The Savior himself admonished them, saying, Woe to you lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.^[1] They rise up against Christ as he teaches. They wickedly and despicably shout out, Tell us, by what authority you do these things? Who gave you this authority? They say, The law given by Moses and the commandment that regulates all our institutions commanded that only those who are of the lineage of Levi should approach these sacred duties. They offer the sacrifices. They regulate whatever is done in the divine temple. The office of instructing and the government of the sacred trusts are given to them. Being of another tribe, from Judah, you grab honors that have been set apart for us. Who gave you this authority?

While he was teaching the crowds and evangelizing them, the chief priests and the scribes came and said to him, By what power are you doing this? If it were a question of his teaching, how could they have called it a work? It is clear that he referred to his works as testimony to the truth of his words, according to what he said: If you do not believe in me, believe at least in the works.^[1] By what power are you doing this? They interrogated him like inquisitors, but he did not reply to them, since they did not approach him as students out of love in order to be taught but as rebels. He asked them in turn, From where did the baptism of John come?^[2] His word pressured them in such a way that they were forced to confess that they had not believed in John. He asked, Was it from heaven or from human beings? They began to reflect on it in their minds and to say, If we say that it was from heaven, he will say, ‘Why did you not believe in it?’ If we say, ‘From human beings,’ we are afraid of the crowd.^[3] When they said, If it is from heaven, they did not also say, We are afraid of God. They were thus afraid of human beings but not of God.

The Jews, to discredit him, said to the Lord, By what authority are you doing these things? If you are the Christ, tell us openly. They were looking for a pretext, not for faith. They wanted something by which to catch him, not something by which to be liberated. Notice what answer the one who could see their hearts gave to confound them with the lamp. He said, I will also ask you one question. Tell me, John’s baptism, from where is it? Is it from heaven, or from men? They were immediately sent staggering backward. Although the daylight was only shining gently, they were forced to fumble and blink, since they were unable to gaze at that brilliance. They took refuge in the darkness of their hearts, and there they began to get very agitated among themselves, stumbling and falling about. We might say that they said this to themselves where they were thinking, yet where he could see. If we say, They said, ‘It is from heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why did you not believe him? He testified to Christ the Lord.’ If we say, ‘From men,’ the people will stone us, because they regarded John as a great prophet. They said, We do not know. You do not know, because you are in darkness and are losing the light. After all, is not it much better, if darkness is occupying the human heart, to let the light in and not to lose it? When they said, We do not know, the Lord said, Neither do I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. You see, I know in what mind you said ‘We do not know,’ not because you wish to be taught, but because you are afraid to confess.

They were unworthy to learn the truth and to see the pathway that leads directly to every good work. Christ answered them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things. The Jews therefore did not know the truth, and they were not taught of God,^[1] that is, of Christ. Christ reveals that knowledge to us who have believed in him. We, receiving in mind and heart his divine and adorable mystery, or rather the knowledge of it, and being careful to fulfill those things which are pleasing to him, shall reign with him.

Very many derive various meanings from the word vineyard, but Isaiah clearly stated that the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.^[1] Who else but God founded this vineyard? He leased it and set out to foreign places. The Lord, who is always everywhere, does not journey from place to place, but he is present to those who love him and absent from those who neglect him. He was absent for many seasons, fearing that the foreclosure might seem premature. The more indulgent the generosity, the more inexcusable is the stubbornness. . . . He thus leased to the Jews his fortified, prepared and beautified vineyard.

The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the man of Judah, a plant new and beloved.^[1] He who planted the vineyard is God, who also went away for a long time. God still fills everything and in no way whatsoever is absent from anything that exists. How, therefore, did the Lord of the vineyard go away for a long time? After they saw him in the shape of fire at his descent on Mount Sinai with Moses, who spoke the law to them as the mediator, he did not again grant to them his presence in a visible way. To use a metaphor taken from human affairs, his relation to them was like one who made a long journey abroad.

