ACC ~ 1 Timothy 2 v1 - 7

OVERVIEW:

It is in the work of prayer in its various forms that the essence of Christian living emerges, where everything must be done ultimately in the spirit of love, particularly the love of Jesus Christ. This love leads to a spirit of peaceableness and humility both within and apart from the community of faith (CHRYSOSTOM). The work of prayer lies at the center of church order and thus naturally follows Paul’s earlier comments on apostolic teaching, while preceding his instructions with regard to the sexes and the ranks of ministry (THEODORE). The central purpose of prayer is the cultivation of that good order, peace and godliness that make the authentic practice of Christian faith possible, such that the peace represented in the union of united human and divine natures in Christ becomes manifest in the world (THEODORET). Paul lays down rules for prayer, true belief and the roles of the sexes, so that the medicine prescribed by the Father for sinful humankind through the redemption of Christ may take due effect (AMBROSIASTER). Paul makes it clear that the work of prayer, the discipline of a holy life and the observance of good church order are by grace not beyond the capacity of human striving, if we are willing to consent to the God who calls us in Jesus Christ (CHRYSOSTOM).

2:1a | I Urge for All

PRIESTLY WORK OVERCOMES ALIENATION BY PRAYER. CHRYSOSTOM: The priest serves as the common father, as it were, of all the world. It is proper therefore that he should care for all, even as God, whom he serves cares for all. … From this, two advantages result. First, hatred toward those who are outside the circle is transcended, for no one can feel hatred toward those for whom he prays. Those apart are made better by the prayers that are offered for them, by losing their ferocious disposition toward us. For nothing is so apt to draw men under teaching as to love and to be loved. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 6.

GIVING THANKS FOR GENERAL PROVIDENCE. CHRYSOSTOM: Let us then exhort the saints to give thanks for us. And let us exhort one another toward gratitude. To ministers especially this good work belongs, since it is an exceeding privilege. Drawing near to God, we give thanks for the whole world and the good things we commonly share. The blessings of God are shared in common, and in this common preservation you yourselves are included. Consequently, you both owe common thanksgivings for your own peculiar blessings and for those shared in common with others, for which you rightly should offer your own special form of praise. … So then let us give thanks also for the faith that others have toward God. This custom is an ancient one, planted in the church from the beginning. Thus Paul also gives thanks for the Romans, for the Corinthians and for the whole world. HOMILIES ON SECOND CORINTHIANS 2.5.

2:1b | Supplications, Prayers, Intercessions, Thanksgivings

DISTINGUISHING VARIOUS TYPES OF PRAYER. ORIGEN: I think that supplication is a prayer offered with a special request for something a person lacks. From this is distinguished prayer which is more plainly offered with simple praise, not to obtain a request but simply to praise the nobility of great things. And I think that intercession is a petition for certain things addressed to God by someone who has some greater boldness, while thanksgiving is a statement of gratitude made with prayers for receiving good things from God, either when it is a great thing that is received and acknowledged with gratitude or when the greatness of the benefit is apparent only to the one who has benefited. ON PRAYER 14.2.

AMBROSIASTER: “Supplications” are on behalf of secular rulers, that they may have obedient subjects, and thus peace and tranquillity. “Prayers” are for those to whom power has been entrusted, that they may govern with justice and truth, so that all may prosper. “Intercessions” are for those in dire necessity, that they may find help. And “thanksgivings” refer to gratitude for God’s daily providences. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Here supplications express the desire for good things from God. Prayers express the desire to be released from various evils. Intercessions ask for freedom from undeserved consequences. And thanksgivings express gratitude for blessings. COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY.

