Chapter X.
I know that you remember what we spoke to your love concerning the Holy Spirit, when we showed the greatness of His glory from the fact that in the initiation of baptism He is believed in side by side with the Father and the Son. We adduced another reason which is no less cogent than this from the fact that He is alone called exclusively Holy Spirit, a name which in the teaching of the Books is simply ascribed to Divine nature; and also from the fact that He is called one Spirit like one Son, one God and one Lord. To those who have goodwill in religion the words written in the sacred Books would have been sufficient; these have been written also in the teaching of our blessed Fathers, who, however, because there are no adequate words easily to convince an evil mind, added of necessity to their teaching a statement which they chose in order to warn the children of the faith and refute the error of the heretics. They inserted, therefore, in their doctrine words that resemble those said of the Son. In speaking of the Son it was sufficient for those who do not refuse to be convinced to state that the one who was called an Only Begotten Son was truly a Son consubstantial with His Father, but on account of the wicked men who are bent on perversion they added: Born of Him before all the worlds, and not made, true God of true God, consubstantial with His Father, and in this they made |105 clear to all the meaning of the name '' Only Begotten" in order to confirm the faithful and rebuke the haters of truth.
In this same way they inserted here also a word which gives us the true meaning of the name which is handed down to us by the Divine Books concerning the Spirit, who at the time of our initiation and baptism is confessed side by side with the Father and the Son. For people of goodwill in religion a word which would show that the Holy Spirit was of the Divine nature of God the Father would have been sufficient, but on account of people inclined to insolence and steadfast in it and in blasphemy, our blessed Fathers were rightly advised, even after all this credible teaching, to corroborate the doctrine of faith by means of a short addition, for the benefit of all and especially for your benefit, you who are on the point of drawing nigh unto the gift of the Spirit. They, therefore, said: And in ONE Holy Spirit. They did not invent this expression but took it from the teaching of our Lord, who, speaking to all His disciples before His passion wished to instruct them on the kind of resurrection from the dead which He will grant to mankind, and said that He will bestow upon them the grace of the Holy Spirit from which is derived the happiness of the future good things, which are so wonderful and have such a permanent effect on those who are worthy to receive them.
He rightly instructed us in His teaching on the greatness and glory of the Holy Spirit, and by this He showed us the greatness of the grace which was to be given to the faithful, so that we should firmly believe in the wonderful benefits which from it would be granted to us and would never be taken from us. He said thus: "If ye love me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall send you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever." He showed them in these words: You should persevere in keeping My commandments, never to deviate from them in any way, and since you will not be receiving a casual and ordinary thing only, you will have to show great care and diligence: you will be receivers of no less a gift than the grace of the Holy Spirit, which will be always with you and bestow heavenly gifts upon you. And in corroboration of what had been said He added something that shows the honour due to the Holy Spirit, and said: "The Spirit of Truth." Indeed, it is |106 the nature of the Spirit to give everything in truth without any change, and because He is eternal, immutable and unchangeable in His nature He is able to bestow upon others the delight of heavenly gifts which will not perish nor suffer any change.
(The Book) calls falsehood a perishable thing that is not permanent, and truth an imperishable thing that is permanent. Because the one who affirms a thing which does not exist lies, and the one who affirms a thing which exists tells the truth, it (the Book) calls falsehood a thing which does not last because it becomes like a thing which does not exist, while it calls truth a thing which lasts and exists permanently. This is the reason why the blessed David said: "I said in my haste, All men are liars," that is to say because I became proud and thought highly of myself I suddenly fell into dire calamities and was in danger, as if I was nothing, and was about to perish, if Thy wonderful help had not assisted me; I was astonished at the great number of calamities that assailed me and understood that it was falsely that I had thought highly of myself; I found by experience that human things are nothing and that in truth they are all false: wealth, power, might, and all things which are considered by men to be great and wonderful. All these things, nay, even the fact of our existence are also false, because we make show of this fact of our existence to deceive those who see us, while eventually we are cut off by death and reminded that we are nothing, and all the great things that we are supposed to possess leave us at the end of our life.
As (the Book) calls falsehood a thing that has no enduring effect so it calls truth a thing that is lasting and does not perish, as it is said, "Mercy and truth will meet us" to show us that He (God) will truly grant us mercy. He is, therefore, called God of truth because He is truly able to give us all. It is said: "Thou hast saved us O Lord God of truth," that is to say, Thou hast saved us from the calamities that are known to us because Thou alone art able to grant benefits that are lasting and imperishable to whomsoever Thou wishest. The blessed David said these things of God and called Him God of truth in order to show that He is truly able to grant everything.
