Volume 64:1 Table of Contents January 2000 Reformed Exegesis and Lutheran Sacraments: Worlds in Conflict David P. Scaer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Patristic Exegesis as Ecclesial and Sacramental William C. Weinrich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Friedrich August Criimer: Faithful Servant .(" 'i . -%a 'j ,. !,, 4.. s 4 In Christ's Church Lawrence R. Rast Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 A Review - Article: Law and Gospel: Philip Melanchthon's Debate with Iohn Agricola of Eisleben over " Poenitentia." Lowell Green. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Theological Observer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On the Morning After Ecclesiastical Geometq jv,.l:q,2 , . ,, :;, , r *, ,M I * * i : 1 . 4 , I ' . ', { ,;:,; ;. ;,7 Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Whether It Can Be Proven the Pope of R a e is the Antichrist: Frances Turretin's Seventh Disputation. Edited by Rand Windburn . . . . . . . . Lawrence R. Rast Jr Herman Sasse: A Man for Our Times? Edited by John R. Stephenson and Thomas M. Winger .................... Matthew C. Harrison The Christian Polemic Against the Jews in the Middle Ages. By Gilbert Dahan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Karl Fabrizius Books Received . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Patristic Exeges 1 s as Ecclesial and Sacra ental r William C. einrich T Recently, a well-known tele gelist held aloft in his hand the Bible from whic reaching. "This," he proclaimed with a loud voic nal, ever-living word of God, whch shall never pass never be destroyed, and shall never be conquered." as foundational material for his message, that because was the "eternal, ever- living word of God," the co on it gives is certain for those who choose to fo nsel and direction does it give? It provide e victorious life characterized by prosperi the reception of all tha ires -what one needing being roughly coterminou what one desires. Why is it that this preacher, who holds the Bible, does not see encompassing message the life of the world? Perhaps the stage setting in this preaching took place offers a clue. The stage was as though a comfortable living-room; the couches allowing the people sitting there to adopt an posture, appropriate for casual conversation. with winding staircase, huge flora, all unmistakably dress code attire of the day. Despite asseverations to the style and substance do tend to follow one another. that the same is true of Bible study and home Bible study becomes the and understanding idiosyncratic and The cozy question, method for The context in which the Bible is read and expounded is not unimportant to its interpretation. That raises an interesting question. Why is it that in the context of the church's worship and liturgy, and most especially in the context of the church's sacramental action, the Bible is read at all? This may seem to be a self-evident question. Yet, often those practices that seem most evident are those which hide considerable significance. Do we read the Bible in the context of the church's worship because this text is the traditional text, the text of our history presenting to us the interpretative symbols of our particular community? Or, do we read the Bible because this text is thought to be the inspired, inerrant text whose words to us are reliable and can be trusted as we strive to fulfill its precepts and to believe its words? The early church was not unacquainted with questions such as these and had an answer to them. The Scriptures are read in the church because the Scriptures are the church's book. For the Scriptures to be read outside the church or apart from the church is for them to be decontextualized. That is, read apart from the church, the Scriptures are abstracted from and placed apart from those realities to which they in fact refer. To put this in a somewhat provocative manner, the biblical text is not in any absolute sense its own context. For it to be considered, as it were, alone and unto itself, is for it ultimately to become a hidden and undecipherable book, open to various meanings as it finds-as it must-new contexts for its interpretation. If it is true, as a recent article claims, that Jesus has become a "growth industryJ' because "he lends himself so agreeably to '90s values" and "comes dressed up in the clothes of our own culture," we would be wholly naive to think that the Bible itself is immune from similar metamorphoses. If Jesus is especially popular because people want "an easily translatable God," one which is tradition free, context free, and generic,' it is not surprising that in our time, when the Bible is a money- 'one may see "It's Trendy to Love Jesus Now," The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, January 16,1999,4A. Patristic Exegesis as Ecclesial and Sacramental 23 making best seller, the people reading it are non-committal concerning the church and illiterate concerning its doctrinal substance. How then did the early church