word did not exist.

Since we recognize two natures in Christ, one divine and the other human, the divine by nature but the human in the incarnation, we accordingly claim for the Godhead that which is eternal, and that which is created we ascribe to his human nature. For as, according to the prophet, he was formed in the womb as a servant, so also, according to Solomon, he was manifested in the flesh by means of this servile creation. But when [the Arians] say, If he was, he was not begotten, and, if he was begotten, he was not, let them learn that it is not fitting to ascribe to his divine nature the attributes which belong to his fleshly origin. For bodies that do not exist are generated, and God makes those things to be that are not. But does not he come into being from that which is not? For this reason also Paul calls him the brightness of glory. He does this so that we may learn that, just as the light from the lamp is of the nature of that which sheds the brightness and is united with it (for as soon as the lamp appears the light that comes from it shines out simultaneously), in like manner the Son is related to the Father, and the Father is never without the Son. It is impossible that glory should be without radiance, as it is impossible that the lamp should be without brightness. It is clear that his being brightness is a testimony to his being in relation with the glory, for if the glory did not exist, the brightness shed from it would not exist. Therefore, to say that the brightness once was not is a declaration that once the glory also was not, that is, when the brightness was not, for it is impossible that the glory should be without the brightness. As therefore it is not possible to say in the case of the brightness, If it was, it did not come into being, and, if it came into being, it was not, so it is in vain to say this of the Son, seeing that the Son is the brightness. Let those who speak of less and greater, in the case of the Father and the Son, learn from Paul not to measure things immeasurable. For the apostle says that the Son is the express image of the person of the Father. It is clear then that, however great the person of the Father is, so great also is the express image of that person, for it is not possible that the express image should be less than the person contemplated in it. And this the great John also teaches when he says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.^[1] For in saying that he was in the beginning and not after the beginning, he showed that the beginning was never without the Word. In declaring that the Word was with God, he signified the absence of defect in the Son in relation to the Father, for the Word is contemplated as a whole together with the whole being of God. For if the Word were deficient in his own greatness so as not to be capable of relation with the whole being of God, we are compelled to suppose that that part of God which extends beyond the Word is without the Word. But in fact the whole magnitude of the Word is contemplated together with the whole magnitude of God, and consequently, in statements concerning the divine nature, it is not admissible to speak of greater and less.

We ought to receive all things with faith and reverence, and, when our discourse fails through weakness and is not able to set forth accurately the things that are spoken, then we ought especially to glorify God, in that we have such a God, surpassing both our thought and our conception. For many of our conceptions about God we are unable to express, and many things we express but do not have strength to conceive. For instance, that God is everywhere we know, but how we do not understand. That there is a certain incorporeal power, the cause of all our good things, we know, but how it is or what it is, we know not. We speak and do not understand! I said that he is everywhere, but I do not understand it. I said that he is without beginning, but I do not understand it. I said that he begot from himself, and again I know not how I shall understand it. And some things there are that we may not even speak—as, for instance, that thought conceives but cannot utter.

And to show you that even Paul is weak and does not put out his illustrations with exactness, and to make you tremble and refrain from searching too far, hear what he says, having called him Son and named him Creator, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person.^[1]

Now this Son was begotten of the Father’s will, for he is the image of the invisible God^[1] and the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of God’s substance. . . . Let those who dare to say, There was a time when the Son was not^[2] understand that this is what they are saying: Once wisdom did not exist, and word did not exist, and life did not exist. But it is not right, nor is it safe for us, in our weakness to rob God . . . of God’s only begotten Word, who ever dwells with God, who is God’s wisdom, in whom God rejoiced.^[3] For if we do this, we shall think of God as not always rejoicing.

That is why Paul also says, Who is the radiance of his glory, lest someone who had heard the words he was in the form of God^[1] should conjecture that his divine nature is transitory and has been altered.

The apostle Paul says, that the only begotten Son is . . . the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person. Now, we find in the treatise called the Wisdom of Solomon the following description of the wisdom of God: For she is the breath of the power of God, and the purest emanation of the glory of the Almighty.^[1] Nothing that is polluted can therefore come upon her, for she is the splendor of the eternal light, the stainless mirror of God’s working and the image of his goodness. Now we say, as before, that Wisdom has her existence nowhere else but in him who is the beginning of all things, from whom also is derived everything that is wise, because he himself is the only one who is by nature a Son, and is therefore called the Only Begotten.

I wish and I pray that I may follow the footprints of the holy fathers, and I earnestly desire to keep undefiled the evangelic teaching that was in sum delivered to us by the holy fathers assembled in council at the Bithynian Nicaea. I believe that there is one God the Father and one Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father. Also that there is one Lord Jesus Christ, only- begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, brightness of his glory and express image of the Father’s person, on account of humanity’s salvation incarnate and made human and born of Mary the virgin in the flesh. For so are we taught by the wise Paul . . . , Concerning his Son who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness.^[1] On this account we also call the holy virgin Theotokos^[2] and deem those who object to this appellation to be alienated from true religion.

Does not the divine Word [Scripture] indicate to us that the Son exists in the form of God,^[1] and does it not say that he is the image and stamp of the one who begot him?

There are two coinages, the one of God, the other of the world, and each has its own stamp impressed on it. Similarly, the unbelievers bear the stamp of this world, and the believers the stamp of God the Father in love through Jesus Christ. Unless we willingly choose to die through him in his passion, his life is not in us.

