Athanasius of Alexandria : The fame of Anthony came even unto kings, for Constantine Augustus and his sons … wrote letters to him as to a father and begged an answer from him. He made nothing very much of the letters, nor did he rejoice at the messages; rather, he was the same as he had been before the emperors wrote to him. But when they brought him the letters, he called the monks and said, "Do not be astonished if an emperor writes to us, for he is a man. Wonder rather that God wrote the law for men and has spoken to us through his own Son." And so he was unwilling to receive the letters, saying that he did not know how to write an answer to such things. But at the urgings of the monks because the emperors were Christians and lest the emperors take offense on the ground that they had been spurned, he consented that the letters be read. And he wrote an answer approving of them because they worshiped Christ, and he gave them counsel on things pertaining to salvation: "not to think much of the present, but rather to remember the judgment that is coming, and to know that Christ alone was the true and eternal king." He begged them to be merciful and to give heed to justice and the poor. Having received the answer, they rejoiced. Thus he was dear to all, and all desired to consider him as a father. LIFE OF ST. — Life of St. Anthony 81 Cyril of Alexandria : For at the end of the ages the Son himself spoke to us through himself. No longer through the mediation of a prophet or the voice of saints but through himself, the only begotten, by being born into our condition, spoke with us. And we say that the Father spoke in the Son, not as through a human being somehow established as a special kind of mediator or as one declaring a message to us which was not his own but another's. Rather, the Son spoke to us in his own voice through his own body. For the flesh belonged to the only begotten and not to anyone else. Though God by nature, he became human while remaining God. — COMMENTARY ON HEBREWS Ephrem the Syrian : Paul says, "through whom he made the worlds," that is, both the spiritual and material worlds. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS Jerome : He, who first spoke through patriarchs and prophets, afterwards spoke in his own person. As the Song of Songs says, "that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." He is saying, therefore, "Now, in my own person, I speak of him of whom I spoke through the prophets." The world could not hear him in his thundering, but may it hear him, at least, in his crying. — HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS, ALTERNATE SERIES 66 (Psalms 88) John Chrysostom : "Whom He appointed," saith he, "heir of all." What is "whom He appointed heir of all"? He speaks here of the flesh [the human nature]. As He also says in the second Psalm, "Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance." For no longer is "Jacob the portion of the Lord" nor "Israel His inheritance," but all men: that is to say, He hath made Him Lord of all: which Peter also said in the Acts, "God hath made Him both Lord and Christ." But he has used the name "Heir," declaring two things: His proper sonship and His indefeasible sovereignty. "Heir of all," that is, of all the world. Then again he brings back his discourse to its former point. "By whom also He made the worlds [the ages]." Where are those who say, There was [a time] when He was not? — Homily on Hebrews 1 John Damascene : He made the ages who exists before the ages, of whom the divine David says, "From everlasting to everlasting you are" and the divine apostle, "By whom he made the ages."38Now one should note that the term age has several meanings, because it signifies a great many things. The span of life of every person is called an age, and a period of one thousand years is called an age. Moreover, this whole present life is called an age, and so is the age without end to come after the resurrection. Again, that is called an age which is neither time nor any division of time measured by the course and motion of the sun, that is, made up of days and nights; but it is coextensive with eternal things after the fashion of some sort of temporal period and interval. This kind of age is to eternal things exactly what time is to temporal things. — ORTHODOX FAITH 2.1 Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius : For God had determined, as the last time drew near, to send from heaven a great leader, who should reveal to foreign nations that which was taken away from a perfidious and ungrateful people. And I will endeavour to discuss the subject in this book, if I shall first have shown that wisdom is so closely united with religion, that the one cannot be separated from the other. — The Divine Institutes Book 4, Chapter II Oecumenius : "but in these last days." He comforts those worn out by adverse circumstances, saying: in the last. For, he says, the end is near; and for some, rest from pains, and for others, the beginning of rewards. "He has spoken to us by His Son." He did not say, "He spoke to us in Christ," that is, through Christ; (for they were still weaker concerning Christ.) But, "by His Son," that is, through the Son. "whom He made heir of all things." He says, "He made him heir and Lord of the whole world." The term "he made" is appropriate for the incarnation. — The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews Oecumenius : Who made him heir? Over whom? Over all things. Of all who approach the immortal and divine nature. Indeed, the Son is the heir and participant of the Father's substance [οὐσίας], wealth, and power. Then, when he said that the Son is the heir of the Father's possessions, he also explains how. Through him, he says, the ages were created: that is, the ages are the common works of him and the Father. But if the ages are the mutual work of the Father and the Son, then those things which are in the ages are