Our Lord also said similar things of the Holy Spirit in order to confirm the truth of the future good things that will be granted to us |107 in the next world by the same Holy Spirit. It is as if He had said: The Holy Spirit, the gift of whose grace you will receive, is one who gives heavenly and imperishable benefits to all He pleases, and because He is eternal in His nature and immutable and unchangeable, the things which He will give will also last for ever and will not change or perish. It is not possible that the one who grants benefits which are unchangeable and imperishable should not Himself be eternal and imperishable in His nature, and such a one is indeed Divine nature which is eternal. In created things there is nothing that can last by itself; the one who may be so constituted is so through another; indeed, how can a created being have by himself the attribute of permanency unless this be given to him by his Maker? The one, however, who is eternal, because immutable in His nature, is able to grant imperishable benefits to others as He pleases.
In short, Christ our Lord gave us a great testimony about the nature of the Spirit, in saying, "The Spirit of Truth." This expression cannot in any way fit the created beings because they are very far from being able to give any lasting thing to others, as they themselves are in need of their Maker to remain in the state in which they had once been created. And He fittingly added: "Whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." There is no reason to wonder that the Holy Spirit is so in His nature and in His power, as in His nature He is higher than all creation and there is no created being that can see Him and receive Him in His nature or understand Him, if He Himself does not reveal His knowledge to mankind by His will. This is the reason why He added: "But you know Him for He is with you and dwelleth in you," and you rightly receive His knowledge because you have received from Him the gift of grace, which will remain with you for ever for the confirmation of the pleasures of the future good things in which you will be immortal and immutable.
Our blessed Fathers inserted this expression concerning the Holy Spirit as they had received it from our Lord, and added another: Who proceeds from the Father. This is also found in the teaching of our Lord to His disciples: "When the Spirit Paraclete is come, whom I will send unto you, even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father, He will testify of me." Here also He |108 revealed in advance the gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit which was to be bestowed upon all the disciples after His ascension. In saying: "When the Paraclete is come, whom I will send unto you" He refers to the grace of the Spirit which He was about to bestow on them. He was not going to send unto them the Divine nature of the Spirit which was everywhere, but He said this of the gift of the grace which was poured upon them and in which He called also the Paraclete the "Comforter," because He was able to impart unto them the knowledge which was required of them for comforting their souls in the numerous trials of this world.
After having spoken of the gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit He began to speak of His nature and of the greatness of the honour due to Him, in order to show the character of the grace which they were going to receive, and said: "The Spirit of Truth." This expression denotes the greatness of His nature and His power to grant imperishable benefits to all He pleases. Then He added the sentence that "He proceeds from the Father" to signify that He is always with God the Father and inseparable from Him. This has also been said by the blessed Paul: "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit who is from God." He meant by this that as the spirit of man is not separated from him as long as he is and remains a man, so also the Holy Spirit is not separated from God the Father because He is from Him and from His nature, and is always known and confessed side by side with Him To this our Lord referred as by a hint when He said: "He proceeds from the Father," because the Holy Spirit is a spring which is always with God and has never been separated from Him. He has not been created later but He is eternally in Him, and He is from the nature of God the Father, and eternal; and like a river with undiminishing flow, He bestows His gifts upon whom He pleases.
In this way He said also in another passage: "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," and the blessed evangelist interpreting this expression said: "This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." He explains here clearly that He was |109 speaking of the gift of the Spirit. He did not speak of the person or of the nature of the Holy Spirit that they were not yet, when he said that Jesus was not yet glorified, because He was eternally before all creation, but He said it of the gift of the Holy Spirit which after the ascension of our Lord into heaven was poured and seen on the blessed Apostles and on those who were with them. He said that the gift of the Holy Spirit will be poured on those who will believe in Him, like an undiminishing flow of water, because it will be given by God the Spirit, who thus makes manifest His work of giving eternal life to those who believe in Him.
He who says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father shows that He is eternally with God the Father and is not separated from Him, because He is always and eternally in Him. Indeed if gifts proceed from the Holy Spirit like a river, and if this Spirit proceeds from God the Father, it is clear that He is eternally from Him and with Him and He did not come into existence later. As when the Book says that "a river proceeded from Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads," we rightly understand that the source which made these rivers to flow from Eden was not parted for the reason that it was from thence that it had to flow, so also when our Lord says in parable of the Holy Spirit that He proceeds from the Father, He gives us to understand that the Holy Spirit is not separated from Him, but He is eternally from Him, in Him and with Him, and like an undiminishing river He distributes gifts to all creatures according to the measure of the faith of His receivers, as the blessed Paul said: "There are diversities of Gifts but the Spirit is one," and also "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal."