He went away, but plainly he cared for his farm and kept it in his mind. He sent faithful servants to them at three different times to receive produce or fruit from the tillers of the vineyard. There was no period in the interval, during which there were not sent by God prophets and righteous men to admonish Israel and urge it to bring forth as fruits the glories of a life in accordance with the law. They still were wicked, disobedient and callous, and their heart was hardened against admonition so that they would in no way listen to the word that would have profited them. . . . Israel was guilty of the charge of apostasy and of idol worship. This is how they shamefully threw out those who were sent to them.

The lord of the vineyard thinks to himself saying, What shall I do? We must carefully examine in what sense he says this. Does the householder use these words because he had no more servants? He certainly did not lack other ministers of his holy will. When a physician may say of a sick man, What shall I do? we should understand him to mean that every resource of medical skill had been tried without success. We affirm that the lord of the vineyard, having practiced all gentleness and care with his farm but without benefiting it in any way, says, What shall I do? What is the result? He advances to still greater purposes. I will send, he says, my son, the beloved one. Perhaps they will reverence him. Observe in this, that after the servants, he sends the Son as One not numbered among the servants but as a true Son and therefore the Lord. Although he put on the form of a servant for the dispensation’s sake, he was God, very Son of God the Father who possessed natural dominion. Did they honor him who was sent as Son and Lord and as One who possesses by inheritance whatever belongs to God the Father? No, they murdered him outside the vineyard, having plotted among themselves a foolish and ignorant plan full of all wickedness. They say, Let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.

He proposed another parable. A certain man, a householder, planted his vineyard.^[1] This is like what the psalmist said, You brought a vine out of Egypt, you drove out the nations and planted it.^[2] He protected it with a hedge, the law, and prepared a pit in it for the winepresses, the altar, and built a tower there,^[3] the temple, and sent his servants to bring him its fruit. The first, the next and the last were not received. Then he sent his Son.^[4] He was not the last, for although he appeared at the end, he already existed. John witnessed, A man will come after me, who is before me.^[5] He did not do this because he was unaware that the ancestors were incapable of receiving the produce but to remove the detractions of these stubborn ones from their midst. They were saying that he was not able to direct and prepare everything that he wanted to by the law, so therefore he sent his Son to impose silence on them. When they saw his Son coming, they said, Here is the heir of the vineyard. Come! Let us kill him, and the inheritance of the vineyard will be ours.^[6] They killed him, but their inheritance was taken away from them and given to the Gentiles. It happened just as he had said, For to him who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.^[7]

The farm was given to other farmers. Who are they? I answer the company of the holy apostles, the preachers of the evangelical commandments, the ministers of the new covenant. They were the teachers of a spiritual service, and knew how to instruct people correctly and blamelessly and to lead them most excellently to everything that is pleasing to God. . . . The God of all plainly reveals that the farm was given to other farmers and not only to the holy apostles but also to those who come after them, although they are not from Jewish blood. He says by the voice of Isaiah to the church of the Gentiles and to the remnant of Israel, Aliens shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers.^[1] Many were called from the Gentiles, and holy people from their number became teachers and instructors. Even to this day, people of Gentile race hold high place in the churches. They are sowing the seeds of piety to Christ in the hearts of believers and making the nations entrusted to their care into beautiful vineyards in the sight of God.

The vineyard prefigures us, because the people of God, founded on the root of the eternal Vine, appear above the earth, bordering the lowly ground. They now grow ripe with budding flowers. They now are clothed with dense greenery and take on a gentle yoke^[1] when they worship with mature branches as if with the twigs of the vine. The Father Almighty truly is the Vinedresser, and Christ is the Vine. We, not vine sprouts, are pruned by the sickle of the eternal cultivator if we do not bear fruit in Christ.^[2] The people of Christ then is correctly named a vineyard, either because the sign of the cross is woven on its forehead^[3] or its fruit is gathered in the last season of the year. It may also be called a vineyard because there is equal measurement in the church of God for rich and poor, humble and powerful, servants and masters. There is no difference in the church, as in all the rows of the vineyard.^[4] As the vine clings to trees, so the body is joined to the soul and the soul to the body. When the vine clings, it is raised up. When it is pruned, it is not diminished, but it increases. The people of God is stripped when it is bound, uplifted when it is humbled, crowned when it is cut back. The tender shoot cut from an old tree is grafted onto the progeny of another root. When the scars of the old shoot are cut away, the people of God likewise grow into the wood of the cross. It is as if they are cherished in the arms of a pious parent. The Holy Spirit comes as if cast down into the deep ditches of the earth and poured into this prison of the body. With the flow of saving water, the Holy Spirit washes away whatever is filthy and raises the posture of our members to heavenly discipline.