In order . . . to more completely understand how the Savior is the figure of the person or subsistence of God, let us use an illustration. While it does not describe the subject of which we are treating either fully or appropriately, it may nevertheless be employed for this purpose only: to show that when the Son of God, who was in the form of God, emptied himself,^[1] his object was to display to us by this very emptying the fullness of his deity. For instance, suppose that there were a statue of so enormous a size as to fill the whole world, and because of this could be seen by no one. If another statue were formed altogether resembling it in the shape of the limbs, and in the outline of features, and in form and material, but without the same immensity of size, then those who were unable to behold the one of enormous proportions, should, on seeing the latter, acknowledge that they had seen the former, because it preserved all the features of its limbs and appearance, and even the very form and material, so closely as to be altogether undistinguishable from it.

Who that has heard the words of John, In the beginning was the Word,^[1] will not denounce the saying of [Arius and his followers] that there was a time when he was not? Or who that has heard in the Gospel, the only begotten Son and all things came into being through him,^[2] will not detest their declaration that he is one of the things that were made? For how can he be one of those things that were made by himself? Or how can he be the only begotten, when, according to them, he is counted as one among the rest, since he is himself a creature and a work? And how can he be made of things that were not, when the Father says, My heart has uttered a good Word,^[3] and Out of the womb I have begotten you before the morning star?^[4] Or again, how is he unlike in substance to the Father, seeing he is the perfect image and brightness of the Father, and that he says, He who has seen me has seen the Father?^[5] And if the Son is the Word and Wisdom of God, how was there a time when he was not? It is the same as if they should say that God was once without Word and without Wisdom. And how is he subject to change and variation who says by himself, I am in the Father, and the Father in me,^[6] and I and the Father are one;^[7] and who by the prophet says, I the Lord do not change?^[8] For although one may refer this expression to the Father, yet it may now be more aptly spoken of the Word, that, though he has been made man, he has not changed. But as the apostle has said, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.^[9] And who can have persuaded them to say that he was made for us, for Paul writes, for whom and by whom all things exist?^[10]

Therefore, he is true God, existing consubstantially (homoousios) with the true Father, while other beings to whom he said, I say, ‘you are gods,’^[1] have this grace from the Father only by participation in the Word through the Spirit. For he is the very stamp of the Father’s being, and light from light, and the power and true image of the Father’s substance.

Every grace is given by the Father through the Son, who also acts together with the Holy Spirit. There are not some graces that come from the Father and different graces from the Son and others again from the Holy Spirit. There is but one salvation, one giving of power, one faith; and yet there is one God the Father, our Lord, his only begotten Son, and one Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. Let us be content with this knowledge and not busy ourselves with questions about the divine nature or hypostasis. I would have spoken of that had it been contained in Scripture. Let us not venture where Scripture does not lead, for it suffices for our salvation to know that there is Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

When he was asking how to give a name to what cannot be grasped in thought and did not discover a word expressing an interpretation of the incomprehensible, he called glory and substance whatever underlies all good and is not sufficiently known or spoken of. The underlying essence of being he dismissed as unnamable. However, interpreting the unity and inseparability of the Son and the Father, and the Son’s being contemplated indefinably and invisibly with the indefinable and unseen Father, he addressed him as radiance of glory and image of substance, indicating the unity of their nature by the word radiance and their equality by the word image. For, in connection with a radiant nature, there is no middle point in a beam of light, nor is there an inferior part of an image in connection with a substance determined by it. The observer of the radiant nature will know the radiance in its entirety, and the person comprehending the size of the substance measures it in its entirety with its accompanying image.

The Greeks call to be ousian (substance) or hypostasin; we call it in Latin by one term, substance; and a few Greeks use ousian (substance) and rarely; all use hypostasin (hypostasis). Certainly one differs from the other, but for the moment let us omit this.

The divine Scripture has often used hypostasin in Greek, substance in Latin. And it has said of the substance of God in the prophet Jeremiah that if they had stood in the substance of the Lord they would have seen my word.^[1] But what is it to stand in the substance? To know the substance of God, which is true light, which is infinite Spirit. If they had known that, they would have known the Logos of the Lord; that is, they would have seen the word of the Lord. And shortly after, the same Jeremiah uses the same words.

David says, And my substance is in the lower regions of the earth.^[2] He speaks also of God and says substance. And it is clear what this is.

The apostle says to the Hebrews, He who is the character of his substance. He said that Christ is the character of the substance of God. There are many other examples. But what is the point of all this? To show that the word substance is in Scripture and is used of the substance of God.

God said, it is written, Let there be light.^[1] The Father, says one [heretic], commanded, and the Son obeyed. But here the Son acts by word for, says he, upholding all things,^[2] that is, governing. He holds together what would fall to pieces, for to hold the world together is no less than to make it but even greater, if one must say a strange thing. For the one is to bring forth something out of things which are not; but the other, when things that have been made are about to fall back into nonexistence, is to hold and fasten them together, utterly at variance as they are with each other. This is indeed great and wonderful, and a certain proof of exceeding power.

He not only says that he is the maker of all things, but that he certainly also makes them by the great abundance of his power, for all things hang upon his voice, as it were. For this expression who calls into existence the things that do not exist^[1] does not differ from the account of blessed Moses, who says, And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light . . . ‘Let there be a firmament’ and there was a firmament.^[2]

This is what Jeremiah calls his strong works of words.^[1]

The Logos upholds the universe by his word of power from nonexistence to existence. For all things, as many as exist in connection with matter and as many as have received an immaterial nature, have one cause of their substance: the Word of unspeakable power.

