Jesus’ Body Covered Up His Divinity

The Cathodox are so fanatical about images, they say things like, “Icons prove Jesus is God,” as if a physical form all by itself could prove that divinity lives within it! Christ asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter said, “You are the Son of the living God!” Jesus answered him, “Flesh and blood DID NOT reveal that to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17) And yet the Cathodox teach that flesh and blood DOES reveal Jesus’ divinity.

Mathetes:

I can see that you deeply desire to learn how Christians worship their God (θεοσέβειαν). You have so carefully and earnestly asked your questions about them: What is it about the God they believe in, and the form of religion (θρησκεύοντες) they observe, that lets them look down upon the world and despise death? – Mathetes to Diognetus, chapter 1

Come, then, after you have freed yourself from all prejudices possessing your mind, and laid aside what you have been accustomed to, as something apt to deceive you, and being made, as if from the beginning, a new man, inasmuch as, according to your own confession, you are to be the hearer of a new [system of] doctrine; come and contemplate, not with your eyes only, but with your understanding, the substance and the form of those whom you declare and deem to be gods.

Is not one of them a stone similar to that on which we tread? Is not a second brass, in no way superior to those vessels which are constructed for our ordinary use? Is not a third wood, and that already rotten? Is not a fourth silver, which needs a man to watch it, lest it be stolen? Is not a fifth iron, consumed by rust? Is not a sixth earthenware, in no degree more valuable than that which is formed for the humblest purposes?

Are not all these of corruptible matter? Are they not fabricated by means of iron and fire? Did not the sculptor fashion one of them, the brazier a second, the silversmith a third, and the potter a fourth? Was not every one of them, before they were formed by the arts of these [workmen] into the shape of these, each in its own way subject to change? Would not those things which are now vessels, formed of the same materials, become like to such, if they met with the same artificers? Might not these, which are now worshipped (προσκυνούμενα ) by you, again be made by men vessels similar to others? Are they not all deaf? Are they not blind? Are they not without life? Are they not destitute of feeling? Are they not incapable of motion? Are they not all prone to decay? Are they not all corruptible?

These things you call gods; these you serve (δουλεύετε); these you worship (προσκυνεῖτε); and you become altogether like them. For this reason you hate the Christians, because they do not deem these to be gods. But do not you yourselves, who now think and suppose [such to be gods], much more cast contempt upon them than they [the Christians do]? Do you not much more mock and insult them, when you worship those that are made of stone and earthenware, without appointing any persons to guard them; but those made of silver and gold you shut up by night, and appoint watchers to look after them by day, lest they be stolen? And by those gifts which you mean to present to them, do you not, if they are possessed of sense, rather punish [than honour] them? But if, on the other hand, they are destitute of sense, you convict them of this fact, while you worship (thrēskeuete) them with blood and the smoke of sacrifices. Let any one of you suffer such indignities! Let any one of you endure to have such things done to himself! But not a single human being will, unless compelled to it, endure such treatment, since he is endowed with sense and reason. A stone, however, readily bears it, seeing it is insensible. Certainly you do not show [by your conduct] that he [your God] is possessed of sense. – The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, Chapter 2

Now, if the ONLY criticism that Christians had of pagans was that they bowed and offered incense to images that depicted the WRONG GOD, they would not go into such great detail about the very SUBSTANCE of the images being a problem, they would not say, over and over again, that the very METHOD of worship was wrong, but rather, they would emphasize that prostrations and incense should be offered to a DIFFERENT picture.

And next, I imagine that you are most desirous of hearing something on this point, that the Christians do not observe the same forms of divine worship as do the Jews. The Jews, then, if they abstain from the kind of service above described, and deem it proper to worship one God as being Lord of all, [are right]; but if they offer Him worship in the way which we have described, they greatly err. For while the Gentiles, by offering such things to those that are destitute of sense and hearing, furnish an example of madness; they, on the other hand by thinking to offer these things to God as if He needed them, might justly reckon it rather an act of folly than of divine worship. For He that made heaven and earth, and all that is therein, and gives to us all the things of which we stand in need, certainly requires none of those things which He Himself bestows on such as think of furnishing them to Him. But those who imagine that, by means of blood, and incense and burnt-offerings, they offer sacrifices [acceptable] to Him, and that by such honours they show Him respect, — these, by supposing that they can give anything to Him who needs nothing, appear to me in no respect to differ from those who studiously confer the same honour on things destitute of sense, and which therefore are unable to enjoy such honours. – Mathetes to Diognetus, chapter 3