What did the scribes and Pharisees say when they heard the parable? Their words were, Heaven forbid! One may see by this that having understood its more profound significance, they put away from them the impending suffering and were afraid of the coming danger. They however did not escape, because they could not be restrained from disobedience, nor would they submit to believe in Christ.

He led them to the point of judging themselves, saying, What do the vinedressers deserve?^[1] They made a pronouncement concerning themselves, saying, Let him destroy the evil ones with evil.^[2] He then explained this, saying, Have you not read that the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner?^[3] What stone is this? It is the one known to be as hard as lead. See, he has said, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of the sons of Israel.^[4] To show that he himself was this stone, he said concerning it, Whoever knocks against that stone will be broken to pieces, but it will crush and destroy whomsoever it falls upon. The leaders of the people were gathered together against him and wanted his downfall because his teaching did not please them. He said, It will crush and destroy whomsoever it falls upon, because he got rid of idolatry along with other such things. The stone that struck the image has become a great mountain, and the whole earth has been filled with it.^[5]

Although he was a chosen stone, those who had the duty to build up the synagogue of the Jews in everything that was edifying rejected the Savior. He still became the head of the corner. Now the sacred Scripture compares with a corner the gathering together or joining of the two people. I mean Israel and the Gentiles in the sameness of sentiment and faith. The Savior has built the two people into one new person by making peace and reconciling the two in one body to the Father.^[1] This resembles a corner, which unites two walls and binds them together. Blessed David wondered at this corner or gathering together of the two people into one. He said, The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This [the corner] has been done by the Lord, and is marvelous in our eyes.^[2] Christ has bound together the two people in the bonds of love and in the same sentiment and faith.

Again the gang of Pharisees is inflamed with unbridled rage. They draw the bow of their envy. They grind their teeth at him who calls them to life. They savagely attack him who seeks to save and who humbled himself from his supreme and godlike glory to our condition. They plot the death of he who became man that he might abolish death. The wise Evangelist shows us the only cause that hindered their shameless pride. He said that they feared the people. He understood, therefore, that they were not restrained by a feeling of piety toward God. The commandment given by Moses that plainly says, You shall not kill the holy and the just,^[1] did not bridle their violence. They had far more respect for the fear of people than the reverence due to God.

These bold and hardhearted men, being ready for only evil, do not entertain a good purpose, but with their mind full of the craftiness of the devil, they commit themselves to wicked plans. They lay traps for Christ, plan a trap for an accusation against him, and gather pretexts for falsely accusing him. In their bitterness, they are already meditating and plotting the lying words they spoke against him before Pilate. . . . They pretended to be kind and just. They imagined that they could deceive him who knows secrets. Having one purpose in mind and heart, they speak words totally unlike their wicked dishonesty.

What do they say? Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, nor do you accept persons but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not? O what polluted dishonesty! The God of all certainly wanted Israel to be exempt from human rule. They trampled under foot the divine laws and totally despised the commandment given to them. They committed themselves to their own devices. They therefore fell under the hand of those who at that time ruled over them. They also imposed on them tribute, tax and the yoke of an unaccustomed slavery. The prophet Jeremiah also lamented over Jerusalem as though it had already suffered this fate, saying, How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she that was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the cities has become a vassal.^[1]

It therefore says that their object was to deliver him to the authority of the governor, because they expected that they would hear him say, certainly and without doubt, that it was not lawful to give tribute to Caesar.

