{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/210/2100260.htm","path":"chr/ecf/210/2100260.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/210/2100260.htm","text":"Wishing to answer the above-stated objection somewhat more fully, he maintains that this request, had it not been impossible in itself, would have been possible for Christ to grant; especially as the Father has given all judgment to Him; which gift we must understand to have been given without any feature of imperfection. However, he proves that the request must be reckoned amongst the impossibilities. To make it really possible, he teaches that Christ\u2019s answer must be taken in accordance with His human nature, and shows this next by an exposition of the passage. Lastly, he once more confirms the reply he has given on the impossibility of Christ\u2019s session.\n67. I ask now whether they think the request made by the wife and sons of Zebedee was possible or impossible to human circumstances, or to any created being? If it was possible, how is it that He Who made all things which were not had not the power of granting a seat to His apostles on His right hand and on His left? or how was it that He, to Whom the Father gave all judgment, could not judge of men\u2019s merits?\n68. We know well in what way He gave it; for how did the Son, who created all things out of nothing, receive it as though in want? Had He not the judgment of those whose natures He had made? The Father gave all judgment to the Son, \u201cthat all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.\u201d 2594 It is not therefore the power of the Son, but our knowledge of it, that increases; nor does what is learnt by us add aught to His being, but only to our advantage; so that by knowing the Son of God, we may have eternal life.\n69. As, then, in our knowledge of the Son of God His honour, but our profit, not His, is concerned; if any one thinks that the power of God is augmented by that honour, He must also believe that God the Father can receive augmentation; for He is glorified by our knowledge of Him, as is the Son: as it is written on the word of the Son: \u201cI have glorified Thee upon the earth.\u201d 2595 Therefore if that which was asked for was at all possible, it certainly was in the power of the Son to grant it.\n70. Let them show, if they consider it possible, who of men or of other created beings sits either on the right hand or the left of God. For the Father says to the Son: \u201cSit Thou on My right hand.\u201d 2596 Therefore if any one sits on the right hand of the Son, the Son is found to be sitting (to speak in human wise) between Himself and the Father.\n71. A thing impossible for man, then, was asked of Him. But He was unwilling to say that men could not sit with Him; seeing that He desired His divine glory should be veiled, and not revealed before He rose again. 2597 For before this, when He had appeared in glory between His attendants Moses and Elias, He had warned His disciples that they should tell no man what they had seen.\n72. Therefore if it was not possible for men or other created beings to merit this, the Son ought not to seem to have less power because He gave not to His apostles, what the Father has not given to men or other created beings. Or else let them say to which of them He has given it. Certainly not to the angels; of whom Scripture says that all the angels stood round about the throne. 2598 Thus Gabriel said that he stands, as it says: \u201cI am Gabriel that stand before God.\u201d 2599\n73. Not to the angels, then, has He given it, nor to the elders who worship Him that sitteth; for they do not sit upon the seat of p. 294 majesty, but as the Scripture has said, round about the throne; for there are four and twenty other seats, as we have it in the Revelation of John: \u201cAnd upon the seats four and twenty elders sitting.\u201d 2600 In the Gospel also the Lord Himself says: \u201cWhen the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.\u201d 2601 He did not say that a share in His own throne could be given to the apostles, but that there were those other twelve thrones; which, however, we ought not to think of as referring to actual sitting down, but as showing the happy issue of spiritual grace.\n74. Lastly, in the Book of the Kings, Micaiah the prophet said: \u201cI saw the Lord God of Israel sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing around Him, on His right hand and on His left.\u201d 2602 How then, when the angels stand on the right hand and on the left of the Lord God, when all the host of heaven stands, shall men sit on the right hand of God or on His left, to whom is promised as a reward for virtue likeness to the angels, as the Lord says: \u201cYe shall be as the angels in heaven?\u201d 2603 \u201cAs the angels,\u201d He says, not \u201cmore than the angels.\u201d\n75. If, then, the Father has given nothing more than the Son, the Son certainly has given nothing less than the Father. Therefore the Son can in no wise be less than the Father.\n76. Suppose, however, that it had been possible for men to obtain what was desired; what does it mean when He says: \u201cBut to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give to you\u201d? 2604 What is \u201cMine\u201d? Above He said: \u201cYe shall drink indeed of My cup;\u201d and again He added: \u201cIt is not Mine to give to you.\u201d Above He said \u201cMine,\u201d and again lower down He said \u201cMine.\u201d He made no change. And so the earlier passages tell us why He said \u201cMine.\u201d\n77. For being asked by a woman as man to allow her sons to sit on His right hand and His left, because she asked Him as man, the Lord also as though only man answered concerning His Passion: \u201cAre ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?