But as to their scrupulosity concerning food, and their superstition as respects the Sabbaths, and their boasting about circumcision, and their fancies about fasting and the new moons, which are utterly ridiculous and unworthy of notice — I do not think that you require to learn anything from me. For, to accept some of those things which have been formed by God for the use of men as properly formed, and to reject others as useless and redundant — how can this be lawful? And to speak falsely of God, as if He forbade us to do what is good on the Sabbath-days — how is not this impious? And to glory in the circumcision of the flesh as a proof of election, and as if, on account of it, they were specially beloved by God — how is it not a subject of ridicule? And as to their observing months and days (Galatians 4:10), as if waiting upon the stars and the moon, and their distributing, according to their own tendencies, the appointments of God, and the vicissitudes of the seasons, some for festivities, and others for mourning — who would deem this a part of divine worship, and not much rather a manifestation of folly? I suppose, then, you are sufficiently convinced that the Christians properly abstain from the vanity and error common [to both Jews and Gentiles], and from the busybody spirit and vain boasting of the Jews; but you must not hope to learn the mystery of their peculiar mode of divine worship (θεοσεβείας) from any mortal. – The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, Chapter 4

[And yet the Cathodox say, “Of COURSE God wants to be worshiped through lifeless images! Don’t lots of people around the world give honor to their family members by kissing lifeless images? Therefore, God wants to be worshiped in the same way. God’s doctrines are so obvious from observing human custom all around the world!”]

To sum up all in one word — what the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world. The invisible soul is guarded by the visible body, and Christians are known indeed to be in the world, but their worship of God (θεοσέβεια) remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wars against it, though itself suffering no injury, because it is prevented from enjoying pleasures; the world also hates the Christians, though in nowise injured, because they abjure pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and [loves also] the members; Christians likewise love those that hate them. The soul is imprisoned in the body, yet keeps together that very body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, and yet they keep together the world. The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians dwell as sojourners in corruptible [bodies], looking for an incorruptible dwelling in the heavens. The soul, when but ill-provided with food and drink, becomes better; in like manner, the Christians, though subjected day by day to punishment, increase the more in number. God has assigned them this illustrious position, which it were unlawful for them to forsake. – The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, Chapter 6

No man has either seen Him, or made Him known, but He has revealed Himself. And He has manifested Himself through faith, to which alone it is given to behold God. – The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, Chapter 8

I do not speak of things strange to me, nor do I aim at anything inconsistent with right reason; but having been a disciple of the Apostles, I have become a teacher of the Gentiles. I minister the things delivered to me to those that are disciples worthy of the truth. For who that is rightly taught and begotten by the loving Word, would not seek to learn accurately the things which have been clearly shown by the Word to His disciples, to whom the Word being manifested has revealed them, speaking plainly [to them], not understood indeed by the unbelieving, but conversing with the disciples, who, being esteemed faithful by Him, acquired a knowledge of the mysteries of the Father? For which reason He sent the Word, that He might be manifested to the world; and He, being despised by the people [of the Jews], was, when preached by the Apostles, believed on by the Gentiles. This is He who was from the beginning, who appeared as if new, and was found old, and yet who is ever born afresh in the hearts of the saints. This is He who, being from everlasting, is today called the Son; through whom the Church is enriched, and grace, widely spread, increases in the saints, furnishing understanding, revealing mysteries, announcing times, rejoicing over the faithful, giving to those that seek, by whom the limits of faith are not broken through, nor the boundaries set by the fathers passed over. Then the fear of the law is chanted, and the grace of the prophets is known, and the faith of the gospels is established, and the tradition of the Apostles is preserved, and the grace of the Church exults; which grace if you grieve not, you shall know those things which the Word teaches, by whom He wills, and when He pleases. For whatever things we are moved to utter by the will of the Word commanding us, we communicate to you with pains, and from a love of the things that have been revealed to us. – The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, Chapter 11

Theophilus of Antioch:

“A fluent tongue and an elegant style afford pleasure and such praise as vainglory delights in, to wretched men who have been corrupted in mind; the lover of truth does not give heed to ornamented speeches, but examines the real matter of the speech, what it is, and what kind it is. Since, then, my friend, you have assailed me with empty words, boasting of your gods of wood and stone, hammered and cast, carved and graven, which neither see nor hear, for they are idols, and the works of men’s hands; and since, besides, you call me a Christian, as if this were a damning name to bear, I, for my part, avow that I am a Christian, and bear this name beloved of God, hoping to be serviceable to God. For it is not the case, as you suppose, that the name of God is hard to bear; but possibly you entertain this opinion of God, because you are yourself yet unserviceable to Him.”– Theophilus, To Autolycus, Book 1 chapter 1