When they questioned him about the penny, he asks about the image, because there is one image of God and another image of the world. The apostle also admonishes us, As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly.^[1] Christ does not have the image of Caesar, because he is the image of God.^[2] Peter does not have the image of Caesar, because he said, We have left all things, and have followed you.^[3] The image of Caesar is not found in James and John, because they are the Sons of Thunder.^[4] It is found in the sea, where there are dragons with crushed heads upon the water. The large dragon itself, with its head broken, is given there as food to the Ethiopian people.^[5] If he did not have the image of Caesar, why did he pay the tax? He did not give from his own but gave back to the world what was of the world. If you would not be indebted to Caesar, do not possess what belongs to the world. You have wealth; therefore you are indebted to Caesar. If you want to owe nothing to an earthly king, leave all that you have and follow Christ.^[6]

How did Christ overcome their craftiness? Show me, he says, a denarius. When they showed it to him, he asks, Whose image and superscription are on it? They said, Caesar’s. What did Christ answer to that? Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. Those who have the office to govern impose a tribute of money on their subjects. God does not require of us anything corruptible and temporary. He rather requires willing obedience, submission, faith, love and the sweet fragrance of good works.

Since he has instructed us, we, before all others, try everywhere to pay your appointed officials the ordinary and special taxes. In his time some people came to him and asked if it were necessary to pay tribute to Caesar, and he replied, Tell me, whose likeness does this coin bear? They said, Caesar’s. He again replied, Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.^[1] We worship only God, but in other things, we joyfully obey you. We acknowledge you as the kings and rulers of men. We also pray that you may have good judgment besides royal power. If you do not listen to us although we beg you and clearly explain our position, it will by no means harm us. We believe (rather, we are sure) that everyone will pay the penalty of his misdeeds in the everlasting fire. Everyone will give an account in proportion to the powers that he received from God. Christ made this known to us when he said, To whom God has given more, of him more shall be required.

These same enemies saw the miracles of the Lord,^[1] and they said, Tell us by what authority you are doing these things. They questioned him with hostile intentions, so that if he admitted what his authority was, they could hold him as guilty of blaspheming. He acted in the same way as over the coin, when they wanted to accuse him falsely. If he said, Let tribute be paid to Caesar, it would be as though he had cursed the people of the Jews, making them subject and tributary to a foreign power. If he had said, It should not be paid, they could trump up a charge against him before Caesar’s friends and administrators that he was forbidding its payment. He, though, said, Show me a coin. Whose image and inscription does it carry? They answered, Caesar’s. He said, So pay to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. That amounts to saying, If Caesar can require his image in a coin, cannot God require his image in a human being?

Some people think that the Savior spoke on a single level when he said, Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar—that is, pay the tax that you owe. Who among us disagrees about paying taxes to Caesar? The passage therefore has a mystical and secret meaning.

There are two images in humanity. One he received from God when he was made, in the beginning, as Scripture says in the book of Genesis, according to the image and likeness of God.^[1] The other image is of the earth.^[2] Man received this second image later. He was expelled from Paradise because of disobedience and sin after the prince of this world^[3] had tempted him with his enticements. Just as the coin, or denarius, has an image of the emperor of this world, so he who does the works of the ruler of the darkness^[4] bears the image of him whose works he does. Jesus commanded that that image should be handed over and thrown away from our face. He wills us to take on that image, according to which we were made from the beginning, according to God’s likeness. It then happens that we give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what is God’s. Jesus said, Show me a coin. For coin, Matthew wrote denarius.^[5] When Jesus had taken it, he said, Whose inscription does it have? They answered and said, Caesar’s. And he said to them in turn, Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.

The Sadducees came and were saying to him, ‘There is no resurrection of the dead.’^[1] They are called Sadducees, that is the just, because they say, We do not serve God for the sake of reward. They do not await the resurrection, and for this reason they call themselves the just, since they say, We should love God without a reward.

The Sadducees were a particular sect of the Jews that did not believe in the resurrection. When the Sadducees posed this problem, the Jews were uncertain, hesitant and could not really answer it, because they assumed that flesh and blood could possess the kingdom of God, that is, the perishable could possess imperishability. Along comes Truth. The misguided and misguiding Sadducees questioned him and posed that problem to the Lord. The Lord, who knew what he was saying and who wished us to believe what we did not know, gives an answer by his divine authority which we are to hold by faith. The apostle, for his part, explained it to the extent that it was granted him. We must try to understand this as fully as we can.

