ACC ~ John 1 v14a

THE MOST HIGH BRINGS THE LOWLY TO HIS LEVEL

CHRYSOSTOM: Having declared that they who received him were “born of God” and had become “sons of God,” he adds the cause and reason of this unspeakable honor. It is that “the Word became flesh,” that the Master took on him the form of a servant. For he became Son of man, who was God’s own Son, in order that he might make the sons of men [humankind] to be children of God. For when the high associates with the low, it does not touch its own honor at all. Instead, it raises up the other from its excessive lowness. So it was with the Lord. By no means did he diminish his own nature by his condescension, but he raised us, who had always sat in disgrace and darkness, to unspeakable glory. Likewise, it may be that a king, conversing with interest and kindness with a poor person of lower social status, does not shame himself at all but makes the other illustrious and observed by all. Now, if, in the case of the extrinsic dignity of people, association with the humbler person in no way injures the more honorable one, then much less can it do so in the case of that simple and blessed essence that has nothing extrinsic or subject to growth or decay but has all good things immovable and fixed forever. So, when you hear that “the Word became flesh,” do not be disturbed or cast down, for that essence did not change to flesh—it is impiety to imagine this—but continuing what it is, it took the form of a servant on it. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:38-39*.

FLESH BECOMES LIKE THE WORD

HILARY OF POITIERS: [The dignity of the Godhead is preserved] so that in the fact that the Word was made flesh, the Word, in becoming flesh, has not lost through being flesh what constituted the Word, nor has it become transformed into flesh, so as to cease to be the Word. But the Word was made flesh in order that the flesh might begin to be what the Word is…. God, knowing no change when made flesh, lost nothing of the prerogatives of his substance.

ON THE COUNCILS 48. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:17*. This was an almost universal emphasis of the patristic Christological tradition. See also On the Trinity 2.25; Ambrose Letter 27; Apollinaris Fragments on John 2; Ammonius Fragments on John 23; Theodoret Eranistes (FC 106:34, 38) and other commentaries loc. cit.

WHO CAN DESCRIBE HIS GENERATION INTO FLESH?

JEROME: The Word was made flesh, but how he was made flesh, we do not know. The doctrine from God, I have; the science of it, I do not have. I know that the Word was made flesh; how it was done, I do not know…. Isaiah even says, “Who can describe his generation?” [1] What had Isaiah meant then by saying, “The virgin shall be with child and bear a son”? [2] He is telling us what has happened, but when he says, “Who can describe his generation?” he is revealing to us the fact that he has been born, but how he has been born, we do not know. HOMILY 87, ON JOHN 1:1-14. [3]

[1] See Is 53:8 LXX; see also Jerome’s Against John of Jerusalem 10 (PL 23:380).

[2] Is 7:14.

[3] FC 57:217*.

TWO NATURES IN ONE PERSON

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: We do not say that the nature of the Word was changed and became flesh or that it was converted into a whole man consisting of soul and body; but rather that the Word having personally united to himself flesh animated by a rational soul did in an ineffable and inconceivable manner become man and was called the Son of man, not merely according to the will, or being pleased to be so called, neither on account of taking to himself a person, but because the two natures being brought together in a true union, there is of both one Christ and one Son. For the difference of the natures is not taken away by the union, but rather the divinity and the humanity make perfect for us the one Lord Jesus Christ by their ineffable and inexpressible union. LETTER 4, TO NESTORIUS. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 14:197-98. The Fathers also emphasized it was”true flesh” Christ took on. See Augustine Sermon 362.13.

THE WORD MANIFESTED ITSELF AS FLESH

AUGUSTINE: For just as our word in some way becomes a bodily sound by assuming that in which it may be manifested to the senses of people, so the Word of God was made flesh by assuming that in which he might also be manifested to the senses of people. And just as our word becomes a sound and is not changed into a sound, so the Word of God indeed becomes flesh, but far be it from us that is should be changed into flesh. For by assuming it, not by being consumed in it, this word of ours becomes a sound, and that Word became flesh.

