ACC ~ Hebrews 13 v8

ETERNAL EXISTENCE. THEODORET OF CYR: This, too, he does not simply put down, but he fits it to the argument that has been interrupted, teaching that he was crucified by the Jews. And he also demonstrates his eternal existence, for he calls the human nature “yesterday and today” and names the divinity “forever.” And he says that the two are the same, since the only begotten and the firstborn are one and the same Son. INTERPRETATION OF HEBREWS 13.8.

NO BROKENNESS IN WHAT IS THE SAME. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The natural properties of the Word who came forth from the Father were maintained even when he became flesh. It is foolish therefore to dare to introduce a breach. For the Lord Jesus Christ is one and through him the Father created all things.He is composed of human properties and of others that are above the human, yielding a kind of middle term. He is, in fact, a mediator between God and humankind, according to the Scriptures, God by nature even when incarnate, truly, not purely man like us, remaining what he was even when he had become flesh. For it is written, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” ON THE INCARNATION 709.

THE SAME YESTERDAY? CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: How then could he be the same in the past when he had not yet assumed generation according to the flesh? … It is of Jesus Christ and not just of the Word that the text affirms that he is the same today, yesterday and forever, but how could the human nature possess immutability and unaltered identity when it is subject to movement and, above all, to that movement that made it pass from nothingness to being and to life? … In virtue of the union with flesh that is proper to him, it is still he himself who is described as existing yesterday and as preexistent. ON THE INCARNATION.

REMAINING WHAT HE WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The Son of God, assuming our likeness and becoming human,not taking up what he was but taking on what he was [i.e., the divine condition] effects our salvation. For he remains, as Paul put it, the same yesterday and today and forever, without undergoing any change in his divinity by reason of his incarnation, but remaining what he was and will always be. EASTER HOMILY 1.6.

TITLES OF THE SON. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: These names—righteousness, sanctification, redemption, resurrection … are still common to the one who is above us and to the one who came for our sake. But others are peculiarly our own and belong to that nature which he assumed. So he is called man, not only that through his body he may be apprehended by embodied creatures, whereas otherwise this would be impossible because of his incomprehensible nature; but also that by himself he may sanctify humanity and be, as it were, a leaven to the whole lump. Then, by uniting to himself that which was condemned, he may release it from all condemnation, becoming for all people all things that we are, except sin—body, soul, mind, and all through which death reaches. Thus he became man, who is the combination of all these; God in visible form, because he retained that which is perceived by mind alone. He is son of man both on account of Adam and of the Virgin from whom he came, from the one as a forefather, from the other as his mother, both in accordance with the law of generation and apart from it. He is Christ because of his Godhead. For this is the anointing of his manhood and does not, as is the case with all other anointed ones, sanctify by its action but by the presence in his fullness of the anointing one; the effect of which is that that which anoints is called human and makes that which is anointed God. He is the way, because he leads us through himself; the door as letting us in; the shepherd, as making us dwell in a place of green pastures and bringing us up by waters of rest, and leading us there and protecting us from wild beasts, converting the erring, bringing back that which was lost, binding up that which was broken, guarding the strong, and bringing them together in the fold beyond, with words of pastoral knowledge. The sheep, as the victim; the lamb, as being perfect; the high priest as the offerer; Melchizedek, as without mother in that nature which is above us and without father in ours; and without genealogy above for who, it says, shall declare his generation? and, moreover, as king of Salem, which means peace, and king of righteousness, and as receiving tithes from patriarchs, when they prevail over powers of evil. They are the titles of the Son. Walk through them, those that are lofty in a godlike manner; those that belong to the body in a manner suitable to them; or rather, altogether in a godlike manner, that you may become a god, ascending from below, for his sake who came down from on high for ours. In all and above all keep to this, and you shall never err, either in the loftier or the lowlier names. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today in the incarnation, and in the Spirit forever and ever. Amen. ON THE SON, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 4 (30).21.

“TODAY” SIGNIFIES THIS LIFE. ORIGEN: The “today” signifies this life; for it says, “Jesus Christ yesterday and today and forever” and again “while it is called today.” SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 94.8.

THE AGE WHICH IS PAST. ORIGEN: And if “today” means the whole present age, “yesterday” is probably the bygone age. This what I have understood to be the meaning in the psalm and in Paul’s epistle to Hebrews. In the psalm it says: “A thousand years are in your eyes as a yesterday that has passed.” Whatever the much talked of millennium means, it is likened to yesterday as opposed to today. And in the apostle writes, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” No wonder that the whole of an age counts with God as the space of a single day with us, and I think even less. ON PRAYER 27.13.

ANOTHER WILL NOT COME. CHRYSOSTOM: In these words, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever,” “yesterday” means all the time that is past; “today,” the present; “forever,” the endless which is to come. That is to say, “You have heard of a high priest, but not a high priest who fails.” He is always the same. As though there were some who said, “He is not, another will come,” he says this, that he who was “yesterday and today,” is “the same also forever.” ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 33.3.

PROMISE AND FULFILLMENT. AMBROSE: The words of Scripture include all days in two days, yesterday and today, as in the words, “Imitate their faith in Jesus Christ; he is the same yesterday and today and forever.” The promise is made the first day; the following day it is fulfilled. LETTER 50.

Heb