What did the Lord say to the Sadducees? He said, You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God. For in the resurrection they marry neither husbands nor wives; for neither do they start dying again, but they will be equal to the angels of God.^[1] The power of God is great. Why do they not marry husbands or wives? They will not start dying again. When one generation departs, another is required to succeed it.^[2] There will not be such liability to decay in that place. The Lord passed through the usual stages of growth, from infancy to adult manhood, because he was bearing the substance of flesh that still was mortal. After he had risen again at the age at which he was buried, are we to imagine that he is growing old in heaven? He says, They will be equal to the angels of God. He eliminated the assumption of the Jews and refuted the objection of the Sadducees, because the Jews did indeed believe the dead would rise again, but they had crude, fleshly ideas about the state of humanity after resurrection. He said, They will be equal to the angels of God.. . .

It has already been stated that we are to rise again. We have heard from the Lord that we rise again to the life of the angels. In his own resurrection, he has shown us in what specific form we are to rise again.

Let us also see what Christ said to them. He says, The children of this world that lead worldly, fleshly lives full of fleshly lust marry and are married for the procreation of children. Those who have maintained an honorable and chosen life, full of all excellence, and have been accounted worthy of attaining to a glorious and marvelous resurrection, certainly will be raised far above the life which people lead in this world. They will live as is suitable for saints who already have been brought near to God. They are equal with the angels and are the children of God. Since all fleshly lust is taken away and no place whatsoever is left in them for bodily pleasure, they resemble the holy angels, fulfilling a spiritual and not a material service suitable for holy spirits. They are at the same time counted worthy of a glory like the angels enjoy.

If anyone ponders over this answer about the resurrection of the dead, he will find that the Lord is not rejecting marriage but is purging the expectation of physical desire in the resurrection. The words the children of this age were not spoken in contrast to the children of some other age. It is like saying, those born in this generation, who are children by force of birth, being born and engendering themselves, since without the process of birth no one will pass into this life. This process of birth is balanced by a process of decay and is no longer in store for the person who has once been cut off from life here.

Virgins, persevere in what you have begun to be. Persevere in what you will be. A great reward, a glorious prize for virtue, and an excellent reward for purity are reserved for you. Do you wish to know from what misery the virtue of continence is free and what advantage it provides? I will multiply, said God to the woman, your sorrows and your groans, and in sorrow you will bring forth your children, and your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall have dominion over you.^[1] You are free from this sentence. You do not fear the sorrows of women and their groans. You have no fear about the birth of children, nor is your husband your master, but your master and head is Christ, in the likeness of and in place of the man. Your fortune and condition are in common. The voice of the Lord says, The children of this world give birth and are born. Those who will be found worthy of that world and of the resurrection from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. They will not die anymore, for they are equal to the angels of God since they are the children of the resurrection. What we shall be, you already have begun to be. You already have in this world the glory of the resurrection. You pass through the world without the pollution of the world. While you remain chaste and virgins, you are equal to the angels of God.

The Savior also demonstrated the great ignorance of the Sadducees by bringing forward their own leader Moses, who was clearly acquainted with the resurrection of the dead. He set God before us saying in the bush, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.^[1] Of whom is he God, if, according to their argument, these have ceased to live? He is the God of the living. They certainly will rise when his almighty right hand brings them and all that are on the earth there.

For people not to believe that this will happen is worthy perhaps of the ignorance of the Sadducees, but it is altogether unworthy of those who love Christ. We believe in him who says, I am the resurrection and the life.^[2] He will raise the dead suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, and at the last trumpet. It shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.^[3] For Christ our common Savior will transfer us into incorruption, glory and to an incorruptible life.

The prophet’s words are applicable to those who sin without perceiving their sin. A sinner who has received baptism, although he may be dead toward his soul because he does not perceive his sin, he is alive to God because of the grace of baptism that he possesses. This agrees with the words God is not of the dead but of the living, for they are all living in him.

