ACC ~ Philippians 2 v9a

WHETHER THE DIVINE NATURE WAS EXALTED. THEODORET: Even to the most inattentive it is obvious that the divine nature needs nothing. He did not become human by being raised up from lowliness. Rather he abased himself from the utmost height. He did not receive what he did not have before but received as a man what he possessed as God. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.9.

HIS HUMANITY EXALTED. PSEUDO-VIGILIUS: It is not in his divine nature that the Son is said to have been exalted by the Father. Rather the one who was exalted and received “the name above every name” is the one who appeared by taking flesh from the Virgin’s womb, to be born as God and man. AGAINST VARIDMADUS THE ARIAN 30.

THE SON OF MAN EXALTED. ORIGEN: It was not the Word of God who needed or received exaltation. For the Word was in the beginning exalted with the Father. It was the Son of Man who was exalted from lowliness. This exaltation occurred when he had glorified God in his death. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 32.25.

THE DYING ONE EXALTED. GAUDENTIUS: “Therefore,” he says, “God exalted him.” But who was it that was exalted? Evidently the one who underwent the torture of the cross and death. It was not God himself, who is always on high throughout. TREATISE 19, ON THE PRIORITY OF THE FATHER 29.

WHAT WAS HUMBLED WAS EXALTED. ATHANASIUS: That “God has highly exalted him” does not imply that the essential nature of the Word at long last became exalted. For God the Son is and always was equal to God the Father. The exaltation is of the humanity. … The text says “he humbled himself” with reference to the assumption of the flesh. So too it says “he exalted him” with reference to the flesh. It was the human race that needed this, because of the humiliation of its flesh and because of its consequent death. Thus the Word who is immortal and the image of the Father “has taken the form of a slave” and suffered death on the cross as a man for our sake. He did this in order that he might thus present himself as an offering to the Father. It is thus as a man that he is said to have been exalted for our sake. Hence all of us die in Christ and through his death may again be exalted in Christ himself. AGAINST THE ARIANS 1.41.

WHAT IS EXALTED IS THAT WHICH WAS MADE LOW. GREGORY OF NYSSA: It is obvious that the highest is in need of no exaltation. Only what is lowly can be lifted to the exalted state, becoming now what it was not before. Being united to the Lord the human nature is lifted up to share in his divinity. What is exalted is that which has been lifted up from lowliness. ANTIRRHETICUS AGAINST APOLLINARIUS.

NO INJURY TO THE GODHEAD. CHRYSOSTOM: Having said that he became a man, Paul is not afraid thereafter to predicate lowly things of him, knowing that this predication of lowly things does the Godhead no injury. It is to Christ’s human nature that they apply. HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 8.2.5-11.

TEACHING US HUMILITY. AMBROSIASTER: He shows what and how much his humility deserved, so that we, trampling down our boastfulness, might find ourselves all the more humble. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.11.1.

Phil