AUGUSTINE: I prefer to understand by these words what the entire, or almost the entire, church observes: that we take as supplications those prayers which are said in celebrating the mysteries, before we begin to consecrate what lies on the table of the Lord. Prayers are said when it is blessed and sanctified and broken for distribution; and the whole church, for the most part, closes this complete petition with the Lord’s Prayer. The original Greek word helps us to understand this distinction: the Scripture seldom uses the word euche in the sense of oratio, but generally and much more frequently euchē means votum; whereas proseuchē, the word used in the passage we are treating, is always rendered by oratio. … Now, all the things which are offered to God are vowed, especially the oblation at the holy altar, for in this sacrament we show forth that supreme offering, by which we vow to abide in Christ, even to the union of the body of Christ. The outward sign of this is that “we, being many, are one bread, one body.” Consequently, I think that at this consecration and this preparation for Communion the apostle fittingly wishes that proseuchas, that is, prayers, should be made, or, as some have unskillfully rendered it, adoration, that is, what takes place at the offering, although this is more commonly expressed in Scripture by euchē. Intercessions, however, or, as your texts have it, requests, are offered while the blessing is being given to the people, for at that time, by the laying on of hands, the bishops, as intercessors, offer the members of their flock to the most merciful Power. When this is completed and all have received the holy sacrament, the whole is ended by thanksgiving, and this last is the very term called to our notice by the apostle. LETTERS 149.2.16.

JOHN CASSIAN: “Supplication’ is a beseeching or petition for sins. … “Prayers” are those by which we offer a vow to God. … “Intercession” is customarily offered, in moments of fervor, for other men and women—our family, the peace of the world. To use St. Paul’s words, we pray “for all men, for kings and all in authority.” … “Thanksgiving” is when the mind recollects what God has done or is doing or looks forward to the good which he has prepared for those who love him, and so offers its gratitude in an indescribable transport of spirit. Sometimes it offers still deeper prayers of this sort; when the soul contemplates in singleness of heart the reward of the saints and so is moved in its happiness to pour forth a wordless thanksgiving. CONFERENCES 9.11-14.

2:2 | For Kings and All in High Positions

PRAYING FOR PEACE. ORIGEN: Then Celsus next exhorts us to help the emperor with all our power, and cooperate with him in all that is right, and fight for him, and be fellow soldiers if he presses for this, and fellow generals with him. We may reply to this that at appropriate times we render to the emperors divine help, if I may so say, by taking up even the whole armor of God. And this we do in obedience to the apostolic utterance which says, “I exhort you, therefore, first to make prayers, supplications, intercessions and thanksgivings for all men, for emperors, and all that are in authority.” Indeed, the more pious a man is, the more effective he is in helping the emperors—more so than the soldiers who go out into the lines and kill all the enemy troops that they can. AGAINST CELSUS 8.73.

PRAYING FOR ENEMIES. TERTULLIAN: If you think that we have no interest in the emperor’s welfare, look into our literature, read the Word of God. We ourselves do not keep it concealed, and in fact it is in some cases by chance handed over to outsiders. Learn from this literature that it has been enjoined upon us, that our charity may more and more abound, to pray to God even for our enemies and to beg for blessings for our persecutors. APOLOGY 31.1-2.

A BULWARK OF SAFETY. CHRYSOSTOM: The soul of some Christians might be slow at hearing this and may resist this exhortation. For at the celebration of the holy mysteries it may be necessary to offer prayers for a heathen king. Paul shows them the advantage of fulfilling this duty at least to reconcile them to the advice, “that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life.” … For God has appointed government for the public good. When therefore they use force for the common good and stand on guard for our security, isn’t it reasonable that we should offer prayers for their safety in wars and dangers? Such prayers are not excessive flattery but agreeable to the rules of justice. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 6.

CHRIST THE ONLY MEDIATOR OF THOSE WHO PRAY FOR ALL. AUGUSTINE: My very special reason for saying all this was that after I had briefly defined and interpreted these terms [i.e., the terms of 1 Timothy 2:1], no one should think of overlooking the passage that follows, “for all men, for kings and for all those who are in high station, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and charity,” and that no one should imagine, by a common frailty of the human mind, that these prayers are not also to be made even for those at whose hands the church suffers persecution. For the members of Christ are to be gathered from every class. Hence he continues and says, “for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” And that no one might say there can be a way of salvation without partaking of the body and blood of Christ but simply by living a good manner of life and worshiping one God Almighty, Paul continues: “For there is one God and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” This makes it clear that what he had said above, “He will have all men to be saved,” is to be realized only through a mediator who would not be God, as the Word is always God, but the man Christ Jesus, since “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” LETTERS 149.2.17.

