Author: William Estius (Guilielmus Estius)
Work: Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul (Commentaria in Omnes D. Pauli et alias VII Epistolas Canonicas)
Section: Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians, Chapter 2, Verses 6–11
Phil 2:6. WHO BEING IN THE FORM OF GOD, THOUGHT IT NOT ROBBERY TO BE EQUAL WITH GOD.
Esset could be translated sit (is), for in Greek it is a participle of the present tense. The sense is: Who as He was and is in the nature of God, that is, as He was and is true God, did not consider equality with God to be robbery, that is, a thing alien and usurped by robbery, so that on account of this He humbled Himself so greatly, as if acknowledging He had usurped something not His own which He wished to put off by humbling Himself. As if to say: This is not the cause of Christ's humility, since He was not usurpatively but truly God. Wherein the pride of the devil and of man is latently taxed, who by desiring divinity in a way seized it and on account of this were humbled, either in this life or the next.
That forma (form) is taken for nature, and not as Erasmus wishes for species or figure and external habit, Chrysostom proves well in his commentary, with whom all the rest agree, as well Latins as Greeks. For what Cyprian is alleged by Erasmus to cite this place thus, Book 2 Against the Jews, Chapter 13: Who when He was in the figure of God, is of the translator, not of Cyprian citing only what he found in the Latin codex, not expounding it. Nor is there doubt that that version is to be disapproved, which neither Erasmus nor anyone else dared to imitate. Moreover, that nature is understood by the name of form is clear also from this, that soon adversatively follows concerning the form of a servant, as will be shown there. Therefore this place serves doubly for establishing the divinity of Christ: both in that against the Arians it attributes to Christ the true and properly so-called form which is the nature of God, and because it says Him to be equal to God the Father.
Phil 2:7. BUT HE EMPTIED HIMSELF.
As if: He did not put off something alien, but Himself, who was true God, He cast down to the lowest depth and in a way stripped. See Augustine, Book 2 Against Maximinus the Arian Bishop, Chapter 5. But by what means Christ emptied Himself the following things declare: TAKING THE FORM OF A SERVANT. That is, by this that He took the form of a servant, namely human nature, which indeed with respect to God, the Lord of all creation, is servile. For the Apostle does not consider the form of a servant in this, that Christ assumed a nature obnoxious to mortality and miseries (for even in such nature some are lords, some are servants), but in this, that He Himself, equal to God and by nature Lord of all things, was made man, who of whatever sort he may be, by nature is a servant. Whence also Christ on account of the assumed nature is most often called servant in Sacred Letters, as Isaiah 42: Behold my servant, I will uphold him. Which was said concerning Christ Matthew shows, Chapter 12. Likewise Ezekiel 34: And I will raise up over them one shepherd, my servant David. Zechariah 3: Behold I will bring my servant the Orient. And passim in the Psalms. Such is also that which is said concerning Christ now immortal and glorious, Acts 4: They convened against Thy holy child Jesus. For that by the name of child a servant is understood is clear from the same chapter where it is said: By the mouth of our father David Thy child. Concerning this matter see St. Thomas, Part 3, Question 20, Article 1 & 2.
BEING MADE IN THE LIKENESS OF MEN.
In the Greek it is the dative case, to be rendered by the ablative number. In the likeness some interpret thus: He was similar to other men, but not one of them, because He was not a pure man nor a sinner. Thus nearly the Greeks. According to others the sense is that Christ was made similar to men because He was made true man, just as He is equal to God because He is true God. The former understanding is made probable from other places in which there is similar phrase, namely from that which is said Romans 8: The Son of God sent in the likeness of sinful flesh. For there was not in Him sinful flesh but only the likeness of sinful flesh. So made man is said to the likeness of God, not made God. And indeed similitude is always referred to another. By both senses however the error of the Marcionites and Manichaeans is encountered, who abused this place of the Apostle to teach that Christ was incarnated not truly but only apparently, having assumed a phantastic body. Which doctrine evacuates the whole mystery of the incarnation and redemption of Christ.
AND IN HABIT FOUND AS A MAN.