consider the Scriptures and the reading and interpretation of them? Let us first make the general observation that in their comment on the Scriptures the fathers were not primarily interested in the historical or grammatical sigruficance of the text. To be sure, the fathers were often thoroughly acquainted with the grammatical and literary critical methods taught in the secular, pagan schools. This is clear from the rhetorical sophistication of Melito of Sardis and the complexity of Cappadocian textual argument. Nonetheless, although grammatical and literary methods could be used, and often were used, they did not determine the message of the text. Indeed, it is possible that the fathers did not think such methods even necessary to understand the message of the Scriptures. They often argue issues of grammar and literary criticism to counter arguments of heretics and other false interpreters. But the foundation upon which the fathers stood to read and to interpret the Scriptures lies elsewhere. To put the point simply, but completely, the foundation upon which early Christian interpretation rested was Christ. Robert Wilken has compared the comments of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the prophesy of Isaiah 2 with those of Jerome, Cyril of Alexandria, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus. Isaiah prophesied concerning the return of the people to Jerusalem: It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths" (Isaiah 2:2-3). Theodore, perhaps the most consistent of Antiochene exegetes, insists on giving only a grammatical, historical interpretation to the text of Isaiah, and for that reason refuses to give to it any messianic interpretation. Theodore writes: "I do not know how one could be brought to say that [these things spoken by the prophet about the return from Babylon] are a type of the events that took place at the time of the Lord Christ. For it is clear that every type has a correspondence to the thing of which it is type."' Theodore was working from a particular definition of what constituted a type, and he did not see the required "correspondences" to conclude that the Old Testament prophecy concerning the return from Babylon had the events of Christ in mind. Literary assumptions and convictions determined biblical interpretation. For their understanding of the prophecy of Isaiah, on the other hand, Jerome, Cyril, and Theodoret, took as key the indication of time that begins chapter 2: "It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains." They discerned in this indication of time the economy of divine activity which made any reference in the Isaianic text to the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple impossible and made reference rather to Christ and to Wis church necessary, for in them the last days had come. In his comments, Theodoret cites the quotation of Joel 2:28-32 in Acts 2:17 and following and notes that, unlike Joel, Luke began the passage with the words "in the last days." Secondly, Theodoret cites Hebrews 1:1, "In many and various ways God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets, but in these last days God has spoken to us by His Son."3 In the coming of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, that is, in the establishment of the apostolic church, the "last days" had come. Any reference to the "last days" in the Old Testament must necessarily refer to Christ and to His church. Qobert Wilken, "In nmissimis diebus : Biblical Promises, Jewish Hopes, and Early Christian Exegesis," in Remembering the Christian Past (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1995), 95-119. This quote of Theodore, from his Commentary on M i d , is on page 105. 3Wilken, "In naPissimis diebus ," 116. Patristic Exegesis as Ecclesial and Sacramental 25 What determined the interpretation of the Scriptures, therefore, was not a particular literary theory, nor the definitions of tropes, hyperbole, types, and the like, nor any theory of semantics and communication. What determined interpretation was a particular set of historical events-the salvific events of the life, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus. When Ignatius of Antioch was in dispute with certain Judaizing Christians in Philadelphia, he answered their claim that they would not believe something to be in the gospel if it could not be found in the "ancient texts" by responding, "To me the ancient texts are Jesus Christ, the sacred archives are His cross and His death and His resurrection and the faith which is through ~ im."