In this way the divine apostle in several terms brought out the reality of the begetting, the oneness in being and the shared eternity of the Father and the Son. Since the divinity transcends all understanding, and it is impossible to bring out in one single image the mystery of the true doctrine of God, the preachers of the truth are obliged to do so by means of many. . . . Blessed Paul called him Son to show him to be different from the Father in regard to personhood; he spoke of him as creator of the ages to bring out in these ways his eternity and called him also effulgence of glory^[1] to indicate by this his shared eternity and the sameness of being, the effulgence being of the nature of the fire. He added that he is stamp of his nature to bring out both things at the same time, that he subsists of himself and that he reveals in himself the paternal characteristics. He adds also something else: upholding all things by the word of his power.^[2] He not only made everything but also directs and guides it.

He continues with the following words: When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has obtained is more excellent than theirs. Having demonstrated that he is the stamp of the Father’s hypostasis and, indeed, the brightness of his glory, he necessarily passes over to the economy of the incarnation, through which we have been saved and enriched by the forgiveness of sins and sanctified through his blood.

Even if the Word became flesh,^[1] he nonetheless was in the glory and nature of divinity and was not kept far from the highest thrones of God the Father. And although he was made a little lower than the angels^[2] because of the measure of his humanity—for human nature is subordinate to the glory of the angels—he was still above every name that is named.^[3]

By himself, says he, having made purification for our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. He here sets down two very great proofs of his care: first the purifying us from our sins, then the doing it by himself.^[1] And in many places you see him making very much of this—not only of our reconciliation with God, but also of this being accomplished through the Son. For the gift, being truly great, was made even greater by the fact that it was through the Son. For in saying he sat down on the right hand and having by himself made purification for our sins, though he had put us in mind of the cross, he quickly added the mention of the resurrection and ascension. And see his unspeakable wisdom. He did not say he was commanded to sit down but he sat down. Then again, lest you should think that he stands, he subjoins, For to what angel has he ever said, Sit at my right hand.

He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high because of the flesh he put on.

Recall also what I have often said regarding the sitting of the Son at the right hand of the Father, according to the sequence of the creed: and he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. Let us not too curiously inquire into the precise nature of this sitting, for it surpasses our understanding. Let us not endure those who perversely assert that it was only after his cross and resurrection and ascension into heaven that the Son began to sit at the right hand of the Father. For he did not gain his throne by way of advancement, but from the time he is—and he is eternally begotten—he sits with the Father. The prophet Isaiah, having beheld this throne before the coming of the Savior in the flesh, says, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.^[1] For no one has ever seen the Father,^[2] and he who then appeared to the prophet was the Son. The psalmist also says, Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.^[3] There are many testimonies on this point, but we will content ourselves with these only, because of the lateness of the hour.

He sat, says he, on the right hand of the majesty on high. What is this on high? Does he enclose God in place? Away with such a thought! But just as when he says on the right hand he did not describe his outward form, but indicated his equal dignity with the Father, so, in saying on high, he did not enclose him there but expressed his being higher than all things and having ascended up above all things. That is, he attained even the very throne of the Father; as therefore the Father is on high, so also is he. For the sitting together implies nothing else than equal dignity. But if they say that God said, Sit, we may ask them, What then? Did he speak to him standing? Moreover, he said not that he commanded, not that he enjoined, but that he said, precisely that you might not think him without origin and without cause. That this is why he said it is evident from the place of his sitting, for had he intended to signify inferiority, he would not have said on the right hand but on the left hand.

Do not suppose the word having become applies to the flesh. So that you may not be thought to divide Christ, understand the word to apply to Christ who is worshiped in one nature with his flesh. For having once and for all undertaken his reign, he pronounces all things inferior without fear.

This is the way, dear friends, in which we found our salvation, Jesus Christ, the high priest of our offerings, the protector and helper of our weakness. Through him we fix our gaze on the heights of heaven. In him we see mirrored God’s pure and transcendent face.^[1] Through him the eyes of our hearts have been opened. Through him our foolish and darkened understanding springs up to the light. Through him the Master has willed that we should taste immortal knowledge. For, since he reflects the glory of God, he is as much superior to the angels as the name he has obtained is more excellent than theirs. For thus it is written: He makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire.^[2] But of his Son this is what the Master said: You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.^[3] And again he says to him, Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.^[4] Who are meant by enemies? Those who are wicked and resist his will. 1

Do you see that the name Son is intended to declare true relationship? And indeed if he were not a true Son—and true is nothing else than of God—how does he reason confidently from this? For if he is Son only by grace, he not only is not more excellent than the angels but is even less than they.

Both in the verse before us then and throughout he ascribes the word better^[1] to the Lord, who is better and other than originated things. For better is the sacrifice through him, better the hope in him, and also the promises through him, not merely great as compared with small, but the one differing from the other in nature, because he who conducts this economy is better than things originated.

This is spoken with reference to the humanity. As God he is maker of angels and Lord of angels, while as man he became superior to angels after the resurrection and ascension into heaven since he was also less than angels on account of experiencing death. . . . So just as he was less than angels as man, since they have an immortal nature whereas he endured the passion, so after the ascension into heaven he became superior to the angels.