ON THE TRINITY 15.11.20. [1]

[1] FC 45:477.

THE KING DWELLS IN OUR FLESHLY HOUSE

ATHANASIUS: For the Word perceived that death was the only way that the corruption of people could be undone. However, it was impossible for the Word to suffer death, being immortal and Son of the Father. Therefore, he takes to himself a body capable of death, so that such a body, by partaking of the Word who is above all, might be worthy to die in the stead of all, and might, because of the Word that had come to dwell in it, remain incorruptible. In this way, the corruption of all might be checked by the grace of the resurrection. By offering to death the body he himself had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from any stain, he got rid of death for all his peers by offering an equivalent. For the Word of God, which by his very nature is over everything, by offering his own temple and bodily vessel for the life of all, satisfied the debt by his death. And thus he, the incorruptible Son of God, joined with all by a similar nature, naturally clothed all with incorruption by the promise of the resurrection. For the actual corruption in death no longer has a hold on humanity because of the Word which, by his one body, has come to dwell among them. It is similar to when a great king has entered into some large city and taken up residence in one of the houses there. That city is thus deemed worthy of high honor. No enemy or bandit any longer descends on it and subdues it. On the contrary, it finds itself entitled to total protection because the king has taken up his residence in a single house there: so, too, has it been with the Monarch of all. For now that he has come to our realm and taken up residence in one body among his peers, from this time forward the whole conspiracy of the enemy against humankind is checked, and the corruption of death, which before had prevailed against them, is done away with. For the human race would have gone to ruin if the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, had not come among us to meet the end of death. ON THE INCARNATION 9.1-4. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 4:40-41**. See also Ambrose On the Sacrament of the Incarnation of Our Lord 6.60; Augustine Sermon 23A.3; Sermon 293.5; Sermon 341A.1.

THE FLESH UNITED TO GOD EXPERIENCES VICTORY

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: Why did our Lord clothe himself with our flesh? So that this flesh might experience victory and that [humanity] might know and understand the gifts [of God]. For if God had been victorious without the flesh, what praise could one render him? Second, so that [our Lord] might show that, at the beginning, he experienced no jealousy toward him [who had wanted] to become God. For he in whom [our Lord] was abased is greater than he in whom he was dwelling when [Adam] was great and glorious. [1] This is why [it is written], “I have said, ‘You shall be gods.’” [2] Thus, the Word came and clothed itself with flesh, so that what cannot be grasped [3] might be grasped through that which can be grasped, [4] and that, through what cannot be grasped, the flesh would raise itself up against those who grasp it. [5] For it was fitting that our Lord be the haven of all good things to whom [people] might be gathered together, the end of all mysteries toward whom they would hasten from everywhere, and the treasure of all the parables so that everyone, lifted up [as though] on wings, might rest in him alone.

[See] the wisdom [of God], that in the fall of him who fell, there fell with him the One who was destined to raise him up. [6] Because the body of Adam was in existence before his [evil] passions, [our Lord] did not assume the passions with which [Adam subsequently] clothed himself, since they were a kind of additional weakness to a healthy nature. Our Lord clothed himself therefore with a healthy nature that had lost its health, so that the original health of this nature might thereby be restored. COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 1.1. [7]

[1] As McCarthy notes, “The reference here is to the First Adam before the fall. The second Adam is superior to the first. … The eschatological Paradise to which the Christian is restored through baptism [a key theme in early Syrian Christianity] is far more glorious than the original Paradise, for Christ, the Second Adam, has definitively reversed the effects of the disobedience of the First Adam. Adam’s pre-fallen state was neither mortal nor immortal, and, although he enjoyed a certain glory then, it was radically inferior to that of the Second Adam (cf. Commentary on Genesis and Hymns on Paradise).” See also Hymns on the Nativity 1.93-99.

[2] Ps 82:6.

[3] Divinity.

[4] Humanity

[5] Possibly a reference to demonic forces or powers of Satan that wage war against the flesh.

[6] Ephrem uses the same verb, “to fall,” to refer to the fall of the first Adam and the abasement through the incarnation of the second Adam.