* The history of Jesus Christ determined what was to be perceived in the Old Testament; prophecy did not determine what the fulfillment would be, but that which was intended by God as His final and consummating purpose, the fulfillment, determined what was given by the Spirit to the prophets to say and to do. It is true, then, that patristic exegesis was first and foremost Christological. When Christ opened the minds of the apostles to understand the Scriptures and said that His sufferings and resurrection and the apostolic preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins to the nations were the content of the Scriptures (Luke 24:4449), He simply catechized them to do what then they did, preach Christ on the basis of the Scriptures because they testdy of Him. This apostolic preaching is nowhere more sigruficantly and canonically stated than in the four Gospels, which are nothing other than the record of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament writings and of the institutions of Israel concerning which they speak. The four Gospels are the exposition of the Old Testament in terms of its messianic fulfillment. Not to read the Old Testament documents in terms of their Christological 'Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Phil. 8:2. One may see The Epistles of Saint Clement of Rome and Saint Ignatius of Antioch, translated by James A. Kleist (Westminsber, Maryland: Newman Bookshop; London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1%1), 85-89. meaning is to rob them of their teleological and eschatological intention. Allow me to illustrate. The prophet Zechariah speaks of the "day of the Lord in terms of the symbolism and rites of the Festival of Tabernacles: "On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea" (Zechariah 148). When the Evangelist John reports that Jesus, in Jerusalem during the Festival of Tabernacles, cries out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me, and let him w h ~ believes in me drink, as the Scripture says, 'Out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water,'" he lays the basis for the later report that when the soldiers thrust the spear into the side of Jesus water and blood came flowing out. If, as John would have it, the prophecy of the living waters that were to flow out from Jerusalem on the "day of the Lord finds its fulfillment in the passion of Jesus, where is the "new Jerusalem" of wluch the New Testament speaks to be located? Clearly the "new Jerusalem" exists there where the death of the Lord is located, in the preaching of the crucified, in the baptism into His death, and in the body and blood given and shed. In "the last days" things Old Testament become themselves re- contextuahzed. In this case, the "new Jerusalem" is no longer to be regarded as part of geographical Israel, and therefore bound up in struggles of near eastern geo-political strife. The "new Jerusalem" is the home of spiritual Israel, the church, in which the crucified continues to be proffered in preaching and the sacraments. It is, therefore, wholly commensurate with this Christological and ecclesial understanding that at the beginning of the eucharistic service the hymn, "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?" is sung. This introductory hymn concludes with these words: "I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of you, 0 Jer~salem."~ To be in the liturgy of the church is to be in the "new Jerusalem." Not coincidentally, therefore, Saint Paul speaks of Israel having been baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and having 'Lutheran Worship (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1982), 188, Patristic Exegesis as Ecclesial and Sacramental 27 eaten and drunk the supernatural food and drink and then refers these narratives to us "upon whom the consummation of the age has come" (1 Corinthians 10:Il). It is precisely this conviction, that in Christ and His church the "end of the age" has come, that governs patristic exegesis and makes it Christological and ecclesial. A few examples will illustrate. In his letter to the Smyrnaeans, Ignatius of Antioch (died about AD. 110) presents an anti-docetic creedal form which ends like this: "in reality (hhq0ds) He was nailed in the flesh under Pontius Pilate and Herod . . . in order that He might raise up a standard for the ages through the resurrection for His saints and faithful, whether among the Jews or among the Gentiles, in the one body of His ch~ rch . "~ The raising of the standard refers to certain Old Testament prophecies, which speak of God raising an ensign/standard in the last days to which His people in diaspora, and also the Gentiles, would gather.7 Commentators on Ignatius are virtually unanimous in the view that for Ignatius this standard is the cross of Christ, and I concur with that view. However, it does not sufficiently interpret Ignatius' meaning. The creedal form of Ignatius says that this standard shall be raised "in the one body of His church." But where, for Ignatius, is the passion of Christ "in the one body of His church"? Reading Ignatius, it would be difficult not to conclude that the passion of Christ in the one body of the church is the eucharist. Typically, therefore, Ignatius speaks of the gathering around the eucharist in wholly eschatological terms: Be zealous, therefore, to come together more often unto the eucharist of God and unto glory. For whenever you are often in one place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and the ruination that he causes is done away within the harmony of your faith. Nothing is better than peace, in which every warfare in heaven and on earth is overc~rne.