But if you say, “Show me your God,” I would reply, “Show me yourself, and I will show you my God.” Show, then, that the eyes of your soul are capable of seeing, and the ears of your heart able to hear; for as those who look with the eyes of the body perceive earthly objects and what concerns this life, and discriminate at the same time between things that differ, whether light or darkness, white or black, deformed or beautiful, well-proportioned and symmetrical or disproportioned and awkward, or monstrous or mutilated; and as in like manner also, by the sense of hearing, we discriminate either sharp, or deep, or sweet sounds; so the same holds good regarding the eyes of the soul and the ears of the heart, that it is by them we are able to behold God. For God is seen by those who are enabled to see Him when they have the eyes of their soul opened: for all have eyes; but in some they are overspread, and do not see the light of the sun. Yet it does not follow, because the blind do not see, that the light of the sun does not shine; but let the blind blame themselves and their own eyes. So also thou, O man, hast the eyes of thy soul overspread by thy sins and evil deeds. As a burnished mirror, so ought man to have his soul pure. When there is rust on the mirror, it is not possible that a man’s face be seen in the mirror; so also when there is sin in a man, such a man cannot behold God. Do you, therefore, show me yourself, whether you are not an adulterer, or a fornicator, or a thief, or a robber, or a purloiner; whether you do not corrupt boys; whether you are not insolent, or a slanderer, or passionate, or envious, or proud, or supercilious; whether you are not a brawler, or covetous, or disobedient to parents; and whether you do not sell your children; for to those who do these things God is not manifest, unless they have first cleansed themselves from all impurity. All these things, then, involve you in darkness, as when a filmy defluxion on the eyes prevents one from beholding the light of the sun: thus also do iniquities, man, involve you in darkness, so that you cannot see God.” – Theophilus to Autolycus, book 1, chapter 2

If Theophilus was capable of showing his God through a wooden image, he wouldn’t have bashed the pagan for thinking he could show his own god through wood and stone.

Mark Minucius Felix:

I purposely pass over many things, for those that I have mentioned are already too many; and that all these, or the greater part of them, are true, the obscurity of their vile religion declares. For why do they endeavour with such pains to conceal and to cloak whatever they worship, since honourable things always rejoice in publicity, while crimes are kept secret? Why have they no altars, no temples, no acknowledged images? Why do they never speak openly, never congregate freely, unless for the reason that what they adore and conceal is either worthy of punishment, or something to be ashamed of? – Mark Minucius Felix (210 AD) The Octavius Chapter 10

But do you think that we conceal what we worship, if we have not temples and altars? And yet what image of God shall I make, since, if you think rightly, man himself is the image of God? What temple shall I build to Him, when this whole world fashioned by His work cannot receive Him? And when I, a man, dwell far and wide, shall I shut up the might of so great majesty within one little building? Were it not better that He should be dedicated in our mind, consecrated in our inmost heart? Shall I offer victims and sacrifices to the Lord, such as He has produced for my use, that I should throw back to Him His own gift? It is ungrateful when the victim fit for sacrifice is a good disposition, and a pure mind, and a sincere judgment. Therefore he who cultivates innocence supplicates God; he who cultivates justice makes offerings to God; he who abstains from fraudulent practices propitiates God; he who snatches man from danger slaughters the most acceptable victim. These are our sacrifices, these are our rites of God’s worship; thus, among us, he who is most just is he who is most religious. But certainly the God whom we worship we neither show nor see. Verily for this reason we believe Him to be God, that we can be conscious of Him, but cannot see Him; for in His works, and in all the movements of the world, we behold His power ever present when He thunders, lightens, darts His bolts, or when He makes all bright again. Nor should you wonder if you do not see God. By the wind and by the blasts of the storm all things are driven on and shaken, are agitated, and yet neither wind nor tempest comes under our eyesight. Thus we cannot look upon the sun, which is the cause of seeing to all creatures: the pupil of the eye is with drawn from his rays, the gaze of the beholder is dimmed; and if you look too long, all power of sight is extinguished. What! can you sustain the Architect of the sun Himself, the very source of light, when you turn yourself away from His lightnings, and hide yourself from His thunderbolts? Do you wish to see God with your carnal eyes, when you are neither able to behold nor to grasp your own soul itself, by which you are enlivened and speak? – Mark Minucius Felix (210 AD) The Octavius Chapter 32

Quodvultdeus of Carthage:

5. But let our sacred literature propose a different sort of God; hear Paul the Apostle: “May honor and glory be, he says, to the immortal, invisible, unchanging, only God” [1 Tim 1:7]. Our God is not seen by the eyes of flesh but by the eyes of the heart; he is seen in eternity not time. 6. But the pagan says: “Show me the one you worship.” I reply, “I, indeed, have just the kind of God to show you, but you do not have the eyes to see.” 7. For the Savior says, “Blessed are the pure in heart; because they will see God himself” [Matt 5:8]. Does the heart impure and shrouded in darkness seek to see God? 8. “The light illumined the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it” [John 1:5]. Can it be that, because the blind person does not see, the light does not shine? 9. If you had known, O unbeliever, how to say to the true God, “Illumine my eyes” [Ps 12:4], like us you would now see through a glass darkly, so that you would then see face to face [1 Cor 13:12]. 10. If you understood the Artist from his works of art, you would easily infer the Creator from his creatures. Were you to have experienced great terror in yourself because you could not fully fathom yourself, you would have become aware of the God who made you. 11. Since your soul sees everything through your flesh, you do not see your soul. But if [for the sake of the discussion] you see your soul, tell me of what sort it is or how large: 12 whether square or round; whether smooth or rough; whether hot or cold; whether of any color, or lacking all color. I see, you fail to show me of what sort your soul is; you cannot. 13. Behold, your soul is immortal, and it gives life to your mortal flesh. Your soul, I say, is immortal from two standpoints. If it believes, it is immortal for living; if it does not believe, it is immortal for punishment. 14. We believe, therefore, that God is immortal and invisible. – Quodvultdeus of Carthage, THE SECOND HOMILY ON THE CREED, chapter 3