Certain Latins interpret habit as clothing, so that the sense is that Christ, clothed with human flesh, conducted Himself among men. Thus Augustine understood it, Book 83 Questions, Question 71 & 73. Which opinion Thomas also reports in his commentary in the second place, and simply approves, Part 3, Question 2, Article 6, ad 1. Nevertheless these doctors do not signify that human nature came to Christ accidentally just as clothing comes to a man, and consequently that Christ is not man substantially (which was the erroneous opinion of certain ones conceived from these words of the Apostle badly understood, which indeed St. Thomas in his commentary well refutes), but they feel that the Son of God without any mutation of Himself was made man, just as he who puts on a garment is changed in no thing, whether you consider his substance or absolute accidents. Which although it be said truly and Catholicly, nevertheless that is not the sense of the Apostle in this place. For for habit in Greek is schemati, that is, figure. The Commentator Ambrose, and also the true Ambrose, Book 2 On the Faith, Chapter 4 & Book 3, Chapter 5, likewise On the Initiated, Chapter 4, read species in the same sense. Therefore the Apostle says Christ was found in habit as a man, because according to the figure and species exposed to the eyes of men He was found as a man, that is, He was acknowledged true man. For He does not signify that Christ was similar to men only in species and external image, but not in truth of nature, but so similar that He was true man. Just as nothing is so similar to an egg as an egg, so nothing is so similar to a man as a man. Therefore the particle as is a note of truth, not of bare similitude. Which Theophylact also noted, adducing a similar place where John says concerning Christ: We saw His glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father, when He was truly Only Begotten, just as he says there: The Only Begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared. Moreover, the truth of human nature in Christ those things which the Apostle subjoins concerning His death can evidently prove.
Phil 2:8. HE HUMBLED HIMSELF, BECOMING OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH.
Not only, he says, when He was God did He assume human nature, but truly also in it He humbled and cast Himself down vehemently, as being made obedient to the Father unto the suffering of death. Moreover, he speaks of violent death and to be inflicted by impious men, such as God wished His Son to suffer for the salvation of the human race. For in natural death which it is sometimes necessary to undergo, obedience does not so shine forth. Moreover, the Apostle makes mention of obedience because just as it is of pride to be unwilling to submit, so it is of humility to obey. Moreover, although all human actions of Christ proceeded from obedience, according to that which He Himself says, John 6: For I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me, nevertheless the Apostle commends His obedience peculiarly in undergoing death, both because that act of fortitude is of all the most difficult, and because through death Christ executed the work of our redemption. Moreover, that obedience is understood by which He perfectly conformed His human will to the eternal decree of the Father. Which conformity of will was obedience either formally and properly, or as it seems to others, eminently. And this is signified by all those places of Scripture which teach that Christ came to do the will of His Father.
BUT THE DEATH OF THE CROSS.
That is, death to be inflicted by the punishment of the cross, which punishment indeed not only crucified most gravely (whence also to cruciate is deduced from cross), but truly also was most probrous and infamous, just as today the punishment of the gallows, whence His adversaries said among the Wise: Let us condemn him to a most shameful death (Wisdom 2). See what we have said on 2 Cor 5 at the end, and what Baronius in the notes to the Martyrology on the 7th of April.
Phil 2:9. FOR WHICH CAUSE ALSO GOD EXALTED HIM.
Hereafter he shows the merit of the humility of Christ, so that similarly by the hope of future exaltation he may excite the Philippians to humility. The sense is: By the merit of such great humility and obedience, God in turn exalted Him, or as the Ambrosian text has it more expressly from the Greek: super-exalted Him, that is, He raised Him into the highest sublimity. For besides the glory of the resurrection, He gave Him a name, etc., as follows. This place teaches most openly that Christ by His passion and cross merited not for us only but also for Himself. Which while Calvin denies, against the sense and interpretation of all the fathers, he does violence to this Scripture, saying that particle for which cause signifies not cause but consequence and order of the thing done, as if the sense were: After such great dejection and obedience of His, God exalted Him. But as I said, this interpretation is altogether violent, nor does the Greek diction dio (therefore) receive it in any way. And indeed Calvin sweats in vain in snatching this place from us, since there are also many other Scriptures which most clearly teach this merit, as Apocalypse 5: The Lamb who was slain is worthy to receive power, etc. Hebrews 2: We see Jesus for the passion of death crowned with glory and honor. Isaiah 53: For the labor of His soul He shall see and be satisfied. And other places passim in the Psalms. But a more prolix proof of this doctrine pertains to 3 Sentences, Distinction 18.
AND GAVE HIM A NAME WHICH IS ABOVE EVERY NAME.