In explaining this expression of our Lord our blessed Fathers said that He proceeds from the nature of the Father, that He proceeds from Him eternally, and that He was always in the Father and did not come into existence later. It is evident that he who is eternally from the Father and with Him, proceeds also from His nature, because it is impossible that anything should be with God which is not by nature from Him. |110
After this they added in their teaching concerning the Spirit: Giver of Life , an expression which aptly demonstrates that the Holy Spirit is God like the expressions discussed above. Our Lord said: "The water that I shall give shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." He refers by His words to the gift of the Holy Spirit which gives everlasting life to those who are worthy of it. And again in another passage: "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." He calls living water the gift of the Holy Spirit because it can grant everlasting life. And the Apostle also said: "The letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life" and showed us that He will make us immortal. And again in another passage: "The first Adam was made a living soul and the second Adam a quickening Spirit." He shows by his words that Christ our Lord was changed in His body, at the resurrection from the dead, to immortality by the power of the Holy Spirit. He likewise said in another passage: "He was declared to be the Son of God with power and by the Spirit of holiness, and rose up from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." And: "If the Spirit of Him that raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead shall also quicken your dead bodies because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
Our Lord also said when teaching us concerning His body: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing" in order to show that He also had immortality from the Holy Spirit and to demonstrate this point to others. Such an act belongs indeed to the nature that is eternal and cause of everything, because to Him who is able to create something from nothing belongs the act of giving life, that is to say, to make us immortal so that we should always live. Even among created beings those who have an immortal nature are considered higher in rank, and it is, therefore, clear and evident that he who is able to perform this act is also able to perform other acts. God Himself shows that it is the prerogative of the Divine nature to |111 do this in saying: "Know now that I am He and there is no God beside Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal." He shows that it is His exclusive prerogative to raise from the dead and to free from their pain those who are wounded.
It is with the (above) words that our blessed Fathers warned us and taught us that we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit was from the Divine nature of God the Father. This is the reason why He is confessed and believed in side by side with the Father and the Son at the time of initiation and baptism. Each one of us is baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, according to the doctrine of our Fathers, which is derived from the teaching of our Lord, so that it should be made clear and manifest to all that our blessed Fathers handed down to us the doctrine of the true faith by following the order of Christ. Even the words of the creed contain nothing but an explanation and interpretation of the words found in the teaching of our Lord. Indeed, He who ordered to baptise the Gentiles in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit showed us clearly that the Divine nature of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is one. It was not possible that He should induce the Gentiles—who were converted to the true faith by casting away from them the error of polytheism and rejecting those who were falsely called gods—to receive a teaching that drew them nigh unto the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, if He did not know the oneness of their Divine nature which exists eternally and which is the cause of everything; (nor would He have induced us) to secede from those who are not truly gods and to believe in one Divine nature which is Father, Son and Holy Spirit; to desist from calling creatures gods and to believe that the uncreated nature is one, which from nothing can make everything because it is truly Lord and God to whom this name and this honour are justly due.
This is the reason why our Lord caused baptism to follow catechumenate so that baptism should be the end of catechumenate. It was necessary for those who had rejected false gods and learnt that Divine nature was one, eternal and cause of everything, which is |112 Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to receive through these names the gift of baptism which is bestowed for the sake of a wonderful happiness and is the earnest of the future and ineffable benefits. Faith is professed at baptism by the mention of these names, because those who mention them designate one Divine nature which is eternal, cause of everything, and able to create all things from nothing while always caring and providing for them. We also rightly expect to be renewed and to receive the freedom of truth through these names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit which are pronounced at baptism.
Immediately after the profession of faith in baptism they (our blessed Fathers) added the profession of faith in: One Catholic Church. (It is as if the catechumen says): I shall be baptised in order to be a member of the great body of the Church, as the blessed Paul said: "One body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling." He does not call Church the building made with hands, even if we suppose that it has been so called because of the congregation of the faithful who are in it, but he calls Church all the congregation of the faithful who worship God in the right way and those who after the coming of Christ believed in Him from all countries till the end of the world and the second coming of our Saviour from heaven, which we are expecting. When our Lord also said to His blessed disciples: "Go ye and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you," He added: "Lo, I am with you in all days even unto the end of the world." He said the words "with you" in the person of the Apostles to all who will believe in Him in every country, and who will be baptised according to this teaching till the end of the world.
This congregation of the faithful and God-fearing men our Lord called also Church when He said: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." He promised to assemble together all God-fearing men to this faith and to this creed, and their gathering will not perish nor be prevailed against, in their fight with the enemies. Upon this the blessed Paul said: "To the intent that unto the principalities and powers in heaven might be known by the Church the depth of the wisdom |113 of God, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord before the worlds." He shows here that in this manifold wisdom of God the invisible powers were astonished that He assembled together all men to the worship of God, and made them as one body of Christ at the second birth from the holy baptism, and prepared them to hope that they will participate with Him in the future good things of the next world. He calls this Church the body of Christ because it received communion with Him through the regeneration of baptism, symbolically in this world but truly and effectively in the next, when "our vile body shall be changed, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." As we are in this world like unto the body of Adam and we resemble him also in our body, so we shall be called the body of Christ our Lord, because when our vile body is changed we shall receive the glory of His body.