Didymus the Blind:

O how powerful is faith and the confession that the only-begotten God the Word is the true Son of God and not a creature. 30.9 Peter did not hesitate, seeing God dwelling on earth in flesh and blood; for this is the meaning of “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you”; 30.10 but he recognized the connatural and co-eternal branch of God; he honored in this the self-begotten and unoriginate root that revealed it to him; he believed in his unity of divinity with the Father; 30.11 he was blessed by the only blessed Master. Upon this rock the churches were built, against which the “gates of Hades,” that is, the reasonings of heretics, will not prevail; 30.12 he was entrusted with the keys of the heavens, so that for those who believe—as Peter himself just now in his reply is shown, and as he heard from Christ with the other apostles: “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”—he might open the way into the kingdom of God; 30.13 but for those who do not hold this doctrine, he might shut the thrice-blessed and most desirable entrance. – Didymus the Blind, On the Trinity

Origen:

The Jew continues his discourse thus: “How should we deem him to be a God, who not only in other respects, as was currently reported, performed none of his promises, but who also, after we had convicted him, and condemned him as deserving of punishment, was found attempting to conceal himself, and endeavouring to escape in a most disgraceful manner, and who was betrayed by those whom he called disciples? And yet,” he continues, “he who was a God could neither flee nor be led away a prisoner; and least of all could he be deserted and delivered up by those who had been his associates, and had shared all things in common, and had had him for their teacher, who was deemed to be a Saviour, and a son of the greatest God, and an angel.” To which we reply, that even we do not suppose the body of Jesus, which was then an object of sight and perception, to have been God. And why do I say His body? Nay, not even His soul, of which it is related, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” But as, according to the Jewish manner of speaking, “I am the Lord, the God of all flesh,” and, “Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me,” God is believed to be He who employs the soul and body of the prophet as an instrument…. – Origen, Against Celsus, book 2, chapter 9

The prophets, indeed, foretold what Christ should suffer, and set forth the reason why He should suffer. God therefore also knew what Christ would suffer; but where has he learned that those things which the Christ of God should suffer were most base and dishonourable? He goes on to explain what those most shameful and degrading things were which Christ suffered, in these words: “For what better was it for God to eat the flesh of sheep, or to drink vinegar and gall, than to feed on filth?” But God, according to us, did not eat the flesh of sheep; and while it may seem that Jesus ate, He did so only as possessing a body. – Origen, Against Celsus, book 7, chapter 13

As Celsus supposes that we uphold the doctrine of the resurrection in order that we may see and know God, he thus follows out his notions on the subject: “After they have been utterly refuted and vanquished, they still, as if regardless of all objections, come back again to the same question, ‘How then shall we see and know God? How shall we go to Him?” Let any, however, who are disposed to hear us observe, that if we have need of a body for other purposes, as for occupying a material locality to which this body must be adapted, and if on that account the “tabernacle” is clothed in the way we have shown, we have no need of a body in order to know God. For that which sees God is not the eye of the body; it is the mind which is made in the image of the Creator, and which God has in His providence rendered capable of that knowledge. To see God belongs to the pure heart, out of which no longer proceed “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, the evil eye,” or any other evil thing. Wherefore it is said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” But as the strength of our will is not sufficient to procure the perfectly pure heart, and as we need that God should create it, he therefore who prays as he ought, offers this petition to God, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” – Origen, Against Celsus, book 7, chapter 33

But Celsus, as if forgetting the language which he had just quoted from Plato, immediately gives God the name of “the unspeakable.” He says: “since the wise men have found out this way, in order to be able to give us some idea of the First of Beings, who is unspeakable.” For ourselves, we hold that not God alone is unspeakable, but other things also which are inferior to Him. Such are the things which Paul labours to express when he says, “I heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter,” where the word “heard” is used in the sense of “understood”; as in the passage, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” We also hold that it is a hard matter to see the Creator and Father of the universe; but it is possible to see Him in the way thus referred to, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”; and not only so, but also in the sense of the words of Him who is the image of the invisible God: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father who sent Me.” No sensible person could suppose that these last words were spoken in reference to His bodily presence, which was open to the view of all; otherwise all those who said, “Crucify him, crucify him,” and Pilate, who had power over the humanity of Jesus, were among those who saw God the Father, which is absurd. Moreover, that these words, “He that has seen Me, has seen the Father who sent Me,” are not to be taken in their grosser sense, is plain from the answer which He gave to Philip, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet do you not know Me, Philip?” after Philip had asked, “Show us the Father, and it suffices us.” He, then, who perceives how these words, “The Word was made flesh,” are to be understood of the only-begotten Son of God, the first-born of all creation, will also understand how, in seeing the image of the invisible God, we see the Creator and Father of the universe. – Origen, Against Celsus, book 7, chapter 43

