{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-7752","native_reference":{"book_number":290,"chapter_from":6,"chapter_to":6,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":3,"verse_to":3},"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>Ambrose of Milan</b>: Cherubim and seraphim with unwearied voices praise him and say, \"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.\" They say it not once, lest you should believe that there is but one; not twice, lest you should exclude the Spirit; they say not holies [in the plural], lest you should imagine that there is plurality, but they repeat three times and say the same word, that even in a hymn you may understand the distinction of persons in the Trinity and the oneness of the Godhead, and while they say this they proclaim God.<br/><i>— On the Holy Spirit 3.16.110</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: What are we going to do there? Tell me. Sleep? Yes, here people who have nothing to do just sleep. But there is no sleep there, because there is no weariness. So we aren't going to perform works of necessity, aren't going to sleep—what are we going to do? None of us must be afraid of boredom; none of us must imagine it's going to be so boring there. Do you find it boring now to be well? You can get tired of anything and everything in this age; can you get tired of being well? If you don't get tired of good health, will you get tired of immortality? So what activity are we going to engage in? \"Amen\" and \"Alleluia.\" Here, you see, we do one thing and another, there one thing, I don't say day and night but day without end; what the powers of heaven, the seraphim, say now without ever getting bored: \"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.\"<br/><i>— SERMON 211A.2</i></p><p><b>Caesarius of Arles</b>: Isaiah, too, includes one Holy Spirit in the glory of the Trinity when he says, \"I saw the Lord seated on a high throne; seraphim were stationed above and cried one to the other, \"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!\" And in a following passage he says, \"I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Go and say to this people: Listen carefully, but you shall not understand! Look intently, but you shall see nothing!' \"<br/><i>— SERMON 212:3</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: he saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, while the Seraphim stood in a circle around him, the one having six wings, and the other six wings, with which they did cover themselves, and the one cried out to the other and said: Holy, holy, holy Lord of Sabaoth! the whole earth is full of his glory.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 5</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: God again used an expression ambiguously respecting the Trinity, repeating thrice through Isaiah the word Holy which he made applicable to one God, saying: The Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory; showing both the number of the three Persons and the unity of the Godhead.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 5</i></p><p><b>Cyril of Alexandria</b>: The mouths of the seraphim are filled with blessings. They offer a doxology in turn, not in my opinion because they are tired but because they show respect to one another, both receiving and giving the doxology. They say \"holy\" three times and then conclude with \"Lord of hosts.\" This demonstrates that the Holy Trinity exists in one divine essence. All hold and confess that the Father exists, along with the Son and the Spirit. Nothing divides those who are named nor separates them into different natures. Just the opposite is true. We recognize one Godhead in three persons.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 1:4</i></p><p><b>Cyril of Alexandria</b>: In announcing that the whole earth is full of his glory, the seraphim are predicting the mystery of the economy that will be brought to pass through Christ. Prior to the Word's becoming flesh the world was ruled by the devil, the evil one, the serpent, the apostate. The creature, rather than the Creator, was worshiped. But when the only-begotten Word of God became human, the entire earth was filled with his glory.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 1:4</i></p><p><b>Cyril of Jerusalem</b>: We make mention also of the seraphim, whom Isaiah in the Holy Spirit saw standing around the throne of God, and with two of their wings veiling their face, and with two their feet, while with two they flew, crying, \"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.\" For the reason of our reciting this confession of God, delivered down to us from the seraphim, is this, that so we may be partakers with the hosts of the world above in their hymn of praise.<br/><i>— Catechetical Lecture 23:6</i></p><p><b>Fulgentius of Ruspe</b>: The prophet Isaiah did not keep silent about this Trinity of persons and unity of nature revealed to him, when he says he saw the seraphim crying out, \"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.\" Therefore, where the triple \"holy\" is repeated, there is the Trinity of persons; where \"God Lord of hosts\" is said but once, we recognize the unity of the divine nature. Therefore, in that Holy Trinity—and I keep on saying it so that it may be fixed in your heart the more firmly—the Father is one, who alone by his nature has generated the one Son from himself; and the Son is one, who alone has been born from the nature of the one Father; and the Holy Spirit is one, who alone proceeds from the essence of the Father and the Son. All of this is not possible for one person, that is, to generate oneself and to be born of oneself and to proceed from oneself. Therefore, because generating is different from being born and proceeding is something different again from generating and being born, it is obvious that the Father is different, the Son is different, and the Holy Spirit is different. The Trinity, therefore, refers to the persons of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; unity, to the nature.