Whereas the prophets ministered and the law was spoken by angels, the Son too came on earth in order to minister. The apostle was forced to add become as much superior to angels, wishing to show that just as much as the Son excels a servant is the ministry of the Son better than the ministry of servants. Contrasting the old ministry and the new, the apostle then speaks freely to the Jews, writing and saying, become as much superior to angels. This is why throughout he uses no comparison such as become greater or more honorable, lest we should think of the Son and angels as one in kind, but better is his word, by way of marking the difference of the Son’s nature from things originated. And we have proof of this from divine Scripture: David, for instance, saying in the psalm, A day in your courts is better than a thousand,^[1] and Solomon crying out, Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold; for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.^[2] Are not wisdom and stones of the earth different in essence and separate in nature? Are heavenly courts at all akin to earthly houses? Or is there any similarity between things eternal and spiritual and things temporal and mortal? . . . In like manner there is no relationship between the Son and the angels; thus the word better is not used to compare but to contrast, because of the difference of his nature from theirs. And so also the apostle himself, when he interprets the word better, places its force in nothing less than the Son’s preeminence over things originated, calling the one Son and the other servants. The one, as a Son with the Father, sits on God’s right; and the others, as servants, stand before God and are sent and serve.

One who leads a little child up to some lofty place, even reaching to the top of heaven, does this gently and by degrees, leading him upwards by the steps from below. Then, when he has set the child on high and encouraged him to gaze downwards, he sees the child turning giddy and confused and dizzy. He takes hold of him and leads him down to the lower stand, allowing him to take breath. Then, when the child has recovered, he leads him up again, and again brings him down. In the same way the blessed Paul has done, both with the Hebrews and everywhere, having learned it from his master. For even Jesus did so. Sometimes he led his hearers up high, and sometimes he brought them down, not allowing them to remain very long.

See here, then, by how many steps he led them up and placed them near the very summit of religion. See too that when they grow giddy and are seized with dizziness, he leads them down and allows them to take breath, saying, God has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things. For the name of Son is so far common. . . . And see how he says, who he appointed the heir of all things. The phrase he appointed the heir is humble. Then he placed them on the higher step, adding, through whom also he created the world. Then he placed them on a higher step still, after which there is no other: He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature. Truly he has led them to unapproachable light, to the very brightness itself. And before they are blinded, see how he gently leads them down again, saying, upholding the universe by his word of power, when he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty. He does not simply say he sat down but when he had made purification, he sat down. For he has in these words touched on the incarnation, and his utterance is again lowly.

His will is the substance of all things, then he is discovered to be the one and only God who created all things, who alone is omnipotent, and who is the only Father rounding and forming all things, visible and invisible, those that may be perceived by our senses and those that cannot, heavenly and earthly, “by the word of his power” [Heb 1:3]; and he has fitted and arranged all things by his wisdom, while he contains all things, he himself can be contained by no one: he is the former, he the builder, he the discoverer, he the Creator, he the Lord of all.

So also wisdom, since he proceeds from God, is generated from the very substance of God.

Let us see what the devil says to the Lord from the Scriptures: It is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you; on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’^[1] See how crafty he is, even in the texts he quotes. For he wishes to diminish the Savior’s glory, as if the Savior needed the help of angels. It is as if he would strike his foot unless he were supported by their hands. The devil takes this verse from Scripture and applies it to Christ. Yet it is written not of Christ but about the saints in general. Freely and in total confidence I contradict the devil. This passage cannot be applied to the person of Christ, for Christ does not need the help of angels. He is greater than the angels and obtained a better name than they by inheritance. For God never said to any of the angels, You are my Son; today I have begotten you.^[2] He has spoken to none of them as to a son. He makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire.^[3] But to his own Son he speaks properly and says countless things about him in the prophets.

As I say, the Son of God does not need the help of angels. No, devil; learn rather that unless Jesus helps the angels, they dash their feet. We have just heard a passage about the angels, that we are to judge angels.^[4] If any of the angels is seen to stumble, he stumbles because he did not reach out his hand to Jesus. If Jesus had taken his hand, he would not have stumbled. For when someone trusts in his own strength and does not call upon the help of Jesus, he stumbles and falls.

When he introduces his only begotten, that is, when it was pleasing for him to reveal in the flesh his only begotten son to the inhabitants of the universe, he says, Let all the angels who serve him, worship him, and you will see the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man.^[1]

Both phrases, brings the firstborn and let them worship, suggest the incarnation. Whence does he, the one who supports all things by the word of his power and is maker and creator of the ages, come into the world? How is he firstborn if he is only begotten? If even after the incarnation the angels adored him, did they not offer him this honor before the incarnation? He was everywhere as God, yet as man he came into the world.

And it was never announced to any man, Let all God’s angels worship him. In fact, even though men are able to subject their fellow creatures, they will never force the angels to obey them. The angels are not materially formed. He made, Paul says, his angels spirits^[1] and his ministers flames of fire.