Ignatius:

Only request in my behalf both inward and outward strength, that I may not only speak, but [truly] will; and that I may not merely be called a Christian, but really be found to be one. For if I be truly found [a Christian], I may also be called one, and be then deemed faithful, when I shall no longer appear to the world. Nothing visible is eternal. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For our God, Jesus Christ, is more visible now that He is with the Father. – Ignatius, Letter to the Romans, chapter 3

I write to all the churches, and I bid all men know, that of my own free will I die for God, unless you should hinder me. I exhort you, be not an unseasonable kindness to me. Let me be given to the wild beasts, for through them I can attain unto God. I am God’s wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread [of Christ]. Rather entice the wild beasts, that they may become my tomb and may leave no part of my body behind, so that I may not, when I am fallen asleep, be burdensome to any one. Then shall I be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world shall not see my body. Supplicate the Lord for me, that through these instruments I may be found a sacrifice to God. – Ignatius, Letter to the Romans, chapter 4

Tell us, you Cathodox, do you believe Jesus Christ is more visible right now than He was while He walked the earth?

Ambrose of Milan:

27. And what wonder if in the present age the Lord is not seen except when He wills? In the resurrection itself it is not easy to see God, except for those who are pure in heart. And for this reason He says: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). How many blessed people had He already enumerated, and yet He had not promised them the ability to see God! If, therefore, those who are pure in heart shall see God, others certainly shall not see Him. For neither shall the unworthy see God, nor can he who does not wish to see God see Him. Nor is God seen in a physical place, but in a pure heart; nor is God sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by speech, nor perceived by movement. And when He is thought to be absent, He is seen; and when He is present, He is not seen. Finally, not even all the apostles truly saw Christ; and therefore He says: “Have I been with you so long a time, and yet you have not known Me?” (John 14:9). For he who has known what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, has seen both Christ and the Father. For we no longer know Christ according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit; for Christ the Lord is a spirit before our face—may He deign by His mercy to fill us unto all the fullness of God, so that He may be seen by us. Therefore, the angel appeared to Zechariah at the right side of the altar of incense because he appeared when he willed, and did not appear as long as he did not will to do so. – Ambrose of Milan, Commentary on Luke 1:11

You say that there’s a difference between the visible body of Jesus in the old testament and the incarnate body of Jesus in the new testament, and you’re right. The body in the old testament was impassable and limitless. Was that form superior or inferior to His incarnate form? Was the pre-incarnate body a fleshly body or a spiritual body? Why would I be forbidden to worship a superior form to the Incarnate form, especially since his current form is closer to that spiritual form than the incarnate one? After all, Jesus’ body is now an invincible, glorified, spiritual body. Jesus was capable of creating a body like that whenever he wanted for His old testament appearances, or transforming our flesh into that kind of body.

You say God became visible, but the fathers say he became flesh. God was not visible in His essence. Only his actions and his words bore witness that he was divine. But what does Jesus mean that the pure in heart will see God? And why does Paul say to pursue holiness, without which no man will see God? And John says, We will see him just as he is, and everyone who has this hope purifies himself? It seems that seeing his flesh is not seeing God, but man’s nature. Is the divine nature corporeal? Do you believe you’ve seen Jesus’ divine nature with your fleshly eyes? Do you defy Christ and insist that you have already seen Him as he truly is, even though he hasn’t revealed that vision to you?

Was Jesus veiled? “Yeah, but I could still see him.” Could you see his divinity then? If you see my veiled wife, you only see her movements, her actions, but you can’t see her actual bodily essence. It’s the same with God. You only saw Jesus’ veil, which is really our own nature. But God became man so that man could become God. You will have the divine nature. Do you believe that? Do you believe God becomes visible from looking at human flesh? When Jesus became incarnate, did he bring more honor to himself? Was it humiliating for Jesus to take on the form of a servant? When you think of Christ, do you remember Him in His lowly, servile, human form?