MAKE USE OF THE PEACE OF BABYLON. AUGUSTINE: As the life of the body is the soul, so the “blessed life” of a man is God. As the sacred writings of the Hebrews have it, “Happy is that people whose God is the Lord.” Yet even such a people cherishes a peace of its own which is not to be scorned, although in the end it is not to be had because this peace, before the end, was abused. Meanwhile, it is to our advantage that there be such peace in this life. For, as long as the two cities are mingled together, we can make use of the peace of Babylon. Faith can assure our exodus from Babylon, but our pilgrim status, for the time being, makes us neighbors. All of this was in St. Paul’s mind when he advised the church to pray for this world’s kings and high authorities—in order that “we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all piety and worthy behavior.” Jeremiah, too, predicting the Babylonian captivity to the Old Testament Jews, gave them orders from God to go submissively and to serve their God by such sufferings, and meanwhile to pray for Babylon. “For in the peace thereof,” he said, “shall be your peace”—referring, of course, to the peace of this world, which the good and bad share in common. THE CITY OF GOD 19.26.

2:4a | Who Desires All to Be Saved

A WHIP AND A ROD. ORIGEN: Therefore, because God is merciful and “wishes all men to be saved,” he says, “I will visit their crimes with an iron rod and their sins with whips. I will not, however, remove my mercy from them.” … For “God is jealous” and does not wish that soul which he betrothed to himself in faith to remain in the defilement of sin, but wishes it immediately to be purified, wishes it swiftly to cast out all its impurities, if it has by chance been snatched away to some. HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8.6.

OUR COMMON LOT. CHRYSOSTOM: Do not be afraid to pray for the Gentiles. God himself wills it. Fear only to pray against anyone. For that God does not will. And if you pray for the heathen, you ought of course to pray for heretics as well, for we are to pray for all humanity and not to persecute. And this is good also for another reason: We are partakers of the same nature. God calls us to have good will and affection toward one another. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 7.

WHETHER GOD’S DESIRE IS IMMEDIATELY EFFECTED. CHRYSOSTOM: See how great the darkness is [in discussing the nature of God], and how everywhere there is need of faith. This much is sure and solid. But let us now come to matters less sure, for example, as to the relation of the divine will and its way of working. Is God’s will already immediately his working? Is it a particular type of causality? If God is immutable, how does God’s will enter into physical movement? … Is the movement in God’s willing reducible to the familiar seven types of causality? Is God’s movement more like the movement of the mind? Not quite. For in many things the mind is even absurdly moved. When God wills, is he already at work or not? If to will is to work and God wills all men to be good and to be saved, why doesn’t this come immediately to pass? There is here a subtler distinction between God’s [primordial] willing and God’s actual working within history. HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS 5.

THE OPERATION OF THE FATHER’S WILL. GREGORY OF NYSSA: To those who with simplicity of heart receive the preaching of the cross and the resurrection, the same grace should be a cause of equal thankfulness to the Son and to the Father. Now, moreover, that the Son has accomplished the Father’s will (and this, in the language of the apostle, is “that all men should be saved”), they ought for this gift to honor the Father and the Son alike. This is because our salvation would not have been accomplished had not the good will of the Father proceeded to actual operation for us through his own power. And we have learned from Scripture that the Son is the power of the Father. AGAINST EUNOMIUS 12.3.

GOD DOES NOT COMPEL THE UNWILLING TO BE SAVED. AMBROSE: Is God not good to all, then? He is certainly good to all, because he is the Savior of all, especially the faithful. And so the Lord Jesus came that he might save what was lost; he came, indeed, to take away the sin of the world to heal our wounds. But not all desire the remedy, and many avoid it. … He heals those that are willing and does not compel the unwilling. THE PRAYER OF JOB AND DAVID 3.2.4.

