Translated by Gerhard F. Bente and W. H. T. Dau
Printed in: Gerhard F. Bente et al., ed.,
Concordia Triglotta
(St. Louis, MO: Concordia, 1921), 1105-49
102] That the Holy Scriptures and the fathers have understood this majesty which Christ has received in time not only of created gifts de finitis qualitatibus, but of the glory and majesty of divinity belonging to God, to which His human nature, in the person of the Son of God, has been exalted, and thus has received the power and efficacy of the divine nature which are peculiar to the Deity.
103] John 17,5: And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Own Self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
104] Col. 2,9: In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
105] HILARY, On the Trinity, lib. 3 (p. 28): "The Word made flesh prayed that that which was from time [had a beginning in time] might receive the glory of that brightness which is without time."
106] GREGORY OF NYSSA, quoted by Gelasius and Theodoret, Dialog 2, concerning the saying of Peter, Acts 2: "Being exalted by the right hand of God," etc. (t. 2, p. 333 [al. 330]): "This (right hand of God), through the union, raised to its own height the Man united to it."
107] The same, Concerning the Soul: "God the Word is never altered by the communion which He has with the body and soul, neither is He partaker of their imperfection, but, transmitting to them the power of His divinity, He remains the same that He was even before the union."
108] BASIL THE GREAT, On the Holy Nativity of Christ (p. 231): "In what manner is the Deity in the flesh? Just as fire in iron, not by transition, but by impartation. For fire does not run out to the iron, but, remaining in its place, imparts to it its own peculiar power, which is not diminished by the impartation, and fills the entire mass that becomes partaker of it."
109] EPIPHANIUS, in Ancoratus (fol. 504 [fol. 86, ed. Colon.]): "Strengthening an earthly body with divinity, He united it unto one power, brought it into one divinity, being one Lord, one Christ -- not two Christs, nor two Gods," etc.
110] CYRIL, on John, lib. 4, cap. 23: "You are not altogether unwise in denying that the flesh is quickening. For if it alone be understood, it can quicken nothing whatever, being itself in need of a quickener. But when you have examined the mystery of the incarnation with commendable care, and have learned to know the life dwelling in the flesh, you will believe that, although the flesh is not able to do anything by itself, it has nevertheless become quickening. For since it has been united to the quickening Word, it has entirely been rendered quickening. For it [the flesh of Christ] has not dragged down to its corruptible nature the Word of God which has been joined to it, but has itself been elevated to the power of the better nature. Although, therefore, the nature of the flesh, inasmuch as it is flesh, cannot quicken, nevertheless it does this because it has received the entire operation of the Word. For the body not of Paul or of Peter or of others, but that of Life itself in which the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, can do this. Therefore, the flesh of all the others can do nothing, but only the flesh of Christ can quicken, because in it dwells the only-begotten Son of God."
111] AUGUSTINE, Against Felicianus the Arian, cap. 11: "I do not acknowledge that Deity experienced the violence done His body in the same manner as we know that the flesh was glorified by the majesty of Deity."
112] THEODORET, cap. Of Antichrist (t. 2, p. 411): "The Word that became man did not confer a partial grace upon the assumed nature, but it pleased [God] that the whole fullness of Deity dwell in it."
113] The same, on Ps. 21, t. 1, p. 110: "If the assumed nature has been joined with the divinity which assumed it, it has also become participant and associate of the same glory and honor."
114] The same, on Heb. 1: "The human nature itself, after the resurrection, attained divine glory."
115] DAMASCENUS, lib. 3, capp. 7. 15: "And this (the divine nature) imparts to the flesh its own excellences, itself [according to its nature] remaining impassible and not participating in the passions [sufferings] of the flesh."
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