Since the Word knows the tabernacle of Moses to be a figure of the whole creation—I mean the entire system of things visible and invisible—shall we pass the first veil and, stepping beyond the realm of sense, look into the holy place, the intellectual and celestial creation?^[1] But not even this can we see in an incorporeal way, though it is incorporeal, since it is called—or is—fire and spirit. For he is said to make his angels spirits and his ministers flames of fire . . . though perhaps this making means preserving by that Word by which they came into existence. The angel then is called spirit and fire: spirit, as being a creature of the intellectual sphere; fire, as being of a purifying nature; for I know that the same names belong to the first nature.^[2] But, relative to us at least, we must reckon the angelic nature incorporeal or, at any rate, as nearly so as possible. Do you see how we get dizzy over this subject and cannot advance to any point unless it be as far as this: that we know there are angels and archangels, thrones, dominions, princedoms, powers,^[3] splendors, ascents, intelligent powers or intelligences, pure natures and unalloyed, immovable to evil or scarcely movable; ever circling in chorus around the first cause, or how should we sing their praises? Illuminated thence with the purest illumination or one in one degree and one in another, proportionally to their nature and rank . . . so conformed to beauty and molded that they become secondary lights and can enlighten others by the overflowing and largess of the first light?^[4] They are ministers of God’s will, strong with both inborn and imparted strength, traversing all space, readily present to all at any place through their zeal for ministry and agility of nature . . . different individuals of them embracing different parts of the world, or appointed over different districts of the universe, as knows the one who ordered and distributed it all. They combine all things in one, solely with a view to the consent of the Creator of all things. [They are] choristers of the majesty of the Godhead, eternally contemplating the eternal glory, not that God may thereby gain an increase of glory, for nothing can be added to that which is full—to God, who supplies good to all outside God’s self—but that there may never be a cessation of blessings to these first natures after God. If we have told these things as they deserve, it is by the grace of the Trinity and of the one Godhead in three persons, but if less perfectly than we have desired, yet even so our discourse has gained its purpose. For this is what we were laboring to show—that, if even the secondary natures^[5] surpass the power of our intellect, much more then does the first and—for I fear to say merely—that which is above all the only nature.

For to what angel did God ever say, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’? Or again, ‘I will be to him a father, and he shall be a son to me’? For these things indeed are spoken with reference also to the flesh. . . . So also the word today seems to me to be spoken here with reference to the flesh. For when he has taken hold of it, he then speaks out boldly about everything. For indeed the flesh partakes of the high things, just as the Godhead partakes of the lowly. For he who did not disdain to become human and did not decline the reality, how should he have declined the expressions?

Seeing then that we know these things, let us be ashamed of nothing, nor have any high thoughts. For if he himself, being God and Lord and Son of God, did not decline to take the form of a slave, much more ought we to do all things, though they be lowly. For tell me, oh human, from where come your high thoughts? From things of this life? But these, as ever they appear, run by. Or from things spiritual? No, this is itself one spiritual essential: to have no high thoughts.

Again let this also show how the Father accomplished the birth of the Son in the flesh. For the word I will be^[1] clearly is spoken about the incarnation.

Our Lord Jesus Christ calls his coming in the flesh an exodus [or going out], as when he says, The sower went out to sow.^[1] And again, I came from the Father and have come into the world.^[2] And in many places one may see this. But Paul calls it a coming in [or eisodus], saying, And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, meaning by this bringing in his taking flesh.

Now why has he so used the expression? The things signified are manifest. . . . For Christ indeed calls it a going out justly, for we were out from God. For as in royal palaces, prisoners and those who have offended the king stand without, and he who desires to reconcile them does not bring them in but, himself going out, discourses with them until, having made them ready for the king’s presence, he may bring them in, so also Christ has done. Having gone out to us—that is, having taken flesh—and having talked with us of the king’s matters, so he brought us in, having purged the sins and made reconciliation. Therefore he calls it a going out. But Paul names it a coming in, from the metaphor of those who come into an inheritance and receive any portion or possession. For the saying, and again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, means when he puts the world into his hand. For when he was made known, then also he obtained possession of the whole of it. He says these things not concerning God the Word but concerning that which is according to the flesh. For if, according to John, He was in the world, and the world came into being through him,^[3] how is he brought in, other than in the flesh?

If all creation worships Christ—for by the name angels he denotes the higher rational beings, just as also in the passage to what angel has he ever said, ‘Sit at my right hand’?^[1] he himself is also above them—and the word of the Scriptures forbid us to worship creation in as much as it says, Beware lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and worship them.^[2] Just as one is kept from worshiping the fixtures of the heavens, so also one is kept from worshiping other created beings, even if one happens upon a certain individual surpassing others. One must maintain firmly that Christ was the Creator, not a creation, even if for our sake he united himself to created flesh endowed with a reasonable and intellectual soul, and thus is worshiped as God by all creation.

The mention of the angels’ service (wind) shows their quickness, while the mention of ministry (flames) shows their power. When he says that the angels have been made these things, he presents how they also have the ability to be these things. And he distinguishes them from the Creator^[1] and God and throne and scepter of the kingdom, all of which are symbols of his highest honor and worthiness. For also the phrase God reveals his highest nature, and throne and scepter set forth the certainty of this apart from human honors and worthiness. Then also the phrase forever and ever proves this, for the word Creator shows those things that have come into existence have their beginning in time, but this passage demonstrates the eternity of his kingdom.

For just as in the matter of radiance and exact image of his nature^[1] he imitated John, calling him the Word and saying that he was God,^[2] so also here he imitated John. Just as John said, This one was in the beginning, all things were created through him,^[3] so also does Paul, although he says, these things were not instead of saying, This one was.^[4] To the angels is said, ‘who makes them’; but to the Son, ‘your throne.’ This proves the point: That which was made was not in existence previously, but he who has an eternal throne always was with his Father.

Your throne, O God, is forever. Through this he teaches us that the phrase he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high was meant in human fashion. As God he has a throne that is eternal and a kingdom that is without beginning or end, but here human things are associated with it.