GOD DESIRES ALL TO BE SAVED. AMBROSIASTER: That God wishes all men to be saved means that he wishes that all who freely and willingly desire it shall find salvation. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

NO SALVATION UNLESS GOD SO WILLS. AUGUSTINE: Accordingly. When we hear and read in sacred Scripture that God “wills that all should be saved,” although we know well enough that not all are saved, we are not on that account to underrate the omnipotent will of God. Rather, we must understand the Scripture, “who will have all to be saved,” as meaning that no one is saved unless God wills his salvation. It is not that there is no one whose salvation God does not will, but that no one is saved unless God wills it. Moreover, God’s will should be sought in prayer, because if he wills, then what he wills must necessarily be. And, indeed, it was of prayer to God that the apostle was speaking when he made that statement. ENCHIRIDION 103.27.

GOD’S SAVING WILL. JOHN CASSIAN: To pray “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” is to pray that men may be like angels, that as angels fulfill God’s will in heaven, men may fulfill his will, instead of their own, on earth. No one can say this sincerely except one who believes that every circumstance, favorable or unfavorable, is designed by God’s providence for his good, and that he thinks and cares more for the good of his people and their salvation than we do for ourselves. It may be understood thus: the will of God is the salvation of all men, according to that text of Paul, “who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” CONFERENCES 9.20.1.

ALL OF THE PREDESTINED ARE TO BE SAVED. AUGUSTINE: And what is written, that “he wills all men to be saved,” while yet all men are not saved, may be understood in many ways, some of which I have mentioned in other writings of mine; but here I will say one thing: “He wills all men to be saved” is so said that all the predestinated may be understood by it, because every kind of man is among them. ON REBUKE AND GRACE 14.44.

GOD GIVES LAVISHLY. JOHN OF DAMASCUS: The third kind of absolute worship is thanksgiving for all the good things he has created for us. All things owe a debt of thanks to God and must offer him ceaseless worship, because all things have their existence from him, and in him all things hold together. He gives lavishly of his gifts to all, without being asked. He desires all men to be saved and to partake of his goodness. He is long-suffering with us sinners, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. He is the Son of God, yet he became one of us for our sake and made us participants of his divine nature, so that “we shall be like him,” as John the Theologian says in his catholic epistle. ON DIVINE IMAGES 3.30.

GOD WISHES OUR SALVATION MORE THAN WE DO. JOHN CASSIAN: As angels fulfill God’s will in heaven, men may fulfill his will, instead of their own, on earth. No one can say this sincerely except one who believes that every circumstance, favorable or unfavorable, is designed by God’s providence for good. God thinks and cares more for our good and our salvation than we do for ourselves. It may be understood thus: the will of God is the salvation of all. CONFERENCES 9.20.1.

2:4b | And Come to the Knowledge of the Truth

GOD STRENGTHENS OUR DESIRE TO KNOW THE TRUTH. JOHN CASSIAN: For God’s purpose, according to which he did not make the human being to perish but to live forever, abides unchanging. When his kindness sees shining in us the slightest glimmer of good will, which he himself has sparked from the hard flint of our heart, he fosters it, stirs it up and strengthens it with his inspiration, “desiring all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” CONFERENCES 13.7.1.

2:5a | God Is One

FATHER AND SON ARE NOT TWO GODS. CHRYSOSTOM: He says that “there is one God,” that is, not as some say, many, and that he has sent his Son as mediator, thus giving proof that he desires that all be saved. But is not the Son God? Most truly he is. Why then does he say, “One God”? To distinguish the one God from idols, not from the Son. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 7.

2:5b | One Mediator Between God and Humanity

HIS BODY A SHARED BED. ORIGEN: Through his body the church has been allied to Christ and has been enabled to become a partaker in the Word of God. We know this both from the fact that he is called the “mediator of God and humanity,” and from the apostle’s saying that “in him we have access through faith in the hope of the glory of God.” COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3.2.