[7] ECTD 39-40.

GOD ASSUMED THE WHOLE OF HUMANITY, EXCEPT FOR SIN

AUGUSTINE: It is not right to say that any part was lacking in that human nature he put on, except that it was a human nature altogether free from any bond of sin. ENCHIRIDION 10.34. [1]

[1] FC 2:400*.

GODHEAD IN THE FLESH SEEKS TO KILL DEATH THAT LURKS THERE

BASIL THE GREAT: How can the Godhead be in the flesh? In the same way as fire can be in iron: not by moving from place to place but by the one imparting to the other its own properties. Fire does not speed toward iron, but without itself undergoing any change it causes the iron to share in its own natural attributes. The fire is not diminished, and yet it completely fills whatever shares in its nature. So is it also with God the Word. He did not relinquish his own nature, and yet “he dwelt among us.” He did not undergo any change, and yet “the Word became flesh.” Earth received him from heaven, yet heaven was not deserted by him who holds the universe in being….

Let us strive to comprehend the mystery. The reason God is in the flesh is to kill the death that lurks there. As diseases are cured by medicines assimilated by the body, and as darkness in a house is dispelled by the coming of light, so death, which held sway over human nature, is done away with by the coming of God. And as ice formed on water covers its surface as long as night and darkness last but melts under the warmth of the sun, so death reigned until the coming of Christ; but when the grace of God our Savior appeared and the Sun of justice rose, death was swallowed up in victory, unable to bear the presence of true life. How great is God’s goodness, how deep his love for us! HOMILY ON CHRIST’S ANCESTRY 2.6. [1]

[1] JFC 24-25; PG 31:1460-61.

HUMANITY IS NO LONGER SUBJECT TO DEATH

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: John has now entered openly upon the declaration of the incarnation. For he plainly sets forth that the Only Begotten became and is called son of man; for his saying that “the Word was made flesh” signifies this and nothing else. For it is as though he had said more starkly “The Word was made man.” Speaking this way, he introduces nothing strange or unusual since divine Scripture often calls the whole creature by the name “flesh” by itself. [1] …

Humanity, then, is a creature who is rational but also composite. It consists of a soul that exists as well as this perishable and earthly flesh. And when it was made by God and was brought into being, not having of its own nature incorruption and immortality (for these things pertain essentially to God alone), it was sealed with the spirit of life by participation with the Divinity. In doing so, it gained the good that transcends nature. For he “breathed,” it says, “into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” [2] But when he was being punished for his transgressions, then with justice he heard, “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” [3] He was denuded of the grace. The “breath of life,” that is, the Spirit of him who says, “I am the life,” departed from the earthly body, and the creature fell into death through the flesh alone, the soul being kept in immortality, since to the flesh alone it was said. “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” It was necessary, therefore, that what in us was especially endangered should more urgently be restored, and by intertwining again with what is Life by nature, [our flesh] should be recalled to immortality. It was necessary that the sentence, “Dust you are, and to dust you will return” should be overturned, the fallen body being united ineffably to the Word that enlivens all things. For it was necessary that, becoming his flesh, it should partake of the immortality that is from him. For it would be absurd if fire should have the power of infusing into wood the perceptible quality of its inherent power and of all but transforming into itself anything that participates in it, and yet that we should not fully hold that the Word of God which is over all, would work into our flesh his own good, that is, life.

This, in my opinion, is probably the reason that the holy Evangelist, indicating the creature specifically by the part that was affected, says that “the Word of God became flesh,” so that we might see at once the wound and the medicine; [at once] the sick and the Physician; what had fallen into death and him who raised it to life; what was overcome by corruption and him who chased away the corruption, what was trapped in death and him who is superior to death; what was bereft of life and the Giver of life. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.9. [4]

[1] See Joel 2:28.

[2] Gen 2:7 LXX.

[3] Gen 3:19.

[4] LF 43:108-9**.

