ACC ~ Matthew 11 v27

ALL THINGS DELIVERED TO ME BY MY FATHER

JEROME: The Father entrusts. The Son receives. What is entrusted? All things have been entrusted to the Son, but this does not mean cosmically heaven and earth and the elements and the rest of nature which God himself made and established. Rather, it refers personally to the people who have access to the Father through the Son and who were formerly rebellious but afterward began to know God. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 2.11.27. [1]

[1] CCL 77:86.

NO ONE KNOWS THE FATHER EXCEPT THE SON

HILARY: So that it might not be supposed that anything in him is less than what is in God, [1] Jesus said that everything was entrusted to him by his Father, that he alone was known to his Father and that his Father was known to him alone or to one to whom he himself had wished to reveal his Father. By this revelation Jesus showed that the same essence of both Father and Son existed in their knowledge of each other. One who could know the Son would also know the Father in his Son, because everything was handed down to him from the Father. Moreover, nothing else was handed down than what was known to the Father in the Son alone, but the things that belonged to the Father were known to be revealed in the Son alone. Thus in this mystery of mutual knowledge it is understood that nothing else existed in the Son than what was known to be in the Father. ON MATTHEW 11.12. [2]

[1] On Christ as image (= revealer) see Col 1:15.

[2] SC 254:266.

ANYONE TO WHOM THE SON CHOOSES TO REVEAL HIM

CHRYSOSTOM: This may seem to the uninitiated quite disconnected with the passage that went before, but the two stand in full accord. Having said “all things have been delivered to me by my Father,” he adds, “and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” In this he is quietly signifying his great privilege of knowing the Father and being of the same substance with him, he being the only One who knows the Father so intimately. …

Note the timing and context in which he said this. It was just after he had worked miracles and the disciples of John had received proofs of his might by his works. He then thanks the Father that “that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes.” THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 38.2. [1]

[1] PG 57:430; NPNF 1 10:252**.

EVERYTHING HANDED DOWN FROM THE FATHER

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The one who sees the Son, who has the image of the Father in himself, sees the Father himself. … These things are to be understood in a manner befitting to God. He said, “Everything has been handed down to me” so that he might not seem to be a member of a different species or inferior to the Father. Jesus added this in order to show that his nature is ineffable and inconceivable, like the Father’s. For only the divine nature of the Trinity comprehends itself. Only the Father knows his own Son, the fruit of his own substance. Only the divine Son recognizes the One by whom he has been begotten. Only the Holy Spirit knows the deep things of God, the thought of the Father and the Son. FRAGMENT 148. [1]

[1] MKGK 200.

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