~ 61gnatius of Antioch, Ad Smym. 8:2. One may see The Epistles of Saint Clement ofRome and Saint Ignatius of Antioch, 90-95. 7For example, Isaiah 5:26; 11:10,12; 18:3; 49:22; 6210. 'Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Eph. 13. One may see The Epistles of Saint Clement With this eucharistic center of Ignatian thhkxng in mind, one reads other passages differently than one might otherwise. For example, take this passage from ht6 letter to the church in Philadelphia, which more extensively than any other expresses the view of Ignatius concerning the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament: Indeed the priests were good, but better is the High Priest who has been entrusted with the Holy of Holies, who alone has been entrusted with the hidden things of God. He Himself is the door of the Father, through whom enter Abraham and Isaak and Jacob and the prophets and the apostles and the church. All of these h g s into the unity of God. The gospel possesses something distinctive, namely, the presence of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, His passion and resurrection. For the beloved prophets proclaimed in view of Him, but the gospel is the completion of incorruption. And all things taken together are good, if you are faithful in agape.g Here Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament priesthood, the fulfillment of the preaching of the prophets, and also the fulfillment of the patriarchal history. He is also the door for the apostles and the church. All the canonical history has its fulfilled center in Him. But this Christological center is found in what Ignatius calls the "unity of God" and the "agape." In my reading of Ignatius, I find it impossible to interpret "the unity of God" and the "agape" as anything other than the eucharistic gathering of the church, an interpretation that the mention of the "Holy of Holies" in this passage supports. For Ignatius, the church in its eucharistic assembly is gathered around the passion of Jesus, which is "our resurrection," and this is the "completion of incorruptibility." Because the ecclesial and sacramental realities are regarded as the true and final referents of Old Testament prophetic event and oracle, it is evident why a typological exegesis occurs so of Rome and Saint Ignatius of Antioch, 60-68. ygnatius of Antioch, Ad Phil. 99-2. Patristic Exegesis as ldcclesial and Sacramental 29 often in preaching that is explicitly liturgical and sacramental. The eventful character of the ckiurch's sacramental liturgy sums up and brings to completion the events of the Old Testament covenant. An outstanding ins$nce of this is the paschal hormly of Melito of Sardis (died abcpt AD. 190). Melito begins by explicitly referring to the exodus narrative of the Old Testament, which clearly has just been read to the gathered Christians: "The Scripture from the Hebrew Exo(lus has been read and the words of the mystery have been plainly stated.'"' Immediately, Melito introduces the interpretative-hbdetic device of typology: Understand ( Q ~ s ~ E ) , therefore, 0 beloved, how it is new and old, eternal and temporary, perishable and imperishable, mortal and immortal, this mystery of the Pascha . . . . Old is the law but new the Word; temporary the type but eternal the grace; perishable the sheep, imperishable the Lord. . . . For the type indeed existed, but then the reality (ahij8st a) appeared." After giving a summary of the paschal narrative in the book of Exodus, Melito compares the Old Testament narrative to the preliminary sketch of a sculptor: This is what occurs in the case of a preliminary sketch; it does not arise as a [finished] work, but [it exists] on behalf of that thing which is going to be seen on the basis of this image which is serving as a model. The sketch is made out of wax or clay or wood on behalf of that which is going to be. . . . But when that of which it is type has come, that which bore the image of *e future thing is destroyed, having become useless, th$ image of it yielding to that which is really true (TC$ @k~it dAq0i). That which once was precious becomes worthlesq, when that which is precious by nature is manifested." '%elite of Sardis, Peri Pasha 1. The Gxt,eek text and an English translation are available in On Pascha and Fragmenbs, texts and translations edited by Stuart George Hall (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1979). "Melito of Sardis, On Pascha, 5 4 . 12~elito f Sardis, On Pascha, 36. What is this "future thing" wbch is "precious by nature"? Melito gives the answer: For the salvation of the Lolid and the realities ( d h j 8 ~ 1 a) were prefigured in the peqple, and the decrees of the gospel were proclaimed befodehand by the law. The people then was a type by way of a1 preliminary sketch, and the law was the writing of a :parable; the gospel is the recounting and fulfillment of b e law, and the church is the repository of the reality ( T ~ S drA~$~ia~).'