\u201d 2605\n78. Therefore because He spoke according to the flesh of the Passion of His Body, He wished to show that according to the flesh He left behind Him an example and pattern to us of the endurance of suffering; but that according to His position as man He could not grant them fellowship in the throne above. This is the reason why He said: \u201cIt is not Mine;\u201d as also in another place He says: \u201cMy doctrine is not Mine.\u201d 2606 It is not, He says, spoken after my flesh; for the words which are divine belong not to the flesh.\n79. But how plainly He showed His tenderness for His disciples, whom He loved, saying first: \u201cWill ye drink of My cup?\u201d For as He could not grant what they sought, He offered them something else, so that He might mention what He would assign to them, before He denied them anything; in order that they might understand that the failure lay more in the equity of their request to Him, than in the wish of their Lord to show kindness.\n80. \u201cYe shall indeed drink of My cup,\u201d He says; that is, \u201cI will not refuse you the suffering, which My flesh will undergo. For all that I have taken on Myself as man, ye can imitate. I have granted you the victory of suffering, the inheritance of the cross. \u2018But to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give to you.\u2019\u201d He did not say, \u201cIt is not Mine to give,\u201d but: \u201cIt is not Mine to give to you;\u201d meaning by this, not that He lacked the power, but that His creatures were wanting in merit.\n81. Or take in another way the words: \u201cIt is not Mine to give to you,\u201d that is, \u201cIt is not Mine, for I came to teach humility; it is not Mine, for I came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister; it is not Mine, for I show justice, not favour.\u201d\n82. Then, speaking of the Father, He added: \u201cFor whom it has been prepared,\u201d to show that the Father also is not wont to give heed merely to requests, but to merits; for God is not a respecter of persons. 2607 Wherefore also the Apostle says: \u201cWhom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate.\u201d 2608 He did not predestinate them before He knew them, but He did predestinate the reward of those whose merits He foreknew.\n83. Rightly then is the woman checked, who demanded what was impossible, as a special kind of privilege from Him the Lord, Who of His own free gift granted not only to two apostles, but to all the disciples, those things which He had adjudged to be given to the saints; and that too without a prayer from any one, as it is written: \u201cYe shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.\u201d 2609\n84. Therefore, although we may think the p. 295 demand to have been possible, there is no room for false attacks. However, when I read that the seraphim stand, 2610 how can I suppose that men may sit on the right hand or the left of the Son of God? The Lord sits upon the cherubim, as it says: \u201cThou that sittest upon the cherubim, show myself.\u201d 2611 And how shall the apostles sit upon the cherubim?\n85. And I do not come to this conclusion of my own mind, but because of the utterances of our Lord\u2019s own mouth. For the Lord Himself later on, in commending the apostles to the Father, says: \u201cFather, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.\u201d 2612 But if He had thought that the Father would give the divine throne to men, He would have said: \u201cI will that where I sit, they also may sit with Me.\u201d But He says: \u201cI will that they be with Me,\u201d not \u201cthat they may sit with Me;\u201d and \u201cwhere I am,\u201d not \u201cas I am.\u201d\n86. Then follow the words: \u201cThat they may see My glory.\u201d Here too He did not say: \u201cthat they may have My glory,\u201d but \u201cthat they may see\u201d it. For the servant sees, the Lord possesses; as David also has taught us, saying: \u201cThat I may see the delight of the Lord.\u201d 2613 And the Lord Himself in the Gospel has revealed it, stating: \u201cBlessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.\u201d 2614 \u201cThey shall see,\u201d He says; not \u201cThey shall sit with God upon the cherubim.\u201d\n87. Let them therefore cease to think little of the Son of God according to His Godhead, lest they should think little also of the Father. For he who believes wrongly of the Son cannot think rightly of the Father; he who thinks wrongly of the Spirit cannot think rightly of the Son. For where there is one dignity, one glory, one love, one majesty, whatsoever thou thinkest is to be withdrawn in the case of any one of the Three Persons, is withdrawn from all alike. For that can never have completeness which thou canst separate and divide into various portions.\nS. John v. 23.\n293:2595\nS. John xvii. 4.\n293:2596 293:2597\nS. Matt. xvii. 9.\n293:2598 293:2599\nS. Luke i. 19.\n294:2600 294:2601\nS. Matt. xix. 28.\n294:2602 294:2603\nS. Matt xxii. 30.\n294:2604\nS. Matt. xx. 23.\n294:2605\nS. Matt. xx. 22.\n294:2606\nS. John vii. 16.\n294:2607 294:2608 294:2609\nS. John xvii. 24.\n295:2613 295:2614\nS. Matt. v. 8.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. X: Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons.: Chapter VI. Wishing to answer the above-stated objection somewhat more fully, he maintains that this request, had it not been impossible in itself, would have been possible for Christ to grant; especially as the Father has given all judgment to Him; which gift we must understand to have been given without any feature of imperfection. However, he proves that the request must be reckoned amongst the impossibilities. To make it really possible, he teaches that Christ's answer must be taken in accordance with His human nature, and shows this next by an exposition of the passage. Lastly, he once more confirms the reply he has given on the impossibility of Christ's session.","type":"page"}