certainly mutual to the Father and the Son. And if those things which are in the ages, much more those things which are after the ages, namely the world and those things which are in it. — The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews Oecumenius : "through whom also He made the ages." Where are those who say, "when the Son was not"? For the Creator of the ages is not subject to time. But since the Father is the cause of the Son, it is fitting that He is also the cause of those things that came into being through Him. Therefore he says: through whom. For the Father seems to act when He begets the Son who has done these things. — The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews Photios I of Constantinople : "Whom he appointed the heir of all." Of what? Of all those who approach the undefiled divine nature. Indeed, the Son is the heir and partaker of the Father's nature, dominion and power. If the Son is the heir of the Father's attributes, it is necessary to explain, in what way. Through him, it says, he also created the ages [the world]. If the creation is a mutual deed of the Father and of the Son, then all that is in the world is also a shared property of the Father and the Son. If all in the spiritual universe belongs to both of them, then that is also true of what was created after the spiritual universe, that is, our world (cosmos) and everything in it. Yet in order that you would not dare to interpret "heir" as according to grace or favor rather than according to birth and nature, he adds, "who is the reflection of [God's] glory." The author had in mind to prevent you from a simpleminded yet ungodly conclusion after he stated that the Father appointed him an heir. I believe that "appointed" does not signify production or creation of the heir yet indicates relationship between the Son and the Father, who is the cause according to nature of their unity and convergence. [The writer does this] so that it would not appear as if the Son is deprived of the fatherly bond by his origin and hence the Father and the Son are two separate and unrelated entities.… He speaks in very clear terms, "the very stamp of his nature," that is he [the Son] shares the same nature and mode of existence, that is he is God, all-powerful, omnipotent, creator, and shares in all other attributes of the Father, except that the Father is always the Father and the Son is always the Son. Therefore, everything is created, sustained and directed by his almighty word. See, he is truly the heir, as the Father handed everything to him. — FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE Hebrews 1.2-3 Severian of Gabala : "He spoke to us in his Son," instead of "by the Son." For he did not speak in him as an instrument but rather through him as one indwelling the flesh.… For when he had said, "He has spoken to us in his Son whom he appointed as an heir"—not "created as an heir"—he applied the word to his existence before the ages. And he does this intelligently, now leading us up into theology, now bringing us down into the incarnation. — FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE Hebrews 1.1-2 Theodore of Mopsuestia : "Through whom also he made the ages." An age is not a nature that is able to exist in substance but is understood to be a certain interval. This interval can be perceived from its having a beginning of existence until its end or until some other age has likewise taken its beginning.… The "creator of the ages" means nothing different than "everlasting, existing beyond every age, having his own limitless existence." For the maker exists before the things which are made, but an interval of time must be perceived by its having a beginning.… When blessed David says, "Who exists before the ages," he does not wish this to say that God exists before the latter ages, but that God has eternal existence, being earlier than every interval of time. When Paul says, "through whom God also made the ages," Paul does not wish God to be the creator of the later ages but to be eternal and the cause of all ages that have a beginning. — FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE Hebrews 1.2-3 Theodore of Mopsuestia : He does not say, "God spoke to us in the Son" but simply "in a Son." By saying this and making no separation, he was able to signify both in a single expression. First of all, he signifies the true Son, and by true Son I mean the one who possesses sonship by his natural birth. In the second place, he also includes in this designation the one who shares truly in the dignity of sonship because of his union with God. — FRAGMENTS ON THE TREATISE ON THE INCARNATION 12.1 Theodoret of Cyrus : He spoke of the Son as "creator of the ages" to bring out that he is eternal and to teach us that he was always beyond any temporal interval whatsoever. In these terms the Old Testament speaks of the God and Father as the one existing before the ages, that is, the one who always is. — INTERPRETATION OF Hebrews 1 Theodoret of Cyrus : "Whom he appointed heir of all things." The divine apostle began with human beings, and after speaking first of the lowlier things he thus lays hold of the greater. In other words, Christ the Lord is heir of all things, not as God, but as man: as God he is maker of all things, and the creator of all things is Lord of all by nature, whereas the heir is made master of what he was previously not lord. In like manner the believers are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ: by grace they receive what they did not have before. — INTERPRETATION OF Hebrews 1 Theodoret of Cyrus : He clearly brought out the difference between Christ the Lord and the prophets, calling him alone "Son." The opening resembles the parable of the Lord: in telling the parable about the vineyard to the Jews, the Lord showed that slaves were first sent to the wicked farmers, then after their murder a son arrived. — INTERPRETATION OF Hebrews 1