Lest upon hearing the words and when he brings the firstborn into the world you should think of it as a gift afterwards superadded to him, the apostle both corrected this beforehand and again further corrects, saying, in the beginning. Not now, but from the first. See again how he strikes both Paul of Samosata and Arius a mortal blow, applying to the Son the things which relate to the Father. He has also intimated another thing, by the way, greater even than this. For surely he has incidentally pointed out as well the transfiguration of the world, saying, they will all grow old like a garment; like a mantle you will roll them up, and they will be changed. That he also says in the Epistle to the Romans, that he shall transfigure the world.^[1] And showing the facility thereof, he adds, as if a person should roll up a garment, so shall he both roll up and change it. But if he with so much ease works the transfiguration and the creation to what is better and more perfect, did he need another for the inferior creation? How far does your shamelessness go? Surely it is a very great consolation to know that things will not be as they are, but they all shall receive change, and all shall be altered; but he himself remains ever existing and living without end, and your years, he says, will never end.

It is when the Word was made flesh that we say he received the name of Christ Jesus. Since he was anointed with the oil of gladness^[1]—that is to say, anointed with the Spirit by God the Father—he is called Christ, or Anointed. That the anointing was of the humanity no right-minded person would doubt. And the renowned Athanasius says to this effect, somewhere in his discourse, on the saving coming of Christ, God (the Word), as existing before coming to dwell in the flesh, was not man but God with God, being invisible and impassible. But when he became man, he took the name Christ, because the passion and death are consequent upon this name.^[2]

Now, even though sacred Scripture does say, Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness, one must know that sacred Scripture frequently uses the past tense for the future. [It says,] for example, Afterwards, he appeared upon earth and lived among men,^[3] for God had not yet been seen by humanity nor had conversed with them when this was said. And again, By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept,^[4] for these things had not yet taken place.

It was not only those that were honored with the high priesthood and anointed for the sake of the symbol with prepared oil who were given tribute among the Hebrews with the name Christ. The kings too, at the bidding of God, were made Christs in a certain symbolism by the prophets who anointed them, inasmuch as they also bore in themselves the types of the royal and sovereign power of the only true Christ, the divine Logos who reigns over all. We have also received the tradition that some of the prophets themselves had by anointing already become Christs in type, seeing that they all refer to the true Christ—the divine and heavenly Logos, of the world the only high priest, of all creation the only king, of the prophets the only archprophet of the Father. The proof of this is that no one of those symbolically anointed of old, whether priests or kings or prophets, obtained such power of the divine virtue as our Savior and Lord, Jesus, the only real Christ, has exhibited. None indeed of them, though renowned in rank and honor for so many generations among their own people, ever gave the name of Christian to their subjects from the symbolic application to themselves of the name of Christ. The honor of worship was not paid to any of them by their subjects, nor did they hold them in such affection after their death as to be ready to die for him whom they honored.

For none of the men of those days was there such disturbance of all the nations throughout all the world, since the power of the symbol was incapable of producing such an effect among them as the presence of the reality manifested by our Savior; for he received from none the symbol and types of the high priesthood. Nor did he trace his physical descent from the race of priests; nor was he promoted to a kingdom by the armed force of men; nor did he become a prophet in the same way as those of old; nor did he hold any rank at all or precedence among the Jews. Yet with all these he had been adorned, not in symbols, but in actual reality by the Father. Though he did not obtain the honors of which we have spoken before, he is called Christ more than any of them, and inasmuch as he is himself the only true Christ of God, he filled the whole world with Christians—his truly revered and sacred name. He no longer gave to his initiates types or images but the uncovered virtues themselves and the heavenly life in the actual doctrines of truth, and he has received the chrism—not that which is prepared materially, but the divine anointing itself with the spirit of God, by sharing in the unbegotten divinity of the Father. Again, Isaiah teaches this very point, for in one place he exclaims as if from Christ himself, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind.^[1]

And not only Isaiah but also David speaks with reference to him and says, Your divine throne endures for ever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity; you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.^[2] In this the text calls him God in the first verse, and in the second honors him with the royal scepter, and then goes on, after royal and divine power, to present him in the third place as having become Christ, anointed not with oil made of material substances but with the divine oil of gladness.

And in addition to this he indicates his peculiar distinction and superiority to those who in the past had been more materially anointed as types. And in another place too the same David explains his position as follows: The Lord says to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.’^[3] And before the day-star I begot you from the womb. The Lord swore and will not repent, You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.^[4] Now this Melchizedek is introduced in the sacred books as priest of the most high God, without having been so marked out by any material unction, or even as belonging by racial descent to the priesthood of the Hebrews. For this reason our Savior has been called Christ and priest, on the authority of an oath, according to this order and not according to that of the others who received symbols and types. For this reason too the narrative does not relate that he was anointed physically by the Jews or even that he was of the tribe of those who hold the priesthood, but that he received his being from God himself before the day-star, that is to say, before the construction of the world, and holds his priesthood to boundless eternity, ageless and immortal. A weighty and clear proof of the immaterial and divine anointing effected on him is that he alone, out of all who have ever yet been until now, is called Christ among all men throughout the whole world. Under this title he is confessed and borne witness to by all and is mentioned thus by Jews, Greeks, and barbarians. Until this present day he is honored by his worshipers throughout the world as king, wondered at more than a prophet, and glorified as the true and only high priest of God, and above all, as the Logos of God, preexistent, having his being before all ages and having received the right of reverence from the Father, and he is worshiped as God. Strangest of all, we, who have been consecrated to him, honor him not only with our voices and with the sound of words but with the whole disposition of our soul, so as to value testimony to him more than our very life itself.

