{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/103/1030019.htm","path":"chr/ecf/103/1030019.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/103/1030019.htm","text":"Chapter 12.\u2014In What Manner the Son is Said Not to Know the Day and the Hour Which the Father Knows. Some Things Said of Christ According to the Form of God, Other Things According to the Form of a Servant. In What Way It is of Christ to Give the Kingdom, in What Not of Christ. Christ Will Both Judge and Not Judge.\nAgain, \u201cOf that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven; neither the Son, but the Father.\u201d 136 For He is ignorant of this, as making others ignorant; that is, in that He did not so know as at that time to show His disciples: 137 as it was said to Abraham, \u201cNow I know that thou fearest God,\u201d 138 that is, now I have caused thee to know it; because he himself, being tried in that temptation, became known to himself. For He was certainly going to tell this same thing to His disciples at the fitting time; speaking of which yet future as if past, He says, \u201cHenceforth I call you not servants, but friends; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you;\u201d 139 which He had not yet done, but spoke as though He had already done it, because He certainly would do it. For He says to the disciples themselves, \u201cI have yet many things to say unto you; but ye cannot bear them now.\u201d 140 Among which is to be understood also, \u201cOf the day and hour.\u201d For the apostle also says, \u201cI determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified;\u201d 141 because he was speaking to those who were not able to receive higher things concerning the Godhead of Christ. To whom also a little while after he says, \u201cI could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.\u201d 142 He was \u201cignorant,\u201d therefore, among them of that which they were not able to know from him. And that only he said that he knew, which it was fitting that they should know from him. In short, he knew among the perfect what he knew not among babes; for he there says: \u201cWe speak wisdom among them that are perfect.\u201d 143 For a man is said p. 31 not to know what he hides, after that kind of speech, after which a ditch is called blind which is hidden. For the Scriptures do not use any other kind of speech than may be found in use among men, because they speak to men.\n24. According to the form of God, it is said \u201cBefore all the hills He begat me,\u201d 144 that is, before all the loftinesses of things created and, \u201cBefore the dawn I begat Thee,\u201d 145 that is, before all times and temporal things: but according to the form of a servant, it is said, \u201cThe Lord created me in the beginning of His ways.\u201d 146 Because, according to the form of God, He said, \u201cI am the truth;\u201d and according to the form of a servant, \u201cI am the way.\u201d 147 For, because He Himself, being the first-begotten of the dead, 148 made a passage to the kingdom of God to life eternal for His Church, to which He is so the Head as to make the body also immortal, therefore He was \u201ccreated in the beginning of the ways\u201d of God in His work. For, according to the form of God, He is the beginning, 149 that also speaketh unto us, in which \u201cbeginning\u201d God created the heaven and the earth; 150 but according to the form of a servant, \u201cHe is a bridegroom coming out of His chamber.\u201d 151 According to the form of God, \u201cHe is the first-born of every creature, and He is before all things and by him all things consist;\u201d according to the form of a servant, \u201cHe is the head of the body, the Church.\u201d 152 According to the form of God, \u201cHe is the Lord of glory.\u201d 153 From which it is evident that He Himself glorifies His saints: for, \u201cWhom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.\u201d 154 Of Him accordingly it is said, that He justifieth the ungodly; 155 of Him it is said, that He is just and a justifier. 156 If, therefore, He has also glorified those whom He has justified, He who justifies, Himself also glorifies; who is, as I have said, the Lord of glory. Yet, according to the form of a servant, He replied to His disciples, when inquiring about their own glorification: \u201cTo sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them] for whom it is prepared by my Father.\u201d 157\n25. But that which is prepared by His Father is prepared also by the Son Himself, because He and the Father are one. 158 For we have already shown, by many modes of speech in the divine Scriptures, that, in this Trinity, what is said of each is also said of all, on account of the indivisible working of the one and same substance. As He also says of the Holy Spirit, \u201cIf I depart, I will send Him unto you.\u201d 159 He did not say, We will send; but in such way as if the Son only should send Him, and not the Father; while yet He says in another place, \u201cThese things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you; but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things.\u201d 160 Here again it is so said as if the Son also would not send Him, but the Father only. As therefore in these texts, so also where He says, \u201cBut for them for whom it is prepared by my Father,\u201d He meant it to be understood that He Himself, with the Father, prepares seats of glory for those for whom He will. But some one may say: There, when He spoke of the Holy Spirit, He so says that He Himself will send Him, as not to deny that the Father will send Him; and in the other place, He so says that the Father will send Him, as not to deny that He will do so Himself; but here He expressly says, \u201cIt is not mine to give,\u201d and so goes on to say that these things are prepared by the Father. But this is the very thing which we have already laid down to be said according to the form of a servant: viz., that we are so to understand \u201cIt is not mine to give,\u201d as if it were said, This is not in the power of man to give; that so He may be understood to give it through that wherein He is God equal to the Father. \u201cIt is not mine,\u201d He says, \u201cto give;\u201d that is, I do not give these things by human power, but \u201cto those for whom it is prepared by my Father;\u201d but then take care you understand also, that if \u201call things which the Father hath are mine,\u201d 161 then this certainly is mine also, and I with the Father have prepared these things.\n26. For I ask again, in what manner this is said, \u201cIf any man hear not my words, I will not judge him?\u201d 162 For perhaps He has said here, \u201cI will not judge him,\u201d in the same sense as there, \u201cIt is not mine to give.\u201d But what follows here? \u201cI came not,\u201d He says, \u201cto judge the world, but to save the world;\u201d and then He adds, \u201cHe that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him.