The Savior asked them, How do they say that Christ is David’s son? David himself says in the book of Psalms, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand until I place your enemies as a footstool under your feet. ’ David therefore calls him Lord, and how is he his son? The beginning of understanding is faith. He says, If you will not believe, you cannot understand.^[1] The examination of important truths leads to salvation. Emmanuel is the Son and the Lord of David. If anyone would learn in what way he is to understand this, he must certainly begin the exact and blameless examination of his mystery. This was kept in silence from the foundation of the world but has been revealed in the latter ages of the world.^[2]

Before summarizing his commandments, the Lord included the faith and mercy preceding his passion at the end of his testament. Faith is that we believe Christ is our Lord and God and sits at the right hand of God.^[1] . . . He rebukes those who say that Christ is the Son of David. How then did that blind man deserve healing by acknowledging the Son of David?^[2] How did the children, saying Hosanna to the Son of David,^[3] give the glory of their lofty proclamation to God? Here Jesus did not rebuke them because they acknowledged the Son of David but because they do not believe him to be the Son of God. The true faith does not confess one versus the other but both. Although at the beginning we judged to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified,^[4] yet now since we are near the judgment, we already do not know Christ only crucified^[5] but also wait for him coming in the clouds.^[6] The unbeliever looks on the wounds.^[7] The faithful one is taken up and runs to meet Christ in the air.^[8] Let us therefore believe that Christ is God and man.

We also will ask the Pharisees of today a similar question. They deny that he who was born of the holy Virgin is very Son of God the Father and himself also God. They also divide the one Christ into two sons. Let these people explain to us how David’s Son is his Lord, not so much as to human lordship as divine. To sit at the right hand of the Father is the assurance and pledge of supreme glory. Those who share the same throne are equal also in dignity, and those who are crowned with equal honors are understood of course to be equal in nature. To sit by God can signify nothing else than sovereign authority. The throne declares to us that Christ possesses power over everything and supremacy by right of his substance. How is the Son of David David’s Lord, seated at the right hand of God the Father and on the throne of Deity? Is it not altogether according to the unerring word of the mystery that the Word as God sprung from the very substance of God the Father? Being in his likeness and equal with him, he became flesh. He became man, perfectly and yet without departing from the incomparable excellence of the divine dignities. He continued in that state in which he had always been. He still was God, although he became flesh and in form like us. He is David’s Lord therefore according to that which belongs to his divine glory, nature and sovereignty. He is his son according to the flesh.

The Pharisees did not answer Christ’s question. They did this in spitefulness, or rather against their own selves, for perhaps being convicted by the inquiry the word of salvation would have shined in them. They did not wish to know the truth, but sinfully seizing for themselves the Lord’s inheritance, they denied the heir, or rather wickedly murdered him. They rejected the faith because of their love of leadership, greed for profit, and for their shameful gains. . . .

To remove from them the habit of thinking and speaking of him in a derogatory and scornful manner, he asked them, How do they say that Christ is David’s Son, etc.? As I have already remarked, they were silent from malicious motives and thereby condemned themselves as unworthy of eternal life and of the knowledge of the truth.

To keep the company of the holy disciples free from disgraceful faults, he usefully testifies. He says, Beware of the scribes and Pharisees. That means do not expose yourselves to be the prey of their vices and do not be partakers of their disregard of God. What was their custom? They walked in the streets beautifully clothed, dragging with them a pompous dignity to catch the praises of those who saw them. While they were wicked and their hearts were full of all dishonesty, they falsely assumed to themselves the reputation of piety. With solemn ways not based on reality, they diligently lengthened their prayers, supposing that unless they used many words, God would not know what their requests were. The Savior of all did not permit his worshipers to act so shamefully. He said, When you pray, do not babble as the heathen do. They think that they will be heard for their many words.^[1] He commanded them to be humble and not lovers of boasting. He commanded them not to pay any regard to the desire of empty glory but rather to seek the honor that comes from above, from God. In such ways, he deposits the knowledge of his mystery. He also appoints instructors of others, as possessing an exact and blameless knowledge of the sacred doctrines. He makes them to know how David’s Son is also David’s Lord. We also will classify ourselves with them, God the Father illuminating us with divine light in Christ.