The Cathodox always want to emphasize that Jesus now has two natures, both human and divine, but they fail to notice that His human nature is OUR nature. He took on OUR flesh. And why did He do that? So that we could become partakers of HIS nature! That’s WHY He did it! The ultimate goal is for us to be like HIM, not for Him to be like us! The goal is for all of us to be perfectly united to His divine nature, and the only way to make that happen is if He FIRST united Himself to OUR nature. But when He returns, we will be changed into His nature, and we will see Jesus AS HE TRULY IS! We’ll have spiritual eyes that can behold God with perfectly clarity. “But we’ll also look at His skin!” you say. What is this obsession you have with looking at your OWN nature instead of the divine nature? Why are you obsessed with flesh and blood? Why don’t you long to see Christ AS HE TRULY IS?

1 Peter 1:8 – Though you have not seen Him, you love Him

1 John 4:20 – “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

Romans 8:3 “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh…”

Matthew 13:13 “…seeing they see not; and hearing they hear not…”

Ephesians 1:17–18 “…the eyes of your understanding being enlightened…”

1 Timothy 6:16 “God dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see…”

John 14:21 “…I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

John 14:22–23 “…how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?”

Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

Hebrews 10:19–20 “…by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;”

Matthew 27:51 – Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,

The veil was torn as Christ died, symbolizing the death of Christ’s body and access being opened to God, the veil being taken out of the way (the flesh being removed from our sight).

Tell me, when Jesus was transfigured, could the apostles see His skin? No? Why not? Because it was as bright as the sun? So you admit that Jesus’ glorified body is of such a kind that it blinds the PHYSICAL eyes. No one will be able to even see His resurrected BODY with fleshly eyes, let alone His divinity (and seeing His divinity is the goal!) Only a person with spiritual sight and a pure heart can gaze upon Him when He returns, because His flesh is overwhelmed by the light, and His divinity is too bright for a soul darkened with sin to look at. He had to hide His glorious form from the apostles after His resurrection, but He currently shines as bright as the sun. When He appeared to Paul, He was so bright that Paul went completely blind! Tell me, do you think Jesus will have to disguise His glorified form in the new heaven and the new earth? Who would He be hiding His glorified body from? Won’t heaven be populated by those who are worthy to see His glorified form? And will He not perpetually be shining in His glorified form?

1 John 3:1-3 – Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Hebrews 12:13 – Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

Matthew 5:8 – Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Philippians 3:20-21 – But our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who shall transfigure the body of our humiliation conformable to the body of His glory, even as He is able according to the working of His own power.

Revelation 21:23 – And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and the Lamb is its lamp.

When you make pictures of Jesus’ flesh, you’re actually depicting him with the veil on, still covered up. If you were to ask me for a picture of my wife, and I were to give you a picture of a completely veiled woman wrapped up from head to toe, you would look at me weirdly and say, “What was the point of showing me that?” And I would say, “What was the point of asking for it? You can’t see my wife unveiled!” And God says to you, “You can’t see my glory and live.” In order to see God as He truly is, you must receive spiritual sight.

You make lifeless pictures of a veil, and call that God. When you draw pictures of Jesus’ veil, you aren’t painting God’s nature, but your own humanity – and not even the glorified body, but the inferior version! You have not shown the king. You have shown what conceals him. Worse still, you confuse the covering with the one covered. If the flesh was a veil, then an image of the flesh is an image of a veil.

When Jesus was transfigured and gave a glimpse of His future glorified body, He shined as bright as the sun, so that no one could look at him. Likewise, when Moses asked to see Jesus’ glory, Jesus told him, “No one can see me and live!” That glory is too much for the eyes of the body to withstand. You would die! Thus, you must understand that the true vision of God is something that you can’t experience with bodily eyes. If you were to try to see Him as He truly is, or even to look at His glorified body, you would die! Why, then, do you prioritize seeing that form of a slave, rather than seeing the glorified form, which requires spiritual eyes? Which form is superior, his slave form or His form that can only be beheld with spiritual eyes? Why do you always remember Christ according to the flesh, when Paul says we know Him that way no longer? Why do you think it’s honoring to Jesus when you only remember His slave form and not His true form?

If even Jesus’ LIVING body is not the image of God, how much less is a PAINTING of His body the image of God! Christ formed a body for Himself out of OUR fleshly nature, but His true nature, which is divine, is invisible. His flesh is a veil over His divinity, a disguise. It’s not a window into His divinity, but an obstacle. It requires faith to see past the barrier and behold God, who cannot be seen with our carnal eyes, but only with the eyes of faith.

“But doesn’t scripture say God became visible?” Yes, he took on human nature as a veil that hid his true divinity, but that form was the form of a slave, not the form of God. He emptied himself by taking that form which obscured his true form and even gave a false impression of his true essence. Only with the spiritual eyes faith could anyone see who and what be truly is, by looking past what the physical eyes see. So Jesus was visible, but the thing that was visible wasn’t the form of God.

“For our God, Jesus Christ, is more visible now that He is with the Father…. Then shall I be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world shall not see my body.”

