Friday, March 5, 2021

Timothy of Antioch (6th Century) on Christ’s Activity in the Old Testament Era

 


Like the Jews come to him, let people from every heresy come, let those who adulterate the divinity come, and let them hear the voice of authority: “This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” Hs is unique; he is not as the Greeks thought, in their confusion, when they thought of many gods. This one, whom I reveal to you from heaven—not the one whom the foolish Jews have expected. This one, who is of one substance with me, his Father, in every way—he is not like those whom some heretics have reduced to a slave! This one pre-existed along with me, before the ages. This one put the world together by his Spirit. This one shaped Adam, when he and I together planned to make human beings. This one took mud from the earth and formed the human person. This one transported Enoch in a marvelous way from human company. This one is seen and understood. This one exists with me, and stands on the mountain. This one has walked in your company, and not separated from the one who begot him. This one is without time, without beginning, without successor, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, ineffable, beyond thought. This one is; he did not come to be, he was not created. He is by nature, not by grace. He is, without having his being in time. He is, for he also was and existed before. For I did not become Father in time, but I always exist as Father. And if I am always Father, then this one is always Son, and the Holy Spirit also always is—who is adored along with me and with the Son, and glorified along with us, always and to the unending ages of ages. Amen. (Timothy of Antioch, “Homily on the Cross and the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” Light on the Mountain: Greek Patristic and Byzantine Homilies on the Transfiguration of the Lord [Popular Patristics Series 48; trans. Brian E. Daley; Yonkers, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2013], 152-53)