The blessed Paul shows this in another passage: "I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is His church, whereof I am made a minister." He clearly calls the Church the body of Christ, for the maintenance of which he became a minister, and because of this he endured and suffered much; and he shows also that all the faithful became one body through one power of the Holy Spirit because they were called to one future hope. This is the reason why in writing to the Corinthians he said: "You are the body of Christ our Lord." Our Lord also said by way of prayer in His words to His disciples: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us," i.e. I desire that not only these but all those who shall believe in me through them, be one in the change (which they will undergo for the possession) of the future benefits; as I have with Thee a close and ineffable union so let them also be one in their faith in Us, through the perfection of their change (for the possession) of those benefits, and be like unto My glory and possess union with Me, by means of which they will gradually move to the honour of relationship with the Divine nature.
We symbolise this state in baptism, since we die with Christ in baptism and rise again according to the testimony of the blessed Paul. |114 This is the reason why each one of us declares: "I will believe and be baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit through one holy Catholic Church." (The catachumen) shows by his words: I am not preparing for baptism for the sake of little things but for the sake of great and wonderful things and heavenly benefits, as I am expecting that through baptism I shall be made a member of the Church, which is the congregation of the faithful, who through baptism became worthy to be called the body of Christ our Lord and received an ineffable holiness and the hope of the future immortality and immutability. And it is one Church, which embraces all, on account of those who believe in all countries and expect to receive heavenly life, as the blessed Paul said: "The heavenly Church in which are written the firstborn of God." He called them "The firstborn" because they will receive the wonderful adoption of sons in a primary predestination, not like that of the Jews which was of a changing character, but an ineffable immortality and immutability in good, which is granted to those who are worthy of it. He called them also "written in heaven," because it is there that they will dwell.
They called the Church "holy" because of the holiness and the immutability which it will receive from the Holy Spirit, and "Catholic" in order to refer to all those who believed in all countries and at all times, and "one" because only those who believed in Christ will receive the future good things, and it is they who are "one holy Church."
In order to show the utility that accrues from this profession of faith they (our blessed Fathers) said: For the remission of sins. In these words they did not mean a simple remission of sin but its complete abolition. Our Lord said also: "This is My body which is broken on behalf of many for remission of sins," that is to say all |115 sins will be wiped off, because a true remission consists in the remission not of some sins but of all of them, as the blessed John said: "Behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." This, however, will take place fully in the next world when after the resurrection we shall be immortal and immutable and when all the impulses of sins will cease. This is the reason why the blessed Paul also said: "If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised your faith is vain and ye are yet in your sins." He shows in this that in the future resurrection from the dead we are expecting complete abolition of sin.
Our blessed Fathers, therefore, after having said, Remission of sins, added: For the resurrection of the flesh and life everlasting. They show here that we shall receive these when we shall have risen from the dead and received the happiness of the everlasting good things, and then after we have become truly immutable, the complete abolition of sin will take place, and we shall become one, holy and Catholic Church, as we shall receive an ineffable holiness and become immortal and immutable and be worthy to be always with Christ: "When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the strength of the sin is the law." Then will truly take place the abolition of all these: of death, sin and corruption, and with them the law also will be abolished because saints who have become immortal and incorruptible are in no need of the law.
Our blessed Fathers did, therefore, well to give us first the profession of faith through which we receive our teaching according to the doctrine of our Lord, and understand that which we have to learn concerning the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to the effect that the same Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one Divine nature, which is eternal and cause of everything, and that this nature is rightly and alone called Lord and God, whom we ought to confess, in whom we ought to believe and to whom worship is due from all created beings. After this, they taught us the profession of faith (which is to be made) at baptism in order to show that all this is in |116 accordance with the sequence of the teaching of our Lord who said: "Go ye, teach and baptise in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Thus they are taught and thus they perform the (sacrament of) baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Those who are about to be baptised in the hope of ineffable benefits ought not to name another nature beside the one from which all benefits are bestowed on all created beings. This is the reason why they added to this the profession of faith concerning the future benefits in the hope of which we draw nigh unto the grace of baptism, as by necessity we have to know what kind of benefits are granted to this discipleship, and also that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one Divine nature, and also that at the second birth from the holy baptism we receive the faith in the heavenly and imperishable benefits that the Divine nature, which is eternal and cause of everything, is able to bestow upon us.