Tell me, do you agree with Ignatius that Jesus is MORE visible now that no one on earth can see His body? Doesn’t your church teach the exact opposite, that seeing Jesus’ body is the same as seeing God?

No one has seen God at any time

“Who dwells in unapproachable light, whom (ὃν / masculine, a person) no man has seen or can see. Is this talking about the light, or the one dwelling in the light? Multiple people have seen the light. Paul saw it, Peter James and John saw it…. So it’s actually talking about God, both Father and Son, which no one has seen, not the light. But wait… no one CAN see God? The answer is, yes, no one can see God WITH FLESHLY EYES. But they can look at Him with the eyes of faith. Many theological questions have both yes and no answers to them. This is one of them.

“If he doesn’t love his own brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”

“Though you have not seen him, yet you love him” (Polycarp repeats it).

They would not say this if they thought Jesus’ flesh (let alone a picture of his flesh) was any sort of aid in seeing God.

But these blasphemous idiots, who insist that they really CAN see God by looking at flesh, or (even more insane) by looking at pictures of flesh (which, by the way, don’t even depict Jesus as He truly looked in the flesh!) say that we are dividing Christ into two persons whenever we say, “You see Jesus’ fleshly avatar, but you don’t see God.” They say, “Jesus IS God! You can’t divide His flesh from His Godhead!” But we don’t divide God from his essence, but we make a distinction between God and His fleshly clothing. Christ’s flesh was His clothing, his veil, not God’s very essence. He took flesh from the virgin Mary and appropriated it to himself as an avatar, even while He was still uncontainable and infinitely present everywhere at once.

When Muslims attack the doctrine of the incarnation by asking, “How can God die?” you Cathodox rightly respond, “Well, God IN HIS DIVINE NATURE didn’t die. Only His human nature died.” So you are admitting that Jesus’ body was not divine. If you look at His body, you are not staring at anything divine. But His divine nature is incorporeal, meaning it’s invisible and transcends physical dimensions. Divinity dwelled IN the body, but the body itself was not divine. It had to be condemned to death so that sin could be destroyed. Only after the resurrection was the body transformed to become spiritual, no longer being bound by any physical laws of nature. The body could pass through physical objects, and it shined with a brightness that no eye could bear to look upon. It became a “spiritual body.”

1 Corinthians 15: ⁴²So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. ⁴³It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. ⁴⁴It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. ⁴⁵And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

The Cathodox are the spiritual Israel, the spiritual descendants of the stubborn Jews who wouldn’t recognize Christ as divine. In the same way that the Jews refused to believe Christ was divine, the Cathodox refuse to worship the living image of God with spiritual eyes, but wish to worship a dead image of a man. And this corresponds to Paul’s statement about the Jews:

2 Corinthians 3:12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Don’t you see? The Cathodox have a VEIL over their eyes – Jesus’ flesh! They don’t see Him face to face – His divine nature! We all behold the Son with unveiled face and are being transformed into His IMAGE (which is invisible), while the Cathodox’ only hope is to become a lifeless body, since they think the image of God is a lifeless image! For us, the “veil” is taken away, because we no longer regard Jesus according to the flesh!

2 Corinthians 5:16-17 -Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

But the Cathodox always pray toward a body, because they haven’t trained themselves to think of God as He truly is. Hear their own favorite saints annihilating this idea:

Macarius of Egypt:

Especially let us strive to perfect our prayer in faith and fear of God, not being absorbed in bodily habits or by the custom of shouting or the custom of silence or the custom of kneeling, while the mind is held in confusion and turmoil or in sloth and the forgetfulness of ignorance through voluntary neglect, but with all sobriety and attention and good care let us strive to make the inquiry and attention of the mind at all times, but especially in prayer, alienating ourselves from every earthly thought and turning away from all material concepts and let us have the whole mind of the soul through faith and hope in the expectation of Christ, awaiting at every hour the coming of His grace, through which we are able to acquire the true and undisturbed prayer of the spirit, having the expectation of the Spirit through all the outlets and paths of the thoughts of the soul, keeping the Lord before us always through faith and fear, not fashioning in the mind a bodily place outside or below or above, as if God existed in some place and were circumscribed, but by the invisible power of the Godhead which is unceasingly everywhere and is found by those who seek it in fear and trembling and desire in the heart and according to their “measure of faith” and according to the power of their capacity is clearly revealed to the inner man for the salvation and life and sanctification of soul and body, having such a purpose, that the unapproachable power is everywhere. For it is not possible for there to be a place where the ineffable power of the Godhead is not, but in our soul through faith and the seeking for him with desire it is clearly manifested according to the capacity of our faith for the purification of the heart. For a heart could not otherwise be purified and sanctified, unless the sanctifying power of the Spirit has been clearly revealed to the soul. For then we will be able to worship the Father in spirit without defiled and earthly and vain thoughts as is right. A soul, therefore, having such a purpose and awaiting when the energy of divine grace will give life to the deadened heart, and when the fire of the love of the Spirit, seizing the heart, will burn away by its own energy all impurity in it and work purity and sanctification of the inner man, ought not, as has been said before, to rely in prayer upon bodily habits, or by the custom of voice or of silence or of the bending of the knees, but let it be fiery with desire for the Lord, being alienated from every material concept. – Macarius of Egypt, Sermon 29.1.3-29.1.8

