{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-7619","native_reference":{"book_number":290,"chapter_from":51,"chapter_to":51,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":6,"verse_to":6},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Cyril of Alexandria</b>: The Son is called \"salvation\" and \"righteousness,\" as we often say, and thus his quality is declared that he has in himself, by which and in which he is Son by nature. Indeed, he is eternal and does not \"wear out.\" Such is the difference between creator and creation, the made from the maker, which is clearly seen in this verse.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 4:5.51:6</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: Again, as to their malignantly asserting that if heaven is indeed the throne of God, and earth His footstool, and if it is declared that the heaven and earth shall pass away, then when these pass away the God who sitteth above must also pass away, and therefore He cannot be the God who is over all; in the first place, they are ignorant what the expression means, that heaven is [His] throne and earth [His] footstool. For they do not know what God is, but they imagine that He sits after the fashion of a man, and is contained within bounds, but does not contain. And they are also unacquainted with [the meaning of] the passing away of the heaven and earth; but Paul was not ignorant of it when he declared, \"For the figure of this world passeth away.\" In the next place, David explains their question, for he says that when the fashion of this world passes away, not only shall God remain, but His servants also, expressing himself thus in the 101st Psalm: \"In the beginning, Thou, O Lord, hast founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure, and all shall wax old as a garment; and as a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail. The children of Thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established for ever;\" pointing out plainly what things they are that pass away, and who it is that doth endure for ever—God, together with His servants. And in like manner Esaias says: \"Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heaven has been set together as smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they who dwell therein shall die in like manner. But my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not pass away.\"<br/><i>— Against Heresies (Book IV, Chapter 3), Section 1</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verse 6) Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look down to the earth beneath: for the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like flies. But my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be abolished. LXX: Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and behold the earth beneath, for the heavens are established like smoke. But the earth will grow old like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like these things. But my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never fail. This is what the Lord speaks in the Gospel: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away (Matt. XXIV, 35). And David sings in the psalm: In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the works of your hands are the heavens. They will perish, but you will endure, and all of them will wear out like a garment; you will wrap them up like a cloak, and they will be changed (Ps. CI, 26). From this it is shown that the destruction of heaven does not mean annihilation, but a change for the better. Of this it is said: 'There will be a new heaven and a new earth, which I will make to remain in my sight' (Apoc. XXI, 2). For if it is written of the saints: 'We shall all indeed rise again, but we shall not all be changed' (I Cor. XV, 51); and in the titles of four psalms it is said: 'For those who shall be changed'; how much more must this be believed of the heaven, the sun, and the stars, when the moon will receive the light of the sun and the sun will shine seven times brighter? And every creature groans and labors, awaiting the revelation of the sons of God, to be changed for the better (Rom. VIII). And not only the souls of humans, which are immortal, but also their bodies will be transformed into a glorified substance. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality (I Cor. XV, 53). And when the heavens and the earth grow old, along with all that is contained within the circle of the heavens, and humans, who are the inhabitants of the earth, will die like this: not for their destruction, but for the abolition of their former lowliness, and for the renewal of future glory; when the righteous will shine like the sun (Matth. XIII, 43); and as the past and old things pass away, all things will become new. Some people understand perishing and growing old as abolition and death. According to what we read in the Catholic Epistle: The heavens and the earth which now exist are reserved by the same word for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. And again: The elements will be dissolved with burning heat (2 Peter 3:7). This is indeed the opinion of the philosophers of the world, that all things which we see will perish by fire. Hence the Apostle says: The fashion of this world is passing away, for those who contemplate not the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. (I Cor. VII, 32). This is also what the apostle John writes: The world passes away, and the desire thereof (I John II, 17). And in Hebrew it is said: The heavens shall fade away like smoke. Or, according to Aquila and Symmachus, they shall be broken into nothingness, and crushed like salt and vanish away, of which the former said, they shall be dissolved; the latter, they shall perish; which clearly indicates a meaning derived from the breaking and dissolving of salt. Therefore, I wonder what the Seventy wanted to say when they said that the sky is firm like smoke. For if firmness is understood as strength, how can smoke, which is only firm, be compared to it? Unless, perhaps, we can say this: that the firmness, strength, and power of the sky are equal to the most empty wind and smoke, which dissolves in the air, as stated in Ecclesiastes: 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity' (Eccl. I, 2). And it must be said that if the sky and the earth will perish and grow old, by what reasoning can we believe that its inhabitants will die and disappear, while we know that souls are eternal and bodies will be resurrected? From which it is clear that the sky and the earth do not perish and are not reduced to nothingness, but are changed for the better.<br/><i>— Commentary on Isaiah</i></p><p><b>Methodius of Olympus</b>: But if our opponents say, How then is it, if the universe is not destroyed, that the Lord says that \"heaven and earth shall pass away,\" and the prophet, that \"the heaven shall perish as smoke\" and \"the earth shall grow old as a garment\"; we answer, because it is usual for the Scriptures to call the change of the world from its present condition to a better and more glorious one destruction, as its earlier form is lost in the change of all things to a state of greater splendor, for there is neither contradiction nor absurdity in the Scriptures. For not \"the world\" but \"the fashion of this world\" passes away, it is said. So it is usual for the Scriptures to call the change from an earlier form to a better and more comely state \"destruction\"; just as when one calls by the name of \"destruction\" the change from a childish form into a perfect adult, as the stature of the child is turned into mature size and beauty.<br/><i>— ON THE RESURRECTION 1:9</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: From the sky and the earth, from the things on high and those below, learn of my power. I produced these elements with great ease and, conversely, I can make them disappear. \"But my salvation shall be for eternity, and my righteousness shall not fail.\" This is what the Lord has likewise said in the holy Gospels: \"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.\"<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 16:51.6</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"bee665e2310b122ac4c0e8d89a98a877f0a0b561683daf3a738a30fb6c72622c","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":7619,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"f6d282df1dac0fd5ed86eb3ef0d4d1484771caffcaea0e7932ce800e4085c713","translator":null,"work":null}