We have in many past days spoken to your love in a comprehensive way that embraces the explanation of all the creed. It behoves you now to remember carefully the words that have been spoken to you in order that by keeping without modification the creed of the religion of the fear of God you may truly receive the happiness of the future benefits, of which may God make us worthy by the grace of His Only Begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom and His Father, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, be glory and honour, now, always and for ever and ever. Amen. Amen.
Here ends the transcription of the ten chapters on the exposition of the creed, written by the righteous and lover of Christ, Mar Theodore, bishop and interpreter of the Divine Books.
1. Of the Council of Nicea.
2. 1 Cor. ii. 9.
3. Cf . Eph. i. 8-9; Col. i. 26; iv. 3-4, etc.
4. 1 Cor. ii. 11-13.
5. Ps. xcviii. 1. (Peshitta has "a marvellous thing.")
6. 2 Cor. v. 1 7.
7. Lit. from.
8. Col. iii. 10-11.
9. Phil. iii. 20.
10. 2 Cor. v. 1.
11. 3 Ibid. Cf Heb. ix. 11, 24.
12. Or written.
13. Cf. Gen. iii. 18 etc.
14. Cf. Is. xxxv. 10.
15. John iii. 5.
16. Cf. Rom. viii. 1 7; Gal. iii. 29; iv. 7; Tit. iii. 7.
17. Lit. our first.
18. Or: religion, confession.
19. Or: godliness. Does it possibly render the Greek Θεοσέβεια ?
20. Rom. x. 10.
21. Heb. xi. 1.
22. 1 Tim. vi. 16.
23. Heb. xi. 6.
24. Heb. xi. 3.
25. The word that I translate by "religion" literally means "fear of God," and it is possibly the Greek word used by Paul ( θεοσέβεια ) which the English Bible renders by "godliness."
26. 1 Tim. iii. 15.
27. Lit. " who fully shows His Father in it."
28. Deut. vi. 4; Mark xii. 29, etc.
29. Jer. x. 11.
30. Cf also Deut. xxxii. 39.
31. Is. xliv. 6, etc.
32. Lit. high above creation.
33. Ps. lxxxi. 9.
34. Ibid.
35. Deut. xxxii. 1 7.
36. Matt, xxviii. 19.
37. Deut. vi 4.
38. Gen. iv. 1.
39. i.e.. He is Father par excellence.
40. Exod. iii. 14-15.
41. See on all this, p. 98.
42. Ps. cxlviii. 1 -3.
43. Ps. cxlviii. 5-6.
44. Is. i. 2.
45. Exod. iv. 22.
46. The words baitayutha and kaributha used in these sentences may also be understood in the sense of the Pauline "adoption of Children" and of the doctrine of the membership of the Household of God spoken of in Eph. ii. 19. See the following chapter.
47. Gen. i. 24.
48. Or: "servants created," if we read `abde for `ebade of the MS.
49. Or "human seed," or "movement" or "lapse of time." (Syr. marditha .)
50. Here again is the Syriac word marditha.
51. Lit. let us call Him.
52. Ps. civ. 24.
53. 1 Cor. viii. 6.
54. Lit. fear of God.
55. 1 Cor. viii. 6.
56. Ibid.
57. Deut. vi. 4.
58. Matt. i. 21; Luke i. 31.
59. Acts x. 38.
60. Philip. ii. 7.
61. 1 Tim. iii. 16.
62. John i. 14.
63. 1 Cor. viii. 6.
64. John i. 3.
65. Acts x. 38; 1 Tim. iii. 16; Heb. ii. 9-10.
66. In the text: Parsopa = πρόσωπον .
67. Rom. ix. 5.
68. John i. 14.
69. Ibid, 18.
70. Ps. lxxi. 9, 12.
71. Rom. viii. 29.
72. Ibid., 23; Galat. iv. 5; Eph. i. 5.
73. Col. i. 15.
74. 2 Cor. v. 17.
75. Phil. ii. 7.
76. Ps. lxxxii. 6.
77. Is. i. 2.
78. Eph. ii. 19.
79. Or "a servant," if we read `abda, instead of `ebadha.
80. John i. 1.
81. Ibid.
82. Lit. person ( Kenoma ).
83. The word "creature" may be translated in all this section by "work," "a created being," a sense which in reality fits some sentences better.