<br/><i>— TO PETER ON THE FAITH 6</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: And what they cry out, one to another, or according to the Hebrews, this one to that one, that is, one to one, they encourage each other in the praises of the Lord and say: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts, in order to demonstrate the mystery of the Trinity in one Divinity; and they testify that the glory of God fills not just the Temple of the Jews, as before, but the entire earth, which He deigned to assume a human body for our salvation and descend to the earth. Finally, when Moses prayed to the Lord on behalf of the people, asking Him to spare the sinful people, the Lord responded: 'I will be merciful to them.' However, as surely as I live and as surely as my name lives, my glory will fill the whole earth (Num. 14: 20, 21). The seventy-first psalm also declares: 'His glory will fill the whole earth' (Psalms 71:19). That is why the angels proclaimed to the shepherds: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will' (Luke 2:14). Therefore, some impiously understand the two Seraphim to refer to the Son and the Holy Spirit: as we teach according to the evangelist John and the Apostle Paul, that the Son of God was seen in the majesty of his reign, and the Holy Spirit spoke. Some Latin scholars understand the two Seraphim to refer to the Old and New Testaments, which speak only of the present age. Hence, they are said to have six wings and to veil the face and feet of God, and eagerly bear witness to the truth, and show forth all the sacraments of the Trinity that they proclaim. And they marvel at each other because the Lord of hosts, in the form of the Father, took on the form of a servant and humbled Himself even unto death, death on a cross (Philippians II), so that not only heavenly beings, but also earthly beings may know Him.<br/><i>— Commentary on Isaiah</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Do you desire to learn how the powers above pronounce that name; with what awe, with what terror, with what wonder? \"I saw the Lord,\" says the prophet, \"sitting upon a throne, high, and lifted up; around him stood the seraphim; and one cried to another and said, \"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!\" Do you perceive with what dread, with what awe, they pronounce that name while glorifying and praising him? But you, in your prayers and supplications, call upon him with much listlessness; when it would become you to be full of awe and to be watchful and sober!<br/><i>— HOMILY CONCERNING THE STATUES 7:9</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: What, then, do you think? Do you think that the angels in heaven talk over and ask each other questions about the divine essence? By no means! What are the angels doing? They give glory to God, they adore him, they chant without ceasing their triumphal and mystical hymns with a deep feeling of religious awe. Some sing, \"Glory to God in the highest\"; the seraphim chant, \"Holy, holy, holy,\" and they turn away their eyes because they cannot endure God's presence as he comes down to adapt himself to them in condescension.<br/><i>— AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 1:35</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: My Hebrew master used to say that the two seraphim, which are described in Isaiah as having six wings each and as crying one to another and saying, \"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts,\" were to be understood to mean the only-begotten Son of God and the Holy Spirit.<br/><i>— ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:3</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: My Hebrew teacher also used to teach as follows, that since the beginning or the end of all things could not be comprehended by any except our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, this was the reason why Isaiah spoke of there being in the vision that appeared to him two seraphim only, who with two wings cover the face of God, with two cover his feet and with two fly, crying one to another and saying, \"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of your glory.\" For because the two seraphim alone have their wings over the face of God and over his feet, we may venture to declare that neither the armies of the holy angels, nor the holy thrones, nor the dominions, nor principalities nor powers can wholly know the beginnings of all things and the ends of the universe.<br/><i>— ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4:3</i></p><p><b>Philoxenus of Mabbug</b>: \"A thousand thousand stand before Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand minister unto Him\"; now this concerneth the Seraphim who stand above Him, having their wings spread out to fly, and this one crieth to this, saying, \"Holy, Holy, Holy.\" And concerning the Cherubim it is written that they were yoked unto a chariot, and while their faces looked downwards, the motions of their spiritual natures were directed whither was the Most High. And spiritual beings stand in this service, and the hosts and ranks of heaven are obedient unto the word of Jesus. And concerning the Apostles it is written, \"They shall sit upon thrones,\" and this indicateth to us the greatness of their honour, and their equality with Him in inheritance.<br/><i>— 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 9 -- Second Discourse on Poverty</i></p><p><b>Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite</b>: The scriptural declaration \"they cried out to one another\" means, I think, that they ungrudgingly impart to each other the conceptions resulting from their looking on God. And we should piously remember that in Hebrew the Scripture gives the designation of seraphim to the holiest of beings in order to convey that these are fiery hot and bubbling over forever because of the divine life which does not cease to bestir them. - \"Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 4.3.9\"</p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: Because the seraphim use the title Lord singularly in this song, but repeat \"holy\" three times (in reference to the Trinity), we know they are referring to the one essence of Deity. The praise \"holy, holy, holy\" properly indicates the Trinity, and the appellation \"Lord of Hosts\" indicates the oneness of the divine essence. Furthermore, the seraphim, in their song, praise the eternal essence for having filled both heaven and the entire earth with his glory. This happened through the incarnation of our God and Savior; because after the appearing of the Master, the nations received the illuminating ray of divine knowledge.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 6:3</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"a045c2a64d2231f481e317a92f00dcbba0e691e21636a1e49616ebf65afa1dd3","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":7752,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"fd12c3dfa0026b49f1bb1b66e90c70abb46b31a95f80bde5c80cc8b7a1a958af","translator":null,"work":null}