Jesus is the name of the son who was born of a virgin, and, as the angel explained, this name signified that he would save his people from their sins.^[1] He who saves from sins is doubtlessly the same one who will save from the corruption of mind and body that happens as a result of sins. Christ is a term of priestly and royal dignity, for from chrism—that is, an anointing with holy oil—priests and kings were in the law called christs, and they signified him who appeared in the world as true king and high priest and was anointed with the oil of gladness above those who shared with him.^[2] From this anointing, that is, the chrism, he himself is called Christ, and those who share this anointing, that is, spiritual grace, are called Christians. In that he is Savior, may he deign to save us from sin. In that he is high priest, may he deign to reconcile us to God the Father. In that he is king, may he deign to give us the eternal kingdom of his Father. He is Jesus Christ our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God for all ages. Amen.

Paul also said, They will perish, and all the other things, and again the apostle took up the same words of David.^[1] But if all the works of creation perish completely, then paradise, which is not perishable, will also perish. In truth, because of paradise, which does not cease, it is evident that all the works of creation will be renewed for us, as some assert, and they will not perish, as others have said.

He indicated creation’s change for the better that was due to him, and his own lack of beginning or extinction. You are the same, and your years will never end, he says, note, meaning, You were not made, but you are, and you admit of no change, being always the same. This suggests also the impassibility of the divinity. If it suffered, how is it the same? After all, it would be changed, and if it passed three days in death, its years would fail. Both the prophet^[1] and the apostle, however, the one writing the testimony and the other using it, emphasize that he is always the same and his years will not fail.

It is possible to see in a glance that whenever the Old Testament speaks about the divine nature, it does not speak distinctly about the Father alone, as the heretics suppose when they attempt to apply I am God and there is no other besides me^[1] and similar passages to the Father alone. On the contrary, whatever it says concerning God as it expounds upon the divine nature, it says in such a way that those attributes may be joined together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, owing to the fellowship of their nature. Otherwise how has the apostle dragged in this second scriptural witness from it? . . . Has not Paul done the same in his epistle to the Romans, where he says, For it is written, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee shall bow to me’?^[2] For no one would find here something that would clearly distinguish between them.

Having thus dealt with divine things, he shifts once more to the human. It is not to him as God that he says, Sit at my right hand: how could it be, when his throne is for ever and ever? So as human he shared in this honor, having as God the eternal throne.

In a pillar of cloud he used to speak to them, because they were keeping his testimonies and the commandments which he gave them.^[1] The words in a pillar of cloud are not empty words, for a pillar is always placed in a house to strengthen and beautify it. So the Lord was communicating to them by this image, announcing the imminent building that is the church. Though at that time he imparted these words to them through the cloud, he has deigned to speak to us and to appear to us more visibly through the sacred footstool, that is, through the incarnation. O footstool more exalted than every temple and more excellent than all spiritual creatures! As the Apostle says: To which of the angels did he say, ‘Sit at my right hand’? But why is it surprising if he is called a footstool since he also compares himself to a worm,^[2] to a beetle, to the fullers’ herb,^[3] and to a cornerstone,^[4] not with respect to his ordinariness, but because of his humble disposition.

We have heard a psalm^[1] which is amazing in its heavenly arrangement. In this text, it is clear that the humility in his humanity is as great as the power in his divinity. The holy Word took upon himself the nature of our weakness, as the heading of the psalm says, for those who will be changed, so that through his undeserving death he might free us from a death that was well deserved. He entered the gates of hell so that the regions of hell might be thrown open. Destruction was conquered by the arrival of the Savior, and it rightly gave up perpetual darkness after it received eternal light. He vanquished the devil through the very human nature that Satan held subject, and the strong man was overcome through the weakness of the flesh when God exalted above all rational creatures what was even weaker than all spiritual creatures. As the Apostle says: For to which of the angels did he say, ‘Sit at my right hand’? For no other nature was united with Christ, but only the nature of our flesh, which was taken up and glorified. He is truly omnipotent and merciful who blessed what was damned, restored what was lost, freed what was subject, rendered our miseries strangers to us, and through his death made it possible for humanity to live, an immortal creature, which the devil had caused to die. Grant, almighty God, that, since you deigned to suffer in the flesh for us, you may grant us the crown which for which you considered us worthy.

He does not say that a change of nature took place, but by way of comparison, that he permits these things to be destroyed and they do perish in contrast to the eternity of the Son. For also the Lord, when predicting his second coming, says the stars will fall^[1] and there will no longer be sun or moon or heavens.

But to what angel has he ever said? Leaving aside all the rest of creation he speaks about that which is higher than the rest of creation, namely, the angels. For if the Son differed from the angels in that they were created but he was not, how much more does he differ from all invisible things? And one must demonstrate in addition that he revealed through the statement but you are the same Christ’s eternal existence and the immutability of his nature. Through the phrase Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve he shows that the Son is not a servant, but a fellow worker with God.

He lifted up the first offering of our nature to the Father, and the Father marveled at this offering. And because of the high esteem of the one who offered it and because of the purity of the offering, he, as the father of the household shows him with his hand the place close to himself and also places the offering nearby and says, sit at my right hand.

Whereas he sits at the right hand [he is saying], they are sent as ministers of salvation for the sake of human beings.