84. John i. 1.
85. Lit. high.
86. Ps. lxxxii. 6.
87. Lit. "one is consubstantial with the other," or "this is consubstantial with that."
88. John i. 1.
89. John x. 30.
90. Ibid, 27-28.
91. Ibid, 29.
92. John xiv. 9.
93. Ibid. , 11.
94. Matt. xi. 2 7.
95. Acts xvii. 28.
96. Tit. i. 12.
97. John i. 1.
98. Ibid, 3.
99. Heb. i. 2.
100. Cf. Rom. viii. 3; Phil. ii. 7, etc.
101. Phil. ii. 7.
102. Cf. Matt, xviii. 11.
103. John i. 10-11.
104. Ps. xviii. 9.
105. Cf Phil. ii. 7.
106. Lit. "from there."
107. Ps. viii. 4.
108. Cf Ps. xvi. 10; Acts ii. 27; xiii. 35.
109. John ii. 19.
110. Lit. "until with help he loosed."
111. Acts ii. 24.
112. This passage is quoted in the Acts of the Fifth Council (Mansi, ix., p. 218). It is stated in this Council that it is culled from Theodore's book ad baptizandos. See the "Prefatory Note."
113. Ephes. i. 21.
114. John x. 33.
115. Phil. ii. 7-8.
116. Rom. viii. 3.
117. 1 Tim. iii. 16.
118. I.e. to the soul.
119. Lit. "a man like a man."
120. Rom. v. 12, 15 and 1 7.
121. 1 Cor. xv. 22.
122. Cf. 1 Cor. xv. 56.
123. 1 Tim. iii. 6.
124. Rom. i. 28-31.
125. Rom. viii. 1-2 where "me" for "thee."
126. Cf. 2 Cor. i. 9.
127. I.e., personality, existence. I prefer here also to use the word "person" (in Syr. Kenoma ) which is probably a translation of the Greek u9po/stasij in order to preserve the nature and the character of the theological terms used in the fourth century.
128. I.e., as long as the animal qua animal is alive.
129. The ancients believed the soul of the animal to reside in the blood. See Barsalibi's treatise against the Armenians, vol. iv., p. 33 of my Woodbrooke Studies, and `Ali Tabari's Book of Religion and Empire, p. 82 of my edition. Cf. Aristotle, De anima, i. 2, and Levit. xvii. 18.
130. Lit. Receiving anything.
131. Matt. x. 28.
132. Lit. person of the soul.
133. Possibly: because he resembles.
134. John xiv. 30
135. Rom. v. 21.
136. Note the use of the word ethhayyal.
137. Cf. Rom. vi. 17, etc.
138. Lit. received.
139. John xii. 31 -32.
140. Lit. "that He had a kind of judgment with the Rebel."
141. 1 Tim. iii. 16.
142. Heb. ix. 14.
143. This passage is also quoted in the Acts of the Fifth Council (Mansi, ix. 218). It is again stated in this Council that it is culled from Theodore's work ad baptizandos. See the "Prefatory Note."
144. Rom. viii. 23.
145. 2 Cor. i. 21-22.
146. 1 Cor. xv. 53-56.
147. Ibid, 57.
148. This passage is also quoted in the Acts of the Fifth Council (Mansi, ix. 218). It is again stated in this Council that it is excerpted from Theodore's work ad baptizandos. See the "Prefatory Note."
149. Phil. iii. 21.
150. Gal. iv. 4, etc.
151. 1 Cor. i. 18.
152. Lit. in all versions: "that perish."
153. Lit. "alive," as in the Peshitta.
154. 2 Cor. xiii. 4.
155. I.e. natures.
156. Rom. ix. 5.
157. This sentence is quoted in the Acts of the Fifth Council. See "Prefatory Note."
158. Phil. ii. 6-7.
159. Lit. was found to be a man.
160. Phil. ii. 8-11.
161. Col. iii. 1, etc.
162. Luke ii. 7.
163. Text: All these together with.
164. Luke ii. 51-52.
165. Lit. of men.
166. Gal. iv. 4.
167. Gal. iv. 4-5.
168. Gal. v. 1.
169. 2 Tim. ii. 8, etc.
170. Heb. ii. 5-6.
171. Ibid., 16.
172. I.e. Christ; cf. 1 Cor. xv. 23
173. Col. i. 18.
174. Lit. was perfected.
175. Lit. head.
176. In His baptism.
177. Lit. with those.
178. Lit. that world.
179. Rom. vi. 17.
180. Ibid., 3-4.
181. Rom. vii. 4, where no "Jesus."
182. Acts. ii. 24.
183. Col. iii. 1, etc.
184. Heb. vii. 22.
185. 2 Tim. i. 9, etc.
186. Tit. iii. 6.
187. 2 Cor. v. 5; Eph. i. 14.
188. Acts ii. 33.
189. 1 Cor. xv. 44.
190. Lit. faith like this.
191. Lit. here.
192. Eph. i. 13.
193. 2 Cor. viii. 9.
194. I translate "He was" literally.
195. 1 Cor. xv. 3-4.
196. Ibid., 4.
197. 1 Cor. xv. 14, 16-17.
198. 1 Cor. xv. 17.
