9. This is the first proof: receive
now a second plain one. The Lord said
unto my Lord, sit Thou on My right hand Ps. cx. 1. Heb. “An oracle of Jehovah
unto my lord.” Cyril’s argument is based upon the
common mistake of supposing that Κύριος represents the same
Hebrew word in both parts of the sentence.. The Lord
says this to the Lord, not to a servant, but to the Lord of all, and
His own Son, to whom He put all things in subjection. But when
He saith that all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is
excepted, which did put all things under Him, and what follows;
that God may be all in all 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28.. The
Only-begotten Son is Lord of all, but the obedient Son of the Father,
for He grasped not the Lordship Cyril evidently
alludes to Philip. ii.
6, “Who being in
the form of God thought it not a prize to be on an equality with
God:” for the right interpretation of which passage, see
Dean Gwynn’s notes in the Speaker’s
Commentary., but received
it by nature of the Father’s own will. For neither did the
Son grasp it, nor the Father grudge to impart it. He it is who
saith, All things are delivered unto Me of My Father Matt. xi. 27; Luke x. 22. On this text Athanasius wrote a
special treatise (In illud ‘Omnia,’ &c.),
against the arguments of Arius, Eusebius, and their fellows, who
said,—“If all things were delivered (meaning by
‘all’ the Lordship of Creation), there was once a time when
He had them not. But it He had them not, He is not of the Father,
for if He were, He would on that account have had them
always.”
Again (contr. Arian. Orat.
III. cap. xxvii. § 36), Athanasius argues: “Lest a
man, perceiving that the Son has all that the Father hath, from the
exact likeness and identity of what He hath, should wander into the
impiety of Sabellius, considering Him to be the Father, therefore He
has said, Was given unto Me, and I received, and Were
delivered to Me, only to shew that He is not the Father, but the
Father’s Word, and the Eternal Son, who, because of His likeness
to the Father, has eternally what He has from Him, and because He is
the Son, has from the Father what eternally He hath.”; “delivered unto Me, not as
though I had them not
before; and I keep them well, not robbing Him who hath given
them.”