THE MEDIATOR IS TRULY GOD AND TRULY MAN. AMBROSE: But what is he who is at once the Most High and man, what but “the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for us”? This text indeed refers properly to his incarnation, for our redemption was made by his blood, our pardon comes through his power, our life is secured through his grace. He gives as the Most High; he prays as man. The one is the office of the Creator; the other of a redeemer. Be the gifts as distinct as they may, yet the Giver is one, for it was fitting that our Maker should be our Redeemer. OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 3.2.8.

HIS MEDIATORSHIP ETERNAL. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: O how beautiful and mystical and kind! For to intercede does not imply to seek for vengeance, as is most men’s way (for in that there would be something of humiliation), but it is to plead for us by reason of his mediatorship, just as the Spirit is also said to make intercession for us. For “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” For he still pleads even now as man for my salvation. He continues to wear the body which he assumed, until he makes me divine by the power of his incarnation; although he is no longer known after the flesh—the same as ours, except for sin. THE THEOLOGICAL ORATIONS 30.14.

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. GREGORY OF NYSSA: By the distinction implied in the word mediator he reveals to us the whole aim of the mystery of godliness. Now the aim is this. Humanity once revolted through the malice of the enemy, and, brought into bondage to sin, was also alienated from the true Life. After this the Lord of the creature calls back to him his own creature and becomes Man while still remaining God, being both God and man in the entirety of the two separate natures. Thus humanity was indissolubly united to God, the man that is in Christ conducting the work of mediation, to whom, by the firstfruits assumed for us, all the lump is potentially united. AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.12.

AS MEDIATOR BOTH PRIEST AND OBLATION. AUGUSTINE: Christ Jesus, himself man, is the true Mediator, for, inasmuch as he took the “form of a slave,” he became “the Mediator between God and men.” In his character as God, he received sacrifices in union with the Father, with whom he is one God. Yet he chose, in his character as a slave, to be himself the sacrifice rather than to receive it, lest any one might take occasion to think that sacrifice could be rendered to a creature. Thus it is that he is both the Priest who offers and the Oblation that is offered. THE CITY OF GOD 10.20.

THE SEPARATING MIDDLE. AUGUSTINE: But how are we reconciled unless what separates us and him is broken? For he says through the prophet, “The Lord’s ear is not dull, that it cannot hear, but your sins separate you and your God.” Therefore, because we are not reconciled unless what is in the middle has been removed and what should be in the middle has been put there—for there is a separating middle, but over against it is a reconciling mediator. The separating middle is sin. The reconciling mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ, “For there is one God and one mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” And so, in order that the separating wall which is sin may be taken away, that Mediator has come, and the Priest himself has become the sacrifice. TRACTATES ON JOHN 41.5.

MEDICINE FOR WEAK EYES. ISAAC OF NINEVEH: May attention to the economy of God which ministered to those of former times be reckoned by you as precious medicine for weak eyes. Let the memory of it stay with you at all times of the day. Meditate, apply your mind, and learn wisdom from it, that you may be able to receive into your soul with honor the memory of the greatness of God and find eternal life for yourself in Christ Jesus, the Mediator between God and mankind and the Uniter in his two natures. ASCETICAL HOMILIES 3.

2:5c | The Man Christ Jesus

REAL FLESH. TERTULLIAN: Valentinus, indeed, on the strength of his heretical system, might consistently fantasize a spiritual flesh for Christ. Any who refused to believe that that flesh was human might then pretend it to be anything he liked. This pretense characterizes all heresies. For if his flesh was not human and was not born of man, I do not see of what substance Paul himself spoke, when he said “The man Christ Jesus is the one mediator between God and man.” ON THE FLESH OF CHRIST 15.