Let no one think the Apostle speaks of the proper name of Christ which is Jesus; for that name was imposed on Him and acknowledged by men long before the exaltation, and the same common to many others. But He understands the name of God or Son of God, concerning which the Archangel to Mary: That which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And concerning which Isaiah 7 and Matthew 1: They shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. And Hebrews 1: By so much better than them has He inherited a name. For this is the name which infinitely surpasses every other name, whence is among the Greeks the epithet of God hyperonymos, that is, than which nothing more exalted can be named. Moreover, God is said to have given this name to Him when He made the thing of the name known, namely after His resurrection and ascension into heaven. For then He began to be acknowledged by men as true Son of God and true God, and as such to be honored and glorified. This is the exposition of the Greeks. Others by the name which is above every name understand the fame, glory, and celebrity of the name, more excellent than the glory of any other. But this understanding recurs to the same, for that glory is the fame of His divinity. Moreover, from this place again it is shown that Christ is equal to God the Father. For if He were lesser than the Father as the Arians wished, He would not have a name which is above every name.
Phil 2:10. THAT IN THE NAME OF JESUS EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW.
Ut (That) is not taken causally but expletively. So that in the name of Jesus, etc. The name in this place seems to be put for the thing or person. Genuflection signifies metonymically submission and humiliation of oneself. Therefore the sense is: So much so that all whoever they are, acknowledging that man who is called Jesus to be the Son of God and true God, submit themselves to Him as to God and Lord of all, and adore Him. Whence in protestation of this thing, according to the ancient custom of Christians, to the name of Jesus alone when it is named reverence is made, testifying St. Vincent of Valencia, Sermon 2, 18th Sunday after Trinity.
OF THOSE THAT ARE IN HEAVEN, ON EARTH, AND UNDER THE EARTH.
The heavenly are angels and blessed souls. The earthly, men acting on earth. But whom he calls the infernal or as in Greek the subterranean, is not equally clear. For there are some, among whom Innocent III, Sermon 1 on All Saints, who think are signified the souls which are purified in infernal places (Purgatory), which indeed it is constant bow the knee in the name of JESUS with all humility. They strive to make this commentary probable from Apocalypse 5, where it is said: And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, all I heard saying: To Him that sits on the throne and to the Lamb, blessing and honor and glory, etc. For no others under the earth seem to be who bless and glorify God and the Lamb than the souls which are in Purgatory. For demons do not bless but maledict, do not glorify but blaspheme. The rest indeed of the damned either blaspheme or certainly do not love God so as to be able to glorify and bless, since they are averse from Him. Nor is Origen to be heard, who thought that sometime it would come to pass that all demons and all the damned, corrected by salutary penance, would be subject to Christ. Which opinion of his the Church has condemned.
But the common exposition of nearly all interpreters is that by the infernal indeed are signified demons and the rest of the damned, whose place of punishment is hell. But the submission signified by the name of genuflection is understood generally, by which namely anyone is subject to another, either willingly and spontaneously, in which way all the celestial bow the knee in the name of JESUS with all humility of mind, or coerced, insofar as he is so subject that he cannot resist, which mode befits demons and in universal the damned. To this sense favors in the same Apostle the place Romans 14, where when he had said: We shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ, he proves it because it is written in Isaiah: As I live, says the Lord, to Me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to God. For since the evil also are to be stood before the tribunal of Christ, it is consequent that the testimony of the prophet pertains to them also. Therefore the evil also shall bend the knee and confess to God. And indeed that the Apostle looked to the same words of the prophet in this place is made more than probable from that which follows: And every tongue confess, etc. But also elsewhere Scripture ascribes to the evil and enemies of God such coerced and extorted submission, indeed also benediction and confession: submission indeed, as Psalm 109: Until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool, which verse the Apostle cites 1 Cor 15 to teach that all things shall be subject to Christ. Likewise Psalm 71: His enemies shall lick the earth, that is, reduced into His power, with mouth pressed to the earth they shall adore Him, even unwillingly. Confession indeed or benediction, as in that which the Lord Matthew 23 and Luke 13 said to the Scribes and Pharisees: You shall not see Me henceforth until you say: Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord. For this not only the Greek commentators but also Augustine, Book 2 On the Harmony of the Evangelists, Chapter 75, understand to be said concerning the advent of Christ to judgment, when all altogether, willing or unwilling, shall acknowledge Him as God and Lord. Which Christ Himself repeats, standing in the council of the Priests and Seniors, saying to them: Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power of God and coming in the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26). You shall see, he says, that is, you shall know even unwillingly Me sitting at the right hand of the Power of God, that is, placed in supreme glory before all creatures. Such also is that which in the prophets is so often read: And they shall know that I am the Lord. Finally that of James the Apostle, Chapter 2: The demons believe and tremble.