Now certainly in the epistle to the Hebrews, when a distinction was to be made between the dispensation of the New Testament and the dispensation of the Old Testament in regard to the fitness of the ages and times, it was written most plainly that not only those visible things but also the word itself were wrought by the mediation of the angels. For it speaks as follows: To what angel has he ever said, ‘Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies a stool for your feet’? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation? It is evident from this passage that all those things were not only done by angels but were also done for our sake, that is, for the people of God, to whom the inheritance of eternal life is promised.

What marvel says he if [angels] minister to the Son, when they minister even to our salvation? See how he lifts up their minds and shows the great honor that God has for us, since he has assigned to angels who are above us this ministration on our behalf. As if, one should say, for this purpose he says he employs them; this is the office of angels, to minister to God for our salvation. So that it is an angelic work to do all for the salvation of the brethren; or rather it is the work of Christ himself, for he indeed saves as Lord, but they as servants. And we, though servants, are yet angels’ fellow servants. Why do you gaze so earnestly on the angels, says he? They are servants of the Son of God and are sent many ways for our sake and minister to our salvation. And so they are partners in service with us. Consider how he ascribes no great difference to the kinds of creatures. And yet the space between angels and humans is great. Nevertheless, he brings them down near to us, all but saying, For us they labor, for our sake they run to and fro. On us, one might say, they wait. This is their ministry, for our sake to be sent every way.

And of these examples the Old Testament is full, as well as the New. For when angels bring glad tidings to the shepherds or to Mary or to Joseph; when they sit at the sepulcher; when they are sent to say to the disciples, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?;^[1] when they release Peter out of the prison; when they discourse with Philip, consider how great the honor is. When God sends the angels for ministers as to friends; when an angel appears to Cornelius; when an angel brings forth all the apostles from the prison, and says, Go and stand in the temple, and speak to the people all the words of this life.^[2] And even to Paul himself an angel appears. Do you see that they minister to us on God’s behalf and that they minister to us in the greatest matters? Thus Paul says, All things are yours, whether life or death, or the world, or things present, or things to come.^[3] Well then the Son was also sent, but not as a servant or as a minister, but as a Son and only begotten, desiring the same things with the Father. Indeed, he was not sent, for he did not pass from place to place but took on him flesh, whereas these change their places, and, leaving those in which they were before, so come to others in which they were not.

On this account our heart must be kept with all carefulness both by day and night, and no place be given to the devil. But every effort must be used that the ministers of God—those spirits who were sent to minister to those who are called to be heirs of salvation—may find a place within us, and be delighted to enter into the guest-chamber of our soul. And, dwelling within us [they] may guide us by their counsel; if, so, they shall find the habitation of our heart adorned by the practice of virtue and holiness.

It is no secret that angels are frequently present, invisibly, at the side of the elect, in order to defend them from the snares of the cunning enemy and uphold them by the great gift of heavenly desire. The apostle attests to this when he says, Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation? Nevertheless, we should believe that the angelic spirits are especially present to us when we give ourselves in a special way to divine services, that is, when we enter a church and open our ears to sacred reading, or give our attention to psalm singing, or apply ourselves to prayer, or celebrate the solemnity of the mass. Hence the apostle advises women to have a veil over their heads in church on account of the angels.^[1] And a prophet says, I will sing psalms to you in the sight of the angels.^[2] We are not permitted to doubt that where the mysteries of the Lord’s body and blood are being enacted, a gathering of the citizens from on high is present—those who were keeping such careful watch at the tomb where Christ’s venerable body had been placed and from which he had departed by rising. Hence we must strive meticulously, my brothers, when we come into the church to pay the due service of divine praise or to perform the solemnity of the mass, to be always mindful of the angelic presence, and to fulfill our heavenly duty with fear and fitting veneration, following the example of the women devoted to God who were afraid when the angels appeared to them at the tomb, and who, we are told, bowed their faces to the earth.

With respect to the fact that both good and evil angels attend to humans—a doctrine we have often taught following the Holy Scriptures—it is not by chance and without a divine judgment that a given angel is assigned to a given soul. For example, one is allotted to Peter and another to Paul. . . . Therefore, there can be no doubt that by a judgment of God, who sees clearly their worth and the quality of our soul, they are allotted as guards to each one of us by a mystical lot directed by the economy of Christ.

Whenever the perception of the revelation of a mystery descends into the intellects of the saints, this is also from the angels. When it is permitted by God, a mystery is revealed from a higher angelic order to a lower one [even unto the lowest]; and in the same manner, when it is permitted by the Divine nod that a mystery should come even to human nature, it is transmitted by those [angels] who are wholly worthy of it. For by their intermediary the saints receive the light of divine vision, [leading] even to the glorious Eternal Being, the mystery which cannot be taught; and the angels receive from one another, for they are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation [through the awareness of true intuitions that are proper to them]. In the future age, however, this order of things will be abolished. For then one will not receive from another the revelation of God’s glory unto the gladness and joy of his soul; but to each by himself the Master will give according to the measure of his excellence and his worthiness, and he will not receive the gift from his comrade as he does here. Then there will be no teacher and no pupil, nor one whose deficiency must be filled up by another. For one is the Giver there, Who gives without mediation to those who receive; and those who win joy, procure it from Him. [[For they do not perceive Him through diverse intellections, but by [direct] revelation of Him, without departing from Him through thoughts.]] There the order of those who teach and those who learn ceases, and on One alone hangs the ardent love of all.

That the angels were ministering spirits he has established from previous testimony, but now he finally renews the image of their service, saying that they do everything in service for the things needful for our salvation. For it is not a small thing to know the need for the assistance of their service.