~ As the remainder of the homily ir)dicates, the Christian Pascha is not ody the fulfillment of the Exodus narrative; it is also the fulfillment of all history. For in expiaining the "Pascha," Melito recounts the creation, the fall, the spread of sinful destruction throughout the world, and then he summarizes the "prior arrangements for [Christ's] own sudferings" in the patriarchs, in the prophets, and in the whole pebple. This recounting of the biblical narrative has as its purpose'that the people might learn "who is the suffering one, and who shares the suffering of the suffering one, and why the Lord is present on the earth to clothe Himself with the suffering one and tarry him off to the heights of heaven."" Here the "suffering one" is Adam and all humankind who suffer with him, ahd the one "who shares the suffering of the suffering one" is Christ who is come from heaven in order that the "suffering one," that is, Adam, might be exalted to heaven with Christ. is the meaning of the Christian Pascha. In the writings of Irenaeus of L y o ~ (died about A.D. 200) we have an especially trenchant and thoroughgoing herrneneutical reflection that both elicits and, as well, is grounded in a narrative biblical theology. Irenaeus has facing a spiritualizing Gnosticism, which, in its rejection of God as the Creator, regarded all things of the created order and of the flesh, including all historical events and aU literal words, as external symbol of that which was, in fact, real, namely the divine I3Melito of Sardis, On Pascha, 39-43, here especially 40. 14Melito of Sardis, On Pascha, 46. Patristic Exegesis as Eccllesial and Sacramental 31 Fullness, or Heroma. Because n+ concrete and particular thing had any intrinsic meaning but lwas mere image of a hgher, spiritual order, created things 9 d no specific relation to one another. This meant that neithet the actual works of God, nor the scriptural narratives had order or sequence. This did not mean that the the Scriptures; in fact, they used the orthodox did. The problem was regard for the inherent order of one thing to another, connection, oracles of proper position and fitting them 4 into "the body of the Truth," he will both lay bare the false of the heretic and restore to the Scripture its true meaning. To comprehend the full sigxufic ce of Irenaeus' argument, we must briefly consider what h p means by the phrase "the body of the Truth." The word " ~ ~ t h " does not refer primarily '51renaeus, Adu. Haer. 1.8.1. An English is available in The Ante- Nicene Fathers, volume 1, 7'he Apostolic Martyr and Irenaeus, edited by Alexander Roberts and York: Christian Literature Publishing Company, has anintrinsic structure and sequ nce, an order given by God Himself in the facticity of His te Im poral, economic activity, to the truth value of the church's or to the truth value of the statements of Scripture. F the "Truth" is the saving and revealing the beginning work of creation to the and the outpouring of the Holy Pleroma of the Gnostic concrete and historical work of Him who is "Truth" begins which, again, reaches from the coming of the Spirit in the incarnation of the the constitution of the church. It was this by God from the beginning, that was Spirit upon the minds of the foretold, albeit election of Israel, the patriarchs, in type and enigma, that the One whom alI was made would at the last times be made when the Iast times had in truth arrived in the Word and the Spirit, this economy apostles under the guidance of the apostolic preachment of the church as the Godl which He had of Israel, the proclamation of the pr~phets?~ I ! the giving of the law, the In his Demonstration of the Apostolic reaching, Irenaeus begins by speaking of faith and "Truth." f the basis of Isaiah 7:9 (LXX), "If you do not have faith, y u will not understand," proclamation of the and finally receives its consummation in the incarnated Word and the coming of the Holy The "Truth," therefore, 16 One may see Thomas F. Torrance, "K gmatic Proclamation of the Gospek The Demonstration of Apostolic Prea g of Irenaios of Lyon~,'' The Greek Orthodox %olog'iral Ra&u 37 (Spring- inter 1992): lQ!j-I21, es@y 108-109. F Patristic Exegesis as Eccl sial and Sacramental 4 33 Irenaeus argues that faith rests o things that truly exist. "For we believe in the things that they are, and believing in things that are, as they are, firm confidence in them. Since faith is intimately our salvation, we must take great care to have of the things that are."17 However, this faith, which is gro ded on the things that are, namely the Truth, is given in the real thing of baptism. The doctrine handed down from th apostles exhorts us "to remember that we have received b ptism for remission of sins in the Name of God the Father, and ' the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became incarn te and died and was raised, and in the Holy Spirit of God; and 1 at this baptism is the seal of eternal life and is rebirth that we be