Nor indeed does that seem to have a different sense which was adduced above from Apocalypse 5. For every creature indeed shall say: To Him that sits on the throne and to the Lamb, blessing and honor, etc. But otherwise shall the creature say this which is in heaven, otherwise that which is under the earth, just as has already been explained. But that Theodoret interprets the infernal or those who are under the earth as dead men, he does not seem to have attained the matter. For in this way the same will be in the number of the celestial and the infernal, namely the saints reigning with Christ, unless he responds that the celestial are understood as angels alone. But it is absurd to reckon blessed souls and those associated with angels in heaven with the infernal rather than with the celestial. If anyone however should say that by the name of infernal are comprehended also those who are in Purgatory, he will have said nothing adverse to the superior things. For we do not say that the damned alone are signified by this part.
Moreover, although this exaltation of Christ which the Apostle commemorates had even before His passion a certain beginning (for also angels sang glory to Christ born as Son of God, and the Magi and many besides men adored Him while still mortal, and demons yielded to His command and confessed the Son of God), nevertheless after He rose from death and ascended into heaven, His glory was wonderfully increased through the Church diffused everywhere, nor only through the Church but truly also among those who either have not entered the Church or have deserted it through heresy or schism. Whence Augustine on the explanation of Psalm 103, on that That His face may be gladdened in oil: Because, he says, the most excellent grace appeared in Christ, the whole world loves Him who when He was despised here is now adored by every nation, for His is the kingdom and He shall rule over the Nations. So great is His grace that many who do not believe in Him praise Him, and on account of this say they are unwilling to believe in Him, because no one can fulfill what He commands. Nevertheless He is loved by all, preached by all, because excellently anointed. These are his words. Certainly also heretics and schismatics bow the knee in the name of JESUS and glory in His magisterium. Indeed also the Mahometans from the doctrine of their Alcoran hold the son of Jesus Mary in great veneration. Only the Jews who are so in the world that they are nowhere, curse Him. Although therefore the glory of Christ is dilated through the whole world, because nevertheless there are not yet wanting those who blaspheme Him, and those who acknowledge and venerate do not all acknowledge how great He is, nor are all subject to Him, and because demons also still persecute Him in His members, so that on account of these things the Apostle Hebrews 2 says: But now we see not yet all things subject to Him, surely this Apostolic Scripture shall not be perfectly fulfilled before the extreme judgment and thereafter, just as the same Apostle luculently teaches 1 Cor 15. And the same reason is concerning that which follows.
Phil 2:11. AND EVERY TONGUE CONFESS THAT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS IN THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER.
This confession, as we have already shown, is partly spontaneous, partly extorted from the unwilling and malevolent. For every tongue is understood according to the preceding distribution of celestial, terrestrial, and infernal. The words as they are rendered by our interpreter wish this sense: And all confess the Lord Jesus Christ to be in the glory of God the Father, that is, to have the same glory as the Father, insofar as they acknowledge Him true God equal to the Father. Which namely He Himself predicted future, John 5: That all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.
But it is to be known that in the Greek the verb is is not expressed. Thus however it is read there: That the Lord Jesus Christ is into the glory of God the Father or to the glory. Therefore the Greeks, whom Cajetan also follows, thus arrange and expound: And all confess Jesus Christ to be Lord, which indeed His dignity and acknowledgment of dignity yields to the glory of God the Father, because the glory of the father is the exaltation of the son, just as on the contrary the dejection of the son is the ignominy of the father. But that Erasmus thinks that into the glory of God the Father can be referred to the verb confess, in this sense: And every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father that Christ is Lord, does not consist with the mind of the Apostle speaking generally. For the evil do not confess to the glory of God, but the good alone. Moreover, it is signified that all shall confess Jesus Christ Lord, not with some limitation, but absolutely, that is, Lord of all creation, both according to human nature and according to divine.
CONTINUE
Comments
Post a Comment