Cyril of Alexandria : No one who views things correctly thinks God possesses a physical body. It is only that the holy Scriptures speak in a human fashion about him. For those of us in simple and crass bodies can think in no other way, except that these things are adapted for us by a range of metaphors, so that in the perception of visible things we are able to know in part about the divine and higher being, which is higher than all bodily imaginings. Observe how in these words the message is adapted to human understanding. — COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 4:4.50:1 Jerome : But so that you may know, I did not reject your mother's soul; rather, she withdrew of her own accord. After many benefits, I assumed a human body, and I spoke not through the prophets, but in person. I came, and I was not a man, nor a human being. For all men, leaving the image of a man and of a human being, took on the images of beasts and serpents. Therefore, due to her wickedness, it is said to Herod: Go, and tell this fox (Luke 13:32). And to the Pharisees: 'Brood of vipers' (Matthew 23:33). And to the lustful: 'They have become insane horses longing for females' (Jeremiah 5:8). And about the indulgent: 'Do not cast your pearls before swine' (Matthew 7:6). And to the shameless: 'Do not give what is holy to the dogs' (Matthew 7:6). And in general, about everyone: 'The vision of the beasts that were in the wilderness' (Isaiah 30). So the Lord came, but did not find a man. For when man was in honor, he did not understand; he was compared to dumb animals and became like them' (Psalms 49:13). I called, he said, them as if they were rational animals, and I said: Incline your ear to the words of my mouth (Psalms 77), and my people did not hear my voice. I cried out, and said: Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let them drink (John 7:37). And in another place: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden (Matthew 11:28). And there was no one to hear; therefore I spoke to them in the Gospel: You have not seen the form of God, nor have you heard his voice, because you do not have his word abiding in you (John 5:37, 38). — Commentary on Isaiah Jerome : (Verse 2.) Has my hand been shortened and become small, that I cannot redeem? Or is there no power in me to deliver? Indeed, I will make the sea a desert, I will dry up the rivers. The fish will rot without water and die of thirst. I will clothe the heavens in darkness and make sackcloth their covering. LXX: Can my hand not save, or is it not strong enough to deliver? Behold, by my threat I will make the sea a desert, and I will dry up the rivers, and their fish will wither away because there is no water, and they will die of thirst. And I will clothe the sky in darkness, and I will make its covering like sackcloth. Against those who believed that the Lord could not deliver his people from captivity, he sets forth overwhelming proof and most abundant examples. He made the Red Sea passable for his people (Exod. XIV), he dried up the flowing waters of the Jordan, and as the rivers in Egypt dried up, he turned their fish into rot. (Exod. VII). And He who made the darkness in Egypt palpable for three days, so that the sky appeared covered as if with a sack and with darkness, certainly could also deliver His people from danger. Whether because He had said before, 'I came, and there was no man; I called, and there was none to hear,' we can say this: He who is the performer of such great signs, who makes the sky, the earth, and the seas serve His will, could also escape the cross himself, saying in the Gospel, 'Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?' (Matthew 26:53) According to the anagoge, the sea becomes a desert through the rebuke of the Lord, when all the bitterness of this world is dried up, and the rivers are desolated, about which the spiritual dragon said in Egypt: 'The rivers are mine, and I have made them' (Ezek. XXIX, 9). And about which we read in another place: 'What have you to do with the ways of the Assyrians, to drink the waters of the rivers?' (Jer. II, 18). Also, the fish that are thrown into the sea with nets rot, having been separated from the good fish. And what follows: I will clothe the heavens in darkness, and its covering will be like sackcloth; or everything that is above us, let us understand as heaven, just as those flying creatures that are in the air are called celestial; and the opposing powers are said to be celestial, which move between heaven and earth. Or certainly, the heavens are clothed in darkness when they are covered with clouds. According to what is written: Who covers the heavens with clouds, and gives rain to the earth (Psalms 147:8). And in the threat of drought, God says: I will make the sky bronze and the earth iron (Deut. XXVIII, 23). Not that the nature of the elements is changed, but that the magnitude of the punishment is shown through bronze and iron. Philosophers say that clouds are lifted no more than ten stadia above the earth and hide the brightness of the sun. Therefore, the sky is not wrapped in a sack, but the air beneath, with the light of the sky blocked, is darkened by the darkness of the clouds. We can interpret that the heavens are covered with darkness, and being covered with a sack, in such a way that we say all are under sin, and even the holy ones need the mercy of God. — Commentary on Isaiah Origen of Alexandria : They were ignorant of the words of the prophet Isaiah, who prophesied these very same things