199. Luke xxiv. 51.
200. Acts i. 9-10.
201. 1 Cor. xv. 23.
202. 1 Thess. iv. 16-17.
203. Phil. iii. 20-21.
204. 2 Cor. v. 1.
205. Ibid., 6-8, where "with the Lord" for" with Christ."
206. Lit. those future things.
207. Gal. iv. 26.
208. 1 Cor. xv. 23.
209. Eph. ii. 1.
210. Ibid., 5.
211. Ibid, 7.
212. Phil. iii. 21.
213. 1 Cor. xv. 51-52.
214. 1 Thess. iv. 15-17.
215. John ii. 21.
216. John x. 18.
217. Acts. i. 1 1.
218. Lit. did.
219. Tit. ii. 13.
220. 2 Tim. iv. 1.
221. Phil. ii. 6-7.
222. Matt. xxii. 42.
223. Matt. i. 1 (not literal quotation).
224. Matt. xxii. 43-45.
225. John viii. 19.
226. John xiv. 9.
227. John xvi. 25.
228. Ibid., 24.
229. Ibid., 12-13.
230. John ii. 19.
231. Ibid, 21.
232. Cf. Ps. xvi. 10.
233. Or: do to it.
234. Heb. ii. 10.
235. Phil. ii. 7.
236. Heb. ii. 5-8.
237. Ibid., 16.
238. Ibid, 9.
239. Ibid. The Pauline sentence ὅπως χάριτι Θεοῦ ὑπερ παντὸς γεύσηται θανάτου is rendered in the English Bible as follows: "That He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." In this translation Jesus tastes death by the grace of God. In the West Syrian or Monophysite Versions of the Bible we generally read: "Because He, God, by His grace tasted death for every man." ([Syriac]) In this translation it is God who tastes death. Against such an idea the East Syrian or Diophysite versions of the Bible read as above: " Apart from God He (Jesus) tasted death." In this rendering death is removed from God. The sentence played a great part in the Christological controveries of the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries. The Vulgate reads: "Ut gratia Dei pro omnibus gustaret mortem." For a full discussion of this passage and the different readings of the ancient Greek MSS. concerning it see Moffatt in International Critical Commentary (Hebrews), pp. 25-28.
240. This passage is quoted in the Acts of the Fifth Council (Mansi, ix., 21 7). See the "Prefatory Note."
241. Lit. "the head" designating Christ.
242. I.e. the man Jesus.
243. I.e. God's glory.
244. I.e. God.
245. I.e. Christ.
246. or: did.
247. I.e. human nature of Christ.
248. Rom. ix. 5.
249. John vi. 62.
250. Ibid. 51.
251. I.e. Christ.
252. Between the two natures, the human and the Divine.
253. John iii. 13.
254. I.e. one person, individual.
255. I.e. man—Jesus.
256. This sentence is quoted by Facundus and Marius Mercator. See the "Prefatory Note."
257. John x. 30.
258. Matt. xix. 6.
259. Dan. vii. 4 sqq.
260. John viii. 1 7.
261. Matt. vi. 24.
262. I.e. in the case of Christ.
263. Text: [Syriac] = πρόσωπον .
264. Lit. this.
265. Lit. this, or that.
266. Rom. i. 3.
267. This sentence is quoted in the Acts of the Fifth Council ( Mansi, ix., 21 7) as from Theodore's work ad baptizandos. See the "Prefatory note."
268. Lit. nakedly.
269. All this long passage is quoted by Marius Mercator in his book. See the "Prefatory Note."
270. Matt, xxviii. 19.
271. There is no mention of the Spirit proceeding also from the Son.
272. John xiv. 10.
273. Matt. iii. 16 where "lighting upon Him."
274. John xvii. 21.
275. 1 Cor. ii. 11.
276. John xiv. 21.
277. John xiv. 23.
278. Lit. Divine nature.
279. Theodore is referring here either to the "tome of Damasus" against the Macedonians, which in 378 received at Antioch the subscriptions of 146 Bishops (see Hefele's History of the Councils, ii., 291 and 360-363) or to the Council of Constantinople in 381, or even possibly to the Synod held at Alexandria in 363 under the guidance of Athanasius, in which the Deity of the Spirit was affirmed. See Migne, Pat. Gr., xxvi., 820. On an earlier Synod held at Alexandria on the same subject in 362, see Socrates, H.E., iii., 7 and Rufinus, H.E., i., 28.
280. Lit. to be fearer of God.
281. Matt. xxviii. 19.
282. Acts iii. 6.
283. or: He (Christ).
