1 Cor 2:1-8 “And I also, when I came to you, brothers, came not with sublimity of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of Christ. For I judged myself to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling; and my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Yet we speak wisdom among the perfect—not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are brought to nothing—but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which is hidden, which God predestined before the ages unto our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.”
1 Cor 2:1 “And I also, when I came to you”—as if he were to say: just as others who were not wise were chosen for the apostleship, so also I myself, though I was wise, was as though I were not wise when I came to you, O brothers. For I came to you not in sublimity of speech according to logic, that is, using logical arguments, nor in sublimity of wisdom according to physics, that is, confirming these things by natural reasoning—both of which are falsely praised against God—but I came proclaiming to you the testimony of Christ, that is, those things which the prophets testified concerning Christ.
1 Cor 2:2 “For I judged…” As if he were to say: truly I did not come by that sublimity, nor even by that which concerns God Himself, and I did this by deliberate judgment of mind. For I judged that I should know nothing among you, who were less capable, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified—that is, nothing except this: that Christ is our ruler and savior, and this through the crucifixion.
And it must be known that he preaches Christ not only who establishes faith, but also he who instructs in the moral life by which one lives in Christ. This can also be understood from what the Apostle recalls when he says, “I judged myself to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” For in the Crucified one it is said that the old man has been crucified, so that we may no longer serve sin (Romans 6). Therefore the Apostle must not be understood as though he said only those things which must be believed concerning Christ, but also those things which must be observed in life and conduct by one who is joined to the unity of His body.
2 Cor 2:3 “And I, etc.” Augustine: As if he were to say, my preaching among you was humble, and my person also was humble. Thus he says, “And I was with you in weakness,” that is, in tribulation, “and in fear of soul,” that is, with an anxious spirit, “and in much trembling of body.”
1 Cor 2:4 “And my speech,” which was delivered privately, “and my preaching,” which was delivered publicly, “was not in persuasive words of human wisdom.” For even if my words were persuasive, they were not persuasive through human wisdom, like the words of the pseudo-apostles, but they were “in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” that is, in my speech and preaching I showed that I possessed the Holy Spirit and power for the working of miracles.
1 Cor 2:5 I did this so that “your faith might not be,” that is, might not be understood to be, “in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God”—that is, so that your faith might not be attributed to man, but to God.
1 Cor 2:6 “But we speak wisdom…” As if he were to say: among you who were incapable we spoke simply, but the wisdom which concerns the hidden things of God we speak among the perfect. Here he does not mean perfect knowers and teachers, who need no instruction, but listeners who are now capable.
This wisdom is not the wisdom of this age, which relies on human reasoning, nor the wisdom of the rulers of this age—that is, of evil spirits or of philosophers, who seemed to be the rulers of the world—who are brought to nothing, that is, whose wisdom is destroyed. But we speak the wisdom of God, that is, Christ, in whom the wisdom of God concerning the redemption of mankind has been revealed.
1 Cor 2:7 “We speak,” I say, “in a mystery,” that is, by expounding the mysteries of the Old Testament in which Christ is signified, such as in the sacrifice of Abel or of Abraham.
Ambrose: This wisdom of God is hidden, so that the pseudo-wise do not know it, because it is not in words but in power; it is not comprehensible by human reason, but credible through the efficacy of the Spirit.
This wisdom God predestined—that is, prepared—before the ages, that is, before the world existed, unto our glory, namely of the apostles who preach it; or unto our glory, that is, of all believers, so that through it we may all attain eternal glory.
1 Cor 2:8 “Which none…” As if he were to say: rightly do I say it is hidden, for it is that wisdom which none of the rulers of this age—that is, demons, or philosophers, or teachers of the Law—knew. This is evident from the fact that if they had known it—that is, if the demons had known the wisdom of God concerning the redemption of the human race to be fulfilled through the death of Christ—they would never have crucified the Lord of glory, that is, they would not have suggested that He be crucified, because the devil would not have urged Him to be crucified through whom he knew he would lose his dominion.
Let the prudent, diligent, and pious reader understand how this is said both absolutely and in a qualified sense. For behold, we say that insofar as He is God, He glorifies His own; in this sense He is the Lord of glory. And yet the Lord of glory was crucified, because God is rightly said to be crucified—not by the power of divinity, but by the weakness of the flesh. For Christ is one person, both God and man.
Thus it is said, “No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven” (John 3). If therefore you attend to the distinction of substances, the Son of God descended and the Son of Man was crucified; but if you attend to the unity of person, then the Son of Man descended and the Son of God was crucified. Because of this unity of person, He not only said that the Son of Man descended from heaven, but also said that He was in heaven.
Or this may be understood of the Jews, some of whom knew Christ and others did not. Of those who were ignorant, Peter says: “I know, brothers, that you acted in ignorance” (Acts 3). These did not know that He was the one promised to them in the Law. But the leaders—namely the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees—knew that He was the one promised in the Law, but they did not know that He was God or the Son of God. And thus of both groups it can be understood: if the lesser ones had known Him to be the Messiah promised in the Law, or if the greater ones had known Him to be God or the Son of God, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
For they would not have done this if they had known Him to be God. If even the demons did not understand that God had become man, how much less would men? Therefore the demons knew Him no differently than the rulers did: they knew that He was the one promised in the Law, but they did not know His mystery—that He was the Son of God from eternity—nor did they know the sacrament of the Incarnation, Passion, and Redemption.
Therefore, what the demons cry out in the Gospel—“What have you to do with us, Jesus, Son of God?” (Mark 5)—is to be believed to have been spoken more from suspicion than from knowledge. Or if they did know, it was not with a settled conviction of mind; for if they had known in this way, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
Note what he says: “They crucified the Lord of glory.” For He was crucified in the form of a servant, and yet the Lord of glory was crucified. Such was that assumption by which God became man and man became God.
Yet far be it that Christ, while speaking on earth, should have experienced death in such a way that life itself, as far as it was in Him, lost life. For if this were so, the fountain of life would have dried up. He therefore experienced death by participation in the condition He freely assumed; He did not lose the power of nature by which He gives life to all things. In the tomb He did not abandon His flesh by dying, just as in the womb of the Virgin He did not abandon it when forming it by being born.
He therefore died without life departing, just as power did not perish. No one takes His soul from Him, because He has power to lay it down and power to take it up again. Behold the author of the work: “He lays down His soul.” Behold the work of authority. And to conclude generally: whenever Christ suffers anything in the flesh, it is the work of the author, because He suffers by His own power, not compelled by another. He Himself is the author of the act.
Therefore Christ did not come to Mary by a local motion of the divine Word, nor did He abandon the Father when He came into the Virgin; rather, by the ineffable fullness of His power, He remained neither diminished nor divided. Everywhere whole, everywhere perfect, at one and the same time He was wholly in hell, wholly in heaven—truly dead and truly alive. In Him the assumption of mortality received death, and divinity did not lose life.
Therefore the Son of God did not suffer death in His soul nor feel it in His majesty, but only by participation in weakness was the King of glory crucified.
Comments
Post a Comment