John Climacus:

1. Poverty is the resignation of cares, life without anxiety, an unencumbered traveller, alienation from sorrow, fidelity to the commandments. 2. A poor monk is lord of the world. He has entrusted his cares to God and by faith has obtained all men as his slaves. He will not tell his need to man, and he receives what comes to him, as from the hand of the Lord. 3. The poor ascetic is a son of detachment and thinks of what he has as if it were nothing. When he becomes a solitary, he regards everything as dung. But if he worries about something, he has not yet become poor. 4. A poor man is pure in prayer, but the lover of possessions prays to images of wood (Ακτήμων ἀνὴρ ἐν προσευχῇ καθαρὸς, ὁ δὲ φιλοκτήμων εἰκόνας ὕλης προσεύχεται). 5. Those who live in obedience are strangers to love of money. For where they have given up even their body, what [possession] do they have left of their own? Those who are by nature inclined to risk such things are quick and ready for the [soul’s] transition. I have seen material endurance produce monks in this place. But I have deemed more blessed those who draw near to the Lord. 6. He who has tasted of the things above easily scorns the things below. But he who has not tasted the things above finds joy in possessions…. 11. He who despises matter is rid of quarrels and controversies (ὁ καταφρονήσας ὕλης, ἐλυτρώθη δικαιολογίας καὶ ἀντιλογίας); but the covetous man will fight till death for a needle…. 16. This is the seventeenth step. He who has mounted it is journeying to Heaven stripped of material things (Ἑπτακαιδέκατον ἄθλον ὁ κτησάμενος, πρὸς οὐρανὸν ἀΰλως ὁδοιπορεῖ.). – John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 17, Patrologia Graeca 88:928-929

Maximus the Confessor:

5. If all things have been made by God and for his sake, then God is better than what has been made by him. The one who forsakes the better and is engrossed in inferior things shows that he prefers the things made by God to God himself. 6. The one who has his mind fixed on the love of God disdains all visible things and even his own body as alien. 7. If the soul is better than the body and God incomparably better than the world which he created, the one who prefers the body to the soul and the world to the God who created it is no different from idolaters. 8. The one who separates his mind from love and devotedness toward God and keeps it tied to any sensible thing is the one who prefers the body to the soul and things that are made to God the Creator. – Maximus the Confessor, Chapters on Love (First Century), chapters 5-8

73. It is, therefore, very necessary for a deep knowledge that we first study the veils of the statements regarding the Word and so behold with the naked mind the pure Word as he exists in himself, who clearly shows the Father in himself, as far as it is possible for men to grasp. Thus it is necessary that the one who seeks after God in a religious way never hold fast to the letter lest he mistakenly understand things said about God for God himself. In this case we unwisely are satisfied with the words of Scripture in place of the Word, and the Word slips out of the mind while we thought by holding on to his garments we could possess the incorporeal Word. In a similar way did the Egyptian woman lay hold not of Joseph but of his clothing, and the men of old who remained permanently in the beauty of visible things and mistakenly worshiped the creature instead of the Creator.

By the hearing of the divine words there is effected the firm and unchangeable habits and dispositions of the realities just mentioned that is of faith virtue, and knowledge. Through the divine chants which follow there is effected the deliberate consent of the soul to virtue as well as the spiritual delight and en1oyment that these arouse in it. By the sacred reading of the holy Gospel there is brought about the end of earthly thinking as of the world of sense. Then by the closing of doors which follows there is effected the passage and transfer of the soul in its disposition from this corruptible world to the intelligible world, whereby having closed its senses like doors it renders them cleansed of the idols of sin. By the entrance into the holy mysteries we see the more perfect and mystical and new teaching and knowledge of God’s dispensation toward us. – Maximus the Confessor, The Church’s Mystagogy, chapter 24

Thus for the active ones there results perfect detachment by which every passionate and unenlightened thought departs from the soul, and for those with knowledge the comprehensive science of whatever is known by which all images of material things are chased away from the soul. – Maximus the Confessor, The Church’s Mystagogy, chapter 24

John Cassian:

Isaac: We need not be surprised that a really simple man who had never received any instruction on the substance and nature of the Godhead could still be entangled and deceived by an error of simplicity and the habit of a longstanding mistake, and (to speak more truly) continue in the original error which is brought about, not as you suppose by a new illusion of the demons, but by the ignorance of the ancient heathen world, while in accordance with the custom of that erroneous notion, by which they used to worship