no more children of mortal men, but and everlasting God."18 Baptism into the summation and completion of that were begun at creation and "in the the incarnation of the Word for of life to light, and the in the mereIy a human production of is it the result of a deduction process of reading the The creed, precisely in its trinitarian structure and a summary of the "Truth," which reaches its in baptism. The movement of the creed from ending in the Holy Spirit, is nothing of God's economic activity, also apostles in the "Irenaeus, Epideixis 3; one may also see Torrance, "Kerygmatic Preaching," 106-107. For a translation of th original, one may see Saint Irenaios. The Demonstration of the Apostolic P eaching, translated from the Armenian with introduction and notes by J. rmitage Robinson (London, 1920). "Irenaeus, Epideixis, 3. 'qrenaeus, Epideixis, 6; also Epideixis 7. \ i 1 34 CONCORDIA THE LOGICAL QUARTERLY b true: the creed is a y of the prophet and apostolil Scriptures, and the and apostolic Scriptures are thl canonical commentary on creed. For this reason, the creec is a certain key for terpretation of the Scriptures Moreover, the reality of itself is a hermeneutical realit for understanding the for it is the reality of the dead and resurrection of the Word for us, given to us by thc grft of the Holy Spirit, Giver of Life. In baptism wc enter "the end of times" and ourselves that which thc prophets foresaw and foretol So far we have remained wi the patristic literature of tht second century. However, literature of the fourth and fifth centuries continues interpretive interest. A: representative of the argument, the work entitled "Concerning Against the Arians," often attributed to a good source. Thc Arians were using the poverty of t h e Son to argue that with God the Father: "How can or how is He from the essence of the Father, it is written, 'As the Father has life in Himself, so He has also to the Son to have life in Himself."' There is a the Arians claimed, of the One giving over the one such passages in Scripture that say that G somethmg to the Christ indicate that the Word some way promoted and improved, and that th e of the Word is alterable and not divine. Ho rceIlus, "the entire and precise sigruficance of Chris is found in lowly words and deeds" (naoa v1upo6 i v TOIS E ~ T E A ~ I ptpao~ ~ a i TIP s Paul to establish his hermeneutical and doctrinal pr e: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus He was rich, yet He I 20De Incamatione Dei Verbi, et contra 1 (from now on, De Incam. ef c. Ar.). The Scripture passage cited is Other passages which the Arians were using included Mark Mark 13:32; John 10:36; Galatians 1:l. The text of De contra Arianos may be found in Migne, Patrologia Patristic Exegesis as Ecclesial and Sacramental 35 became poor for our sakes, so tihat we by His poverty might become rich."" In the light of tfus Pauline guidance, Marcellus undertakes to explain the "force of these words" (namely, the passages of lowliness) "accordirlg to our ability." When Paul says that "the Father has raised His Son from the dead" (Galatians 1:1), we learn also from John that Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I ;will raise it up," and that He said this concerning His body. Therefore, concludes Marcellus, in passages of lowliness and hud i ty , what is said about the person of the Word, is said about His body. When it is written that the Father has given life to His Son, we are to understand that it is to Christ's flesh that Me fes been given.* There follows a brief reflection on the incarnation: For the Most High is not exalted (that is, the Son considered according to His own nature) but the flesh of the Most High is exalted. . . . The Word of God does not receive the right to be called "God" by grace, but His flesh with Himself is called "God" (&0Aoyfi0$ It did not say that the Word became God, but that the Word was God. It says that the Word was eternally God, and that this very One who is God became flesh, in order that His flesh might become God the Word. 23 The incarnation is such that the flesh is not attached to the Word so that it exists in external relation to the Word, nor is the flesh merely possessed by the Word. Rather, the incarnation is such that the flesh is assumed into the Person of the Word, so that the flesh itself becomes Word. The man, Jesus, is the divine Word. Therefore, writes Marcellus, "When it is said in Scripture that the Son has received, or that the Son has been glorified, it is said because of lus humanity and not because of His divinity ." ** "De Incam. et c. Ar .l. The quote from Paul is 2 Corinthians 8:9. %e Incam. et c. Ar. 2. "De Incam. et c. Ar. 3. "De Incam. et c. Ar. 4. However, this does not simply serve to define the were, in the narrative He alone was serves the interpretative task of in the Scriptures the narrative of salvation for us. the huge difference between the Arian and the orthodox he While the Arians read the gospel narratives as simply about the Son, so that the language of immediately that He was by nature lowly, gospel narratives withifl a different as the narrative of our salvation through Chri t and, perhaps even more importantly, in Christ. As Marc d Ilus writes: "The immortal God did not come to save Himself, to save those who had died; andHedidnotsufferonHiso behalf,butforus;sothatfor this reason did He take on Him elf our lowliness and poverty, in order that He might by grace give to us His r i~hness ."