This, that there appeared unto
Him an angel from Heaven, strengthening Him, He had not need of the help of
an Angle, He who is more adorable than Angels; but he [the Angel] appeared to
Him, first, for His honour, as also at His Birth, and His Fast, etc., he was
honoured by them; second, because of the hearers, it was signified to the Angel
that he should come, to shew by means of his coming, as he who was
strengthening Him, that He should strengthen others and shew, that thus an
Angel comes to the succour of those who suffer with Him and pray His Prayer,
and endure oppressions; the Angel not speaking thus to Him, according to some
Comfort thyself, thou Son of Man; this suffering of the Cross giveth Thee a
crown of victory; but he glorified Him and was speaking like those words which
are suitable to the servant to say towards his Lord, Praise to Thee, adored by
all, who gavest Thy life to be bound by the hands of the Crucifiers, for the
sake of the salvation of the world; praise to Thee, who instead of the chariot
of the Cherubim, which is yoked on high for Thine honour, hast prepared for
Thyself the chariot of the Cross in the depth; that by it might be shewn the
love of Thy Father and Thine own; how much Thou hast loved the world, that thou
killest Death by Thy death. And being in an agony He prayed earnestly; and
His sweat was like drops of blood; for like as His Birth and His Baptism
and His Fast and His Passion were not His alone, but rather of the nature of
all; so also the words about the Passion and the Cross are not on the one hand
suitable to Him, rather on the other hand to all Nature, but He rather spoke to
the Disciples [words] that were suitable for doctrine. For just as He died for
the sake of the nature of all; so also He spoke for the sake of the nature of
all, bearing its person; and because He was treated as guilty. He stood that He
might be punished on account of His fault. He naturally asked and entreated,
and asked and implored; and because he was bearing the terror of the whole
world, and fulfilled all the terror that had come upon human nature; on account
of His terror surpassed the measure of human nature; but at the same time to
signify, that He was not a phantom and a fancy, according to the wickedness of
some; but He took a real Body of the race of Adam. (The Commentaries of
Isho'dad of Merv, 3 vols. [trans. Margaret Dunlop Gibson; Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1911], 1:200-1)
This, A spirit hath not flesh
and bones, etc.; not that He had cast off the bodily nature form Himself;
but to teach that He did not appear as a phantom; nor even in His spiritual
nature did He suffer death according to the wickedness of men; but rather in
His animal and corporeal nature, which from its essence was subject to
dissolution. (Ibid., 207)
