ACC ~ Philippians 2 v7a

THE EMPTYING THROUGH OBEDIENCE. HILARY OF POITIERS: To assume “the form of a slave,” he “emptied himself” through obedience. He emptied himself, that is, from the “form of God,” which means “equality with God.” ON THE TRINITY 8.45.

THE EMPTYING COMMENSURATE WITH OUR NATURE. GREGORY OF NYSSA: And even the word emptied clearly affirms that he was not always as he appeared to us in history. … He “emptied himself,” as the apostle says, by contracting the ineffable glory of his Godhead within our small compass. In this way “what he was” remained great and perfect and incomprehensible, but “what he assumed” was commensurate with the measure of our own nature. ANTIRRHETICUS AGAINST APOLLINARIUS.

THE EMPTYING INVOLVED NO LOSS OF GODHEAD. AUGUSTINE: He is said to have “emptied himself” in no other way than by taking the form of a servant, not by losing the form of God. For that nature by which he is equal to the Father in the form of God remained immutable while he took our mutable nature, through which he was born of the Virgin. CONTRA FAUSTUM 3.6.

WHETHER HE HIMSELF CHANGED WHEN HE EMPTIED HIMSELF. AUGUSTINE: He “emptied himself,” not because as eternal Wisdom he underwent change. For as eternal Wisdom he is absolutely changeless. Rather with-out changing he chose to become known to humanity in such a humble form. ON FAITH AND THE CREED 18.

THE EMPTYING CONCEALED HIS DIGNITY. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: By “emptying” the holy Scripture signifies becoming of no account, just as in Corinthians Paul speaks of faith as if it had been made of no account, or emptied of significance, if Christ be not raised. So “our preaching has been made empty” means that it is of no account and futile. … Thus the phrase “he emptied himself” means that he did not yet reveal himself. Assuming the form of a slave, he concealed that dignity which was his. So he was deemed by onlookers to be what he seemed. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.2.

THE EMPTYING HIDES BUT DOES NOT CURTAIL THE DIVINITY IN HIM. GREGORY OF ELVIRA: We do not believe that he was so emptied that he himself as Spirit became something else. Rather he, having put aside for this time the honor of his majesty, put on a human body. Only by assuming human form could he become the Savior of humanity. Note that when the sun is covered by a cloud its brilliance is suppressed but not darkened. The sun’s light, which is suffused throughout the whole earth, penetrating all with its brilliant splendor, is presently obscured by a small obstruction of cloud but not taken away. So too that man, whom our Lord Jesus Christ put on, being our Savior, which means God and the Son of God, does not lessen but momentarily hides the divinity in him. ON THE FAITH 88-89.

THE EMPTYING AS AN EXPRESS IMAGE OF HIS GLORY. ORIGEN: The Son, “empting himself,” of his equality with the Father and showing us a way of knowing him, was made an express image of his substance, so that we who were unable to see the glory of pure light that inhered in the greatness of his divinity might, through that which was made splendor for us, find a way of contemplating the divine light through the sight of that splendor. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.8.

THE EMPTYING PASSIVE BUT VOLUNTARY. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He let himself be “emptied.” It was not through any compulsion by the Father. He complied of his own accord with the Father’s good pleasure. DIALOGUES ON THE TRINITY 1.

THE EMPTYING UNCOERCED. FAUSTINUS: If he “therefore emptied himself, assuming the form of a slave,” he was not coerced but was of his own accord made the Son of Man, existing as God’s equal in the form of God. Therefore you have the Son expressing in himself the faith proper to humans. ON THE TRINITY 17.

THE EMPTYING AS AN ASSUMPTION OF THE BODY. ORIGEN: In “emptying himself,” he became a man and was incarnate while remaining truly God. Having become a man, he remained the God that he was. He assumed a body like our own, differing only in that it was born from the Virgin by the Holy Spirit. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1, PREFACE 4.

THE EMPTYING AS AN ASSUMPTION OF FLESH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: What sort of emptying is this? To assume the flesh, even in the form of a slave, a likeness to ourselves while not being like us in his own nature but superior to the whole creation. Thus he humbled himself, descending by his economy into mortal bounds. ON THE UNITY OF CHRIST.

THE EMPTYING AS AN ASSUMPTION OF HUMANITY. MARIUS VICTORINUS: We must understand this “emptying himself” to consist not in any loss or privation of his power but in the fact that he lowered himself to the basest level and condescended to the meanest tasks. By fulfilling these he momentarily emptied himself of his power. Assuming flesh and human form and likeness, he suffered, died and fulfilled all the things that belong to humanity. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.6-8.