~ t And now comes the real poin : t When He therefore says, fThe Lord created me as the beginning of His ways, e is speaking concerning the church which is created For the Maker of all things is neither created nor ma but that which is made is being renewed in Him Maker, as Paul said: "We are His workmanship, ha ing been created in Christ Jesus."26 1 I And again, a little later: I Whatsoever the Scripture that the Son received, it says concerning His Body, Body is the first-fruit of the church. For Christ is Therefore, when the first-fruit received the ~ a m d which is above every name, also the lump was raised 3ith Him in power and was seated with Him, was said: "He raised us and enthroned us with [ 25De Incarn. et c. Ar. 5. 26De Incarn. et c. Ar. 6 %e Incarn. et c. Ar. 12. Patristic Exegesis as (Ecclesial and Sacramental 37 I And where does this "rais g" and "enthroning" take place? In his comments on John 17 11 ("Let them be one as we are t one"), Athanasius gives an wer. Because the flesh of Christ is the constituting reality of th church, those united to it by way T of baptism participate in eter a1 life "no longer as men but as proper to the Word" (~SIOI o; Abyou). This is because in baptism t l our origin (ysvio~os) an4 our infirmity of flesh has been transferred to the Word . . . so that being born again from above through water an4 the Spirit, in Christ we are all made alive, the flesh no longer being earthly but having been made Word ( h o y d i q s ) through the Word of God who for us became flesh. 3 In a similar way, Leo the Grkat maintains that the personal unity of Christ's two natuies reveals "the mystery of regeneration," for "through the belf-same Spirit through whom Christ was conceived and born, b e too, who were born through the desire of the flesh, born again from a spiritual source."" In baptism the restoration of humankind in Him who is the our story, that is, the story concerning us. Not that in us again, as it was with Christ, but that with Him, participate in His story, narrated is, canonically, in the narratives of the four Gospels. Ambrose tells us that in the\ Church at Milan the newly baptized chanted Psalm 23 as the processed from the baptistry to the church for their first euc I arist. This is what he says to those who a few days before traiersed this way: 28Athanasius, Orat. c. Ar. 3.33. The te t of Orationes contra Arianos may be found in Migne, Patrologia Graece, 26. 1 21-468. An English translation is available in "Four Discourses against /he Arians" in the Nicene and Post- Nicene Fathers, second seriesI volume 4, ~aink ~fhanasius: Select Works and Letters, edited by Philip Schaff and Henry wade (New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1892), 411-412 2 9 ~ e o the Great, Epistle, 31.3, in the N ne and Post-Nicene Fathers, second seriesl vdume 12, Leo the Great, Gregory it? Great, edited by Philip Schaff and Hemy Wace (Christian Literature ~ublqhing Co., 1895), 45. 38 CONCORDIA THE LOGICAL QUARTERLY How often have you hear Psalm 23 and not understood it See how it is applicable o the heavenly sacraments: "Thc Lord feeds me and I sha want nothing; He has set me ir f a place of pasture; He hz/s brought me upon the water of refreshment; He has conv rted my soul. He has led me on the paths of justice for Hi own name's sake. For though I should walk in the midst f the shadow of death, I will fear I no evils, for you are with \me. Your rod is power, the staff suffering, that is, the etejnal divinity of Christ, but also corporeal suffering; the o e created, the other redeemed. You have prepared a tab e before me against them that f afflict me. You have anoi+ted my head with oil; and my chalice which inebriates e how goodly it is!"30 mi This is a perfect example o{ an ecclesial and sacramental reading of the Scriptures. It is nc/t allegory, a fanciful imposition of meaning upon an and literal meaning of an Old Testament text. Old Testament text in the light of its full and that in those acts that Christ them, we are the According to the seventh Gelasian Sacramentary, after the exorcism those to be receive the four Gospels. "Stand in silence and listen proclaimed the deacon, as he then read gospels. After this, the told, "With we hand on to you just as we received it, must write on the pages of your heart rather than on destroyed material." To read the Gospels aright is creed, and to know the creed is to know the Christians knew this in the early learn it again. 30Ambrose, On the Sacraments 513. translation is available in Saint Ambrose: The02~ca l and by Roy J. Deferrari (Washington: The Catholic 1963), 269-328.