TRUE MAN. AMBROSE: Let not the venom of Apollinaris flatter itself because it is written, “And in appearance he was found as a man,” for the manhood of Jesus is not thereby denied but confirmed, since elsewhere Paul himself speaks of him as “Mediator of God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus.” It is the customary manner of Scripture so to express itself as we also read in the Gospel, “And we saw his glory—glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.” As he is there called only-begotten Son of God, so he is said to be man, and the fullness of humanity that was in him is not denied. Letters 27.

OUR COMMON HUMANITY. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: This refers to the perfect humanity by which salvation is wrought. The fact that Jesus shares a common humanity with us is the whole key to salvation. COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY.

JOINING WHAT HAD BEEN ALIENATED. THEODORET OF CYR: There is one conciliator of peace, who joins in himself what has been in disjunction. Paul calls Christ man precisely because he is the Mediator, the one in whom human and divine natures are joined in friendship. INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

TRUTH PUTS ON HUMANITY WITHOUT CEASING TO BE DIVINE. AUGUSTINE: It was in order to make the mind able to advance more confidently toward the truth that Truth itself, the divine Son of God, put on humanity without putting off his divinity and built this firm path of faith so that man, by means of the God-Man, could find his way to man’s God. I speak of the “mediator between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus.” For it is as man that he is the Mediator and as man that he is the way. THE CITY OF GOD 11.2.

FEELINGS REQUIRE A HUMAN SOUL. AUGUSTINE: Hence we respond to this objection of theirs, which they propose from the gospel, in a way which allows no man to be so lacking in understanding that he thinks we are compelled by this text to believe and confess that the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, did not have a human soul. In the same way I inquire how they respond to objections so palpable as ours, whereby we show through countless places in the Gospel writings what was narrated of him by the Evangelists, namely, that he was found with feelings that are impossible without a soul. EIGHTY-THREE DIFFERENT QUESTIONS 80.3.

MAN’S PRIDE HEALED THROUGH GOD’S HUMILITY. AUGUSTINE: Now, we could not be redeemed, even through “the one mediator between God and man, Man himself, Christ Jesus,” if he were not also God. For when Adam was made—being made an upright man—there was no need for a mediator. Once sin, however, had widely separated the human race from God, it was necessary for a mediator, who alone was born, lived and was put to death without sin, to reconcile us to God and provide even for our bodies a resurrection to life eternal—and all this in order that a man’s pride might be exposed and healed through God’s humility. ENCHIRIDION 108.28.

HIDDEN AS GOD, APPARENT AS MAN. AUGUSTINE: Who can so organize what he does as this man organized what he suffered? But the man, the Mediator of God and man, was the man about whom one reads that it was foretold, “And he is a man and who will know him?” For the men through whom these things happened did know the man of God. For he who was hidden as God was apparent as man. He who was apparent suffered these things. He who was hidden is the very same One who ordered these things. Therefore he saw that all the things were finished which were necessary to be done before he took the vinegar and delivered over his spirit. TRACTATES ON JOHN 119.4.

HIS HUMANITY, HIS TIME. THE VENERABLE BEDE: We have heard from the Gospel reading [commenting on Lk 2:1-14], dearly beloved brothers, that when the Redeemer of the world, our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, was about to be born into the world, an edict went out from Caesar Augustus, who then held the highest place with respect to worldly reigns. The edict said that the entire world was to be enrolled. We must not suppose that this happened by chance, but we must understand that it was provided through a most certain divinely arranged plan of this same Redeemer of ours. And, indeed, just as in his divinity the Mediator between God and human beings foresaw the mother of whom he willed to be born when he should so will, so also in his humanity he chose the time when he wished for his nativity. Moreover, he himself granted that this time should be such as he willed, namely, that in a calm among the storm of wars a singular tranquillity of unusual peace should cover the whole world. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.6.

2:6 | A Ransom for All

OVERFLOWING KINDNESS. ANONYMOUS: And so, when he had planned everything by himself in union with his Child, he still allowed us, through the former time, to be carried away by undisciplined impulses. … And so, when our unrighteousness had come to its full term, and it had become perfectly plain that its recompense of punishment and death had to be expected, then the season arrived in which God had determined to show at last his goodness and power. O the overflowing kindness and love of God toward man! God did not hate us, or drive us away, or bear us ill will. Rather, he was long-suffering and forbearing. In his mercy, he took up the burden of our sins. He himself gave up his own Son as a ransom for us—the holy one for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, the righteous one for the unrighteous, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. LETTER TO DIOGNETUS 9.1-2.