HE WAS MADE MAN SO WE MIGHT BE MADE GOD

ATHANASIUS: He was made man that we might be made god. [1] He manifested himself by a body that we might receive a conception of the unseen Father. He endured the hubris of humanity that we might inherit incorruptibility. For on the one hand, he himself was in no way injured, being impassible and incorruptible and very Word and God; but on the other hand, in his own impassibility he maintained and preserved those human beings who were suffering and for whose sakes he endured all this. ON THE INCARNATION 54.3. [2]

[1] Gk theopoiēthōmen. See 2 Pet 1:4; Ps 82:6. See also Discourse Against the Arians 2.70 (NPNF 2 4:386), where further references in Athanasius are listed, as well as his Letter 60.4; 61.2. Athanasius does not mean that we become God or somehow receive all of God’s attributes, although he does mention here the attribute of incorruptibility. Rather, he draws out the implication that we will be children of God not in name only, but truly, by adoption, because Christ has joined his nature to ours, which, as Hilary notes below, is communicated to us in the sacrament. This happens in us”by grace” in relation to Christ, who is Son and God”by nature.” The patristic writers did not break down the wall of ontological separation between creature and Creator as though implying that we share the same ontological existence as God as, for instance, the Mormons would teach. See Norman Russell, The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition OECS (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 1-2.

[2] NPNF 2 4:65*.

HE INCREASED WHAT IS OURS

GREGORY THE GREAT: But we say that the Word was made flesh not by losing what he was but by taking what he was not. For in the mystery of his incarnation the Only Begotten of the Father increased what was ours but diminished not what was his. LETTER 67. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 13:83*.

THE BREAD AND WINE

AUGUSTINE: What you can see here, dearly beloved, on the table of the Lord, is bread and wine; but this bread and wine, when the word is applied to it, becomes the body and blood of the Word. That Lord, you see, who “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” was so compassionate that he did not despise what he had created in his own image; and therefore “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” as you know. Because, yes, the very Word took to himself a man, that is, the soul and flesh of a man, and became man while remaining God. For that reason, because he also suffered for us, he also presented us in this sacrament with his body and blood, and this is what he made even us ourselves into as well. SERMON 229.1. [1]

[1] WSA 3 6:265. See also Hilary of Poitiers On the Trinity 3.5.

IN CHRIST WE HAVE THE FULLNESS OF GRACE

MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR: This grace we receive from [Christ’s] fullness always in proportion to our progress. Therefore, the one who keeps sacred the whole meaning of the Word of God’s becoming incarnate for our sake will acquire the glory full of grace and truth of the one who for our sake glorifies and consecrates himself in us by his coming. “When he appears we shall be like him.” [1] CHAPTERS ON KNOWLEDGE 1.76. [2]

[1] 1 Jn 3:2.

[2] MCSW 164.

OUR HUMANITY SEALED WITH HIS DIVINITY

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: On this day on which the Lord of all came among servants, let the lords also bow down to their servants lovingly.

On this day when the rich One was made poor for our sake, let the rich man also make the poor man a sharer at his table.

On this day a gift came out to us without our asking for it; let us then give alms to those who cry out and beg from us….

This Lord of natures today was transformed contrary to his nature; it is not too difficult for us also to overthrow our evil will.

Bound is the body by its nature for it cannot grow larger or smaller; but powerful is the will for it may grow to all sizes.

Today the Deity imprinted itself on humanity, so that humanity might also be cut into the seal of Deity. HYMNS ON THE NATIVITY 1.93-99. [1]

[1] ESH 74.

THE RICHES OF JESUS AND HIS POVERTY

AUGUSTINE: What could be richer than he through whom all things were made? A rich person can possess gold, but he cannot create it. These riches of his having thus been declared, now observe his poverty: “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” It is by this poverty of his that we have been enriched, because by his blood, which flowed from his flesh, the flesh the Word became in order to dwell among us, the sacking of our sins was torn up. Through that blood we have cast off the rags of iniquity, in order to clothe ourselves in the robes of immortality. SERMON 36.3. [1]

[1] WSA 3 2:175.

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