ACC ~ John 10 v29

HE RECEIVED US AT HIS BIRTH

HILARY OF POITIERS: This is the speech of conscious power—this confession of free and irresistible energy that will allow no one to pluck his sheep from his hand. But more than this, not only does he have the nature of God but he would have us know that that nature is his by birth from God, and so he adds, “That which the Father has given me is greater than all.” He does not conceal that his birth is from the Father, for what he received from the Father he says is greater than all. He received it in that he was born from him. He received it in the birth itself, not after it, and yet it came to him from Another, for he received it. [1] ON THE TRINITY 7.22. [2]

[1] He is not unbegotten.

[2] NPNF 2 9:127**.

THE HAND IS THE SEAT OF POWER

AUGUSTINE: The Son, born from everlasting of the Father, God from God, does not have equality with the Father by growth but by birth. But the Father is not God from the Son; the Son is God from the Father. Therefore in begetting the Son, the Father “gave” him to be God, in begetting he gave him to be coeternal with himself, in begetting he gave him to be his equal. This is that which is “greater than all.”… That which the Father gave him, that is, to be his Word, to be his only begotten Son, to be the brightness of his light. This is what is “greater than all.” This is why no one is able to take his sheep out of his hand, any more than from his Father’s hand…. If by hand we understand power, the power of the Father and the Son is one, even as their Godhead is one…. If we understand the Son as the hand of the Father, we must think so not in a bodily sense, as if God the Father had limbs, but as the Son being he by whom all things were made. [1] People often call other people “hands” when they make use of them for any purpose. And sometimes a person’s work is itself called his hand, because it is made by his hand, as when someone is said to know his own hand when he recognizes his own handwriting…. In this place, however, “hand” signifies the power of the Father and the Son. Otherwise, if we think that “hand” refers to the Son, we shall be in danger of imagining that if the Father has a hand who is his Son, so then Christ must also have a hand that is his son too. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 48.6-7. [2]

[1] This is similar to Irenaeus’s understanding of the Son and the Spirit as the two hands of God.

[2] NPNF 1 7:267-68**.

CHRIST APPEALS TO FATHER’S POWER

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: He referred the cause of it all to the Father, in order to confirm his words as indisputable to the unbelievers. And since what he had said could appear to be quite weak, that is, “no one will snatch them out of my hand,” for this reason he introduced the power of the Father and his outstanding greatness by saying, “no one can snatch them out of the Father’s hand,” because all are absolutely inferior to him. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 4.10.28-29. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:213.

Jn