THE TREE OF JESUS. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: Do not wonder that the whole world was redeemed, for it was no mere man but the Only-begotten Son of God who died for it. The sin of one man, Adam, availed to bring death to the world; if by one man’s offense death reigned for the world, why should not life reign all the more “from the justice of the one?” If Adam and Eve were cast out of paradise because of the tree from which they ate, should not believers more easily enter into paradise because of the Tree of Jesus? If the first man, fashioned out of the earth, brought universal death, shall not he who fashioned him, being the Life, bring everlasting life? If Phinees by his zeal in slaying the evildoer appeased the wrath of God, shall not Jesus, who slew no other, but “gave himself a ransom for all,” take away God’s wrath against man? CATECHETICAL LECTURES 13.2.

2:7 | A Teacher of the Gentiles in Faith and Truth

INTERPRETING THE LAW TO THE GENTILES. ORIGEN: The apostle Paul, “teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth,” taught the church which he gathered from the Gentiles how it ought to interpret the books of the law. These books were received from others and were formerly unknown to the Gentiles and were very strange. He feared that the church, receiving foreign instructions and not knowing the principle of the instructions, would be in a state of confusion about the foreign document. For that reason he gives some examples of interpretation that we might also note similar things in other passages, lest we believe that by imitation of the text and document of the Jews we be made disciples. He wishes, therefore, to distinguish disciples of Christ from disciples of the synagogue by the way they understand the law. HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5.1.

THIS TRUMPET AMONG THE APOSTLES. VINCENT OF LÉRINS: Consequently, to announce to Catholic Christians a doctrine other than that which they have received was never permitted, is nowhere permitted and never will be permitted. It was ever necessary, is everywhere necessary and ever will be necessary that those who announce a doctrine other than that which was received once and for all be anathema. If this be so, is there anyone alive so bold as to preach dogmas other than those taught by the church, or so foolish as to accept doctrines besides those accepted by the church? Crying aloud, crying aloud again and again and again, crying aloud to everyone, always and everywhere throughout his writings, Paul remains this “vessel of election,” this “doctor of the Gentiles,” this trumpet among the apostles, this herald of the earth, this heaven-conscious man. He is crying aloud that whoever announces a new doctrine is anathema. COMMONITORIES 9.

TEACHER OF ALL CHRISTIANS OF ALL TIME. ATHANASIUS: So, then, let us celebrate this heavenly joy, together with the saints of old who kept the same feast. Yes, they keep the feast with us, and they are examples to us of life in Christ. Not only were they commissioned to preach the gospel, but if we look back at their lives, we will see that they also lived it. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “You, therefore, follow me.” Let us follow him then, because that command has been passed down to us. The admonition originally given to the church at Corinth reaches to all Christians of all time in every place. For the apostle Paul was “a teacher of all nations in faith and truth.” FESTAL LETTERS 2.

PAUL EXCEPTIONALLY HONORED. CHRYSOSTOM: If the Son was born a perfect and complete king, it is also clear that he is a judge and arbiter. For it is especially the mark of a king that he makes decisions and judgments both to grant honors and to punish. And another source might help you to see that he has the power to grant heavenly honors. So we shall bring forward the man who is better than all men, and we shall show that Christ granted this man a crown. … Who is the one who is better than all men? Who other than that tentmaker, that teacher of the entire world, the one who coursed over land and sea as if equipped with wings, the chosen instrument, the attendant of Christ the bridegroom, the one who planted the church, the wise builder, the preacher, the one who ran the course and fought the good fight, the soldier, the trainer of athletes, the one who left memorials of his own virtue everywhere in the world. ON THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD 8.3.