THE EMPTYING AS A LESSON IN HUMILITY. AMBROSIASTER: Christ, therefore, knowing himself to be “in the form of God,” showed himself equal to God. But in order to teach the law of humility when the Jews were binding him, he not only refrained from resistance but “emptied himself,” that is, withheld his power from taking effect, so that in his humiliation he seemed to be weakened as his power lay idle. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.8.1.

THE EMPTYING CONSISTENT WITH TRANSCENDENCE. PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE: Even in this he has what is supernatural and superessential, not only because he underwent no change or confusion in his communion with us, suffering no detriment to his exceeding fullness from his ineffable emptying but because also—the newest of all new things—he was supernatural even while in our natural condition. He was above the realm of essences while being in the realm of essences. He possessed our properties from us in a manner superior to ourselves. ON THE DIVINE NAMES 2.10.

THE EMPTYING CONSISTENT WITH OMNIPOTENCE. HILARY OF POITIERS: Remaining “in the form of God,” he “took the form of a slave,” not being changed but “emptying himself” and hiding within himself and being made empty within his own power. He tempered himself to the form of the human state as far as was necessary to ensure that the weakness of the assumed humility would not fail to bear his immeasurable power. He went even so far as to tolerate conjunction with a human body. Just this far did his goodness moderate itself with an appropriate degree of obedience. But in making himself empty and restraining himself within himself, he did nothing detrimental to his own power, since even within this lowliness of his self-emptying he nonetheless used the resources of the evacuated power within him. ON THE TRINITY 12.48.

THE EMPTYING NECESSARY FOR FULL HUMANITY. MARIUS VICTORINUS: How could he possibly have taken only human form and not human substance? For he put on the flesh and was in the flesh and suffered in the flesh. This is the mystery and the means of our salvation. … What therefore does it mean, “he emptied himself?” That the universal Logos was not universal in his actual being as the logos of the flesh and becoming flesh. Therefore he did not merely pretend to become a man but became a man. AGAINST THE ARIANS 1.22.

THE EMPTYING A PROOF OF FULL INCARNATION. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: By this alone let the difference between the divinity and humanity in him be perceived. For Godhead and humanity are not the same in natural quality. Otherwise how has the Word, being God, been “emptied,” having let himself fall among lesser beings such as ourselves? But when we speculate on the mode of incarnation the human mind inevitably sees two things commingled by an inexpressible and unconfused union yet in no way divides the united elements but believes and firmly accepts that there is one from both, who is God, Son, Christ and Lord. LETTER TO ACACIUS 14.

THE EMPTYING ENABLES HUMAN NATURE TO ACCOMMODATE GOD’S REVELATION. GREGORY OF NYSSA: The Godhead is emptied so that the human nature may accommodate it. What is human, on the other hand, is made new, becoming divine through mingling with the divine. AGAINST EUNOMIUS 3.3.67.

RECEIVING AS MUCH AS NATURE COULD HOLD. GREGORY OF NYSSA: He “emptied himself,” as the Scripture says, so that as much as nature could hold it might receive. AD THEOPHILUM ADVERSUS APOLLINARISTAS 3.

HUMAN NATURE MADE ABLE TO RECEIVE. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: Since he is emptied on our account when he came down (and by emptying I mean as it were the reduction and lessening of his glory), he is for this reason able to be received. ORATION 37.2.

THE EMPTYING A RESTORATION OF OUR NATURE BY HIS HUMILITY. EUSEBIUS OF VERCELLI: How then did he “empty himself”? When the “form of God accepted the form of a slave,” when he who is preeminently the Lord deigned to take on himself what belongs to a slave. The Word was made flesh by bearing and doing what was beneath him in his indulgence and compassion toward us. All that he possessed by nature is emptied into this his person. Having been made obedient as a man in the true “fashion of humanity,” he has restored to our nature by his own humility and obedience what had perished through disobedience in Adam. ON THE TRINITY 10 (9).57.

THE SOVEREIGNTY TEMPORARILY UNDER SUBMISSION. NOVATIAN: The sovereignty of the divine Word temporarily submitted to assume a man and for a season “humbled himself” and abased himself, not exercising his nature through his powers, while he bore the man that he had assumed. He “emptied himself” when he bowed to injuries and slanders, when he heard unspeakable insults and suffered indignities. ON THE TRINITY 22.8-9.

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