284. Isa. xxvii. 13 (Septuagint).
285. Ps. xliv. 5.
286. Ps. lxxxix. 24 (where his horn ).
287. Ps. cxvi. 17.
288. Lit. oneness.
289. Ps. civ. 4.
290. Ps. cxlvi. 4 (Septuagint and Peshitta).
291. Ps. cxlvii. 18 (Septuagint and Peshitta).
292. Lit. Divine nature.
293. John iv. 24.
294. Lit. "of name," i.e. the name of the true God.
295. I.e. who exist.
296. Ex. iii. 14-15.
297. In all this passage I have (for the sake of convenience) followed in the translation of the Divine name the English Version which renders the Hebrew words [Hebrew] by I am that I am and I have preserved throughout the first pron. sing. which is not always the case in the text.
298. Luke ix. 26, cf. Matt. xxv. 31.
299. Ps. xlvi. 4 (Septuagint and Peshitta).
300. Ps. cxi. 9 (with changes).
301. Isa. vi. 3.
302. Allusion to the Fathers of the Council of Constantinople in 381.
303. Allusion to the Fathers of the Council of Nicea.
304. The text repeats "of their Fathers."
305. In a more literal sense: fear.
306. Theodore refers here to the word "one" added to the creed by the Council of Constantinople in 381, or possibly to the "tome of Damasus" as accepted by 146 Bishops assembled at Antioch in 378.
307. 1 Cor. xii. 13.
308. Eph. iv. 4-6.
309. 1 Cor. xii. 4-6.
310. Eph. iv. 3.
311. Lit. "from your mother." I.e. the Spirit. That the Spirit is our mother is found in John iii. 5. The word ruha , "spirit," is feminine in Syriac and corresponds linguistically with the neuter pneu=ma.
312. Eph. iv. 4.
313. Ibid . 15.
314. Phil. iii. 21.
315. Rom. viii. 23.
316. Eph., ibid, (where in you all ).
317. Spiritual birth through baptism.
318. Lit. "to have their whole look at."
319. In the text talmidhutha. Evidently the author refers sometimes by this word to the "catechumenate" or the state of the "Catachumens" who were taught the principles of the Christian faith before their baptism. I have rendered it a few times by "initiation," "teaching," "discipleship."
320. Lit. whose all look is towards insolence.
321. John xiv. 15-16.
322. Ibid. . 1 7.
323. Ps. cxvi. 11.
324. Ps. lxxxv. 10 (Septuagint and Peshitta).
325. Ps. xxxi. 5.
326. John xiv. 17.
327. Ibid.
328. John. xv. 26.
329. 1 Cor. ii. 1 1 (where τοῦ Θεοῦ ).
330. John vii. 38.
331. Ibid., 39.
332. Text: kenoma.
333. Text: He.
334. I use in this section the verb "to proceed" in order better to follow the author's argumentation.
335. Gen. ii. 10.
336. 1 Cor. xii. 4.
337. Ibid., 7.
338. It is said that the expression "Giver of life" was added by the Council of Constantinople in 381.
339. Text only, "those."
340. John iv. 14.
341. John vii. 38.
342. 2 Cor. iii. 6.
343. 1 Cor. xv. 45.
344. Rom. i. 4 (Peshitta and partly also the Greek text).
345. Rom. viii. 11.
346. John vi. 63.
347. I.e. to give immortal life.
348. Deut. xxxii. 39.
349. See Matt, xxviii. 19. As stated above Theodore seems to refer by the word talmidhutha to the state of the "Catechumens" who were taught the principles of the Christian faith before their baptism.
350. The text repeats "names."
351. Eph. iv. 4.
352. Matt, xxviii. 19-20.
353. Matt. xvi. 18.
354. Eph. iii. 10-11.
355. Phil. iii. 21.
356. Col. i. 24.
357. 1 Cor. xii. 27.
358. John xvii. 20-21.
359. Rom. vi. 4.
360. Heb. xii. 23 (not literal).
361. Gal. iv. 5; cf. Eph. i. 5.
362. It is to be noted that Theodore does not mention the article of the Council of Constantinople in 381: "We acknowledge one baptism." This article was evidently lacking in the Nicene Creed. Below he refers to baptism but only in connection with the words pronounced by the baptizandus. There is, however, a reference above to the fact that after the "profession of faith in baptism they added the profession of faith in one Catholic Church." This sentence may possibly refer to the addition inserted by the Council of Constantinople.
363. Matt. xxvi. 26, etc. (not literal but in a liturgical sense; cf. 1 Cor. xi. 24).
364. John i. 29.
365. 1 Cor. xv. 16-17.
366. Ibid, 54-56.
367. Matt, xxviii. 19.
368. The catechumens.
369. Maimra more often means "discourse," "homily," and this sense seems to be more fitting for these catechetical lectures of Theodore. I have used the word "Chapter" throughout in order to maintain more clearly the book character given to the work either by the author or by his disciples.
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