\u201d Now here we should understand the Father, unless He had added, \u201cThe word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.\u201d Well, then, will neither the Son judge, because He says, \u201cI will not judge him,\u201d nor the Father, but the word which the Son hath spoken? Nay, p. 32 but hear what yet follows: \u201cFor I,\u201d He says, \u201chave not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.\u201d If therefore the Son judges not, but \u201cthe word which the Son hath spoken;\u201d and the word which the Son hath spoken therefore judges, because the Son \u201chath not spoken of Himself, but the Father who sent Him gave Him a commandment what He should say, and what He should speak:\u201d then the Father assuredly judges, whose word it is which the Son hath spoken; and the same Son Himself is the very Word of the Father. For the commandment of the Father is not one thing, and the word of the Father another; for He hath called it both a word and a commandment. Let us see, therefore, whether perchance, when He says, \u201cI have not spoken of myself,\u201d He meant to be understood thus,\u2014I am not born of myself. For if He speaks the word of the Father, then He speaks Himself, 163 because He is Himself the Word of the Father. For ordinarily He says, \u201cThe Father gave to me;\u201d by which He means it to be understood that the Father begat Him: not that He gave anything to Him, already existing and not possessing it; but that the very meaning of, To have given that He might have, is, To have begotten that He might be. For it is not, as with the creature so with the Son of God before the incarnation and before He took upon Him our flesh, the Only-begotten by whom all things were made; that He is one thing, and has another: but He is in such way as to be what He has. And this is said more plainly, if any one is fit to receive it, in that place where He says: \u201cFor as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.\u201d 164 For He did not give to Him, already existing and not having life, that He should have life in Himself; inasmuch as, in that He is, He is life. Therefore \u201cHe gave to the Son to have life in Himself\u201d means, He begat the Son to be unchangeable life, which is life eternal. Since, therefore, the Word of God is the Son of God, and the Son of God is \u201cthe true God and eternal life,\u201d 165 as John says in his Epistle; so here, what else are we to acknowledge when the Lord says, \u201cThe word which I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day,\u201d 166 and calls that very word the word of the Father and the commandment of the Father, and that very commandment everlasting life?\u201d \u201cAnd I know,\u201d He says, \u201cthat His commandment is life everlasting.\u201d\n27. I ask, therefore, how we are to understand, \u201cI will not judge him; but the Word which I have spoken shall judge him:\u201d which appears from what follows to be so said, as if He would say, I will not judge; but the Word of the Father will judge. But the Word of the Father is the Son of God Himself. Is it to be so understood: I will not judge, but I will judge? How can this be true, unless in this way: viz., I will not judge by human power, because I am the Son of man; but I will judge by the power of the Word, because I am the Son of God? Or if it still seems contradictory and inconsistent to say, I will not judge, but I will judge; what shall we say of that place where He says, \u201cMy doctrine is not mine?\u201d How \u201cmine,\u201d when \u201cnot mine?\u201d For He did not say, This doctrine is not mine, but \u201cMy doctrine is not mine:\u201d that which He called His own, the same He called not His own. How can this be true, unless He has called it His own in one relation; not His own, in another? According to the form of God, His own; according to the form of a servant, not His own. For when He says, \u201cIt is not mine, but His that sent me,\u201d 167 He makes us recur to the Word itself. For the doctrine of the Father is the Word of the Father, which is the Only Son. And what, too, does that mean, \u201cHe that believeth on me, believeth not on me?\u201d 168 How believe on Him, yet not believe on Him? How can so opposite and inconsistent a thing be understood\u2014\u201cWhoso believeth on me,\u201d He says, \u201cbelieveth not on me, but on Him that sent me;\u201d\u2014unless you so understand it, Whoso believeth on me believeth not on that which he sees, lest our hope should be in the creature; but on Him who took the creature, whereby He might appear to human eyes, and so might cleanse our hearts by faith, to contemplate Himself as equal to the Father? So that in turning the attention of believers to the Father, and saying, \u201cBelieveth not on me, but on Him that sent me,\u201d He certainly did not mean Himself to be separated from the Father, that is, from Him that sent Him; but that men might so believe on Himself, as they believe on the Father, to whom He is equal. And this He says in express terms in another place, \u201cYe believe in God, believe also in me:\u201d 169 that is, in the same way as you believe in God, so also believe in me; because I and the Father are One God. As therefore, here, He has as it were withdrawn p. 33 the faith of men from Himself, and transferred it to the Father, by saying, \u201cBelieveth not on me, but on Him that sent me,\u201d from whom nevertheless He certainly did not separate Himself; so also, when He says, \u201cIt is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them] for whom it is prepared by my Father,\u201d it is I think plain in what relation both are to be taken. For that other also is of the same kind, \u201cI will not judge;\u201d whereas He Himself shall judge the quick and dead. 170 But because He will not do so by human power, therefore, reverting to the Godhead, He raises the hearts of men upwards; which to lift up, He Himself came down.\n[The more common explanation of this text in modern exegesis makes the ignorance to be literal, and referable solely to the human nature of our Lord, not to his person as a whole. Augustin\u2019s explanation, which Bengel, on Mark 13.32Mark xiii. 32, is inclined to favor, escapes the difficulty that arises from a seeming division of the one theanthopic person into two portions, one of which knows, and the other does not. Yet this same difficulty besets the fact of a growth in knowledge, which is plainly taught in Luke 1.80Luke i. 80. In this case, the increase in wisdom must relate to the humanity alone.\u2014W.G.T.S.]\n30:138 30:139 30:140 30:141 30:142 30:143 31:144 31:145 31:146 31:147 31:148 31:149 31:150 31:151 31:152\nCol. 1:15, 17, 18Col. 1:15, 17, 18\n31:153 31:154 31:155 31:156 31:157 31:158 31:159 31:160 31:161 31:162 32:163 32:164 32:165 32:166 32:167 32:168 32:169 33:170","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III: Doctrinal Treat...","type":"page"}