concerning him, and said in the person of the Lord and Savior himself: "what, that I came, and there was no man? I called, and there was none who would obey? Is my hand not able to rescue? Or can I not deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, and I will set the rivers a desert. And their fish shall be dried up because they have no water, and shall die of thirst. And I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and make its covering like sackcloth. The Lord gives me the tongue of instruction, that I may know how it behooves me to speak the word; he set me in the morning, he applied to me an ear to hear, and the instruction of the Lord shall open my ears; but I am not unbelieving, nor do I contradict. I offered my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the palms of hands, but I did not turn away my face from the confusion of spittings, and the Lord God became my helper". For all who are of the Church confess him to be Christ who says: "the Lord, the Lord gave me the tongue of instruction" and the rest which I have expounded. But I have fittingly expounded also those things which above were joined to these, wishing to show that this was prophesied concerning that glorious one, that he should be spat upon and buffeted. For to what other does it fit to say: "I came", except to Christ who came into the world? Or whom did it befit to say: "I called, and there was none who would obey", except him who came to call the people of the Jews and was not heard, and therefore did not rescue the people nor deliver it, but forsook it? And it is Christ who says: "behold, at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, and I will set the rivers a desert", who is to bring about the consummation of the world. For it is he who will clothe the heaven with "darkness" and clothe it "as with sackcloth", and, receiving from the Father the "tongue of instruction", knew how "it behooved him to speak the word" which God had entrusted to him; and "he applied to him an ear", that he might hear more than all who hear, and the "instruction" of the Father opened his ear, because he was not unbelieving to the Father who sent him nor contradicting, and by the very deed he taught those desiring to learn meekness and praiseworthy humility. And there was a work in this, that he taught these things by deeds, offering his "back to the scourges and his cheeks to the palms of hands" and not turning away his face "from the confusion of spittings", so that us (as I judge), who had all been worthy to suffer these disgraces, he himself might rescue by suffering them for us. For he did "not die for us", that we might not die, but that we might not die for ourselves; and he was struck with blows for us and was spat upon, so that we, who had been worthy of all these things on account of our sins, might not suffer them, but that, suffering them for righteousness, we might receive them gladly. — COMMENTARY ON Matthew 113 Theodoret of Cyrus : Then he recalls for them what he has accomplished: "Behold, by my rebuke I will dry up the sea and make rivers a wilderness; and their fish shall be dried up because there is no water and shall die for thirst." Symmachus has rendered this passage as if it concerns events already accomplished: "Behold that at my rebuke I have dried up the sea, that I have made the rivers a desert and that their fish have been putrified for lack of water." Thus, the God of the universe accomplished this at the time he delivered them from the bondage of the Egyptians: it was then that he parted the Red Sea, divided the Jordan in two and revealed that the fish in its bed were dead from deprivation of its nourishing waters. If, however, one likewise understands this passage [to relate] to the future, as the Septuagint desires [to do], one will do no violence to the senses. It indicates from great miracles that he will also be able to accomplish small things: if it was easy for me to dry up the sea, he says, and to interrupt the course of rivers, it would have been much easier to annihilate an army that was marching against you. — COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 16:50.1 Theodoret of Cyrus : I have many times endured your belief in idols and the infinite number of iniquities that you have perpetrated, but what you have dared now is not susceptible to any pardon: it is an evil that is irremediable and incurable. For I am no longer acting through the prophets as intermediaries, but I have assumed the form of a servant, and I have lived among you as a man; and in spite of the frequency of my appeals and my exhortations, I have not persuaded you. This, in turn, is confirmed by the recital of the divine Gospels in these terms: "Jesus cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink,' and elsewhere: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The divine Evangelists have let us know still many other declarations of this kind. In this way, then, the prophetic text has taught us that the total destruction that they undergo in the last place has been obtained for them by their folly against the Master. Then, in interrogative form again [he declares]: "Is not my hand strong to redeem? Or do I not have the strength to protect you [from danger]?" Do you think, he says, that the adversaries have conquered me because of my weakness? Is it not possible for anyone to see how easy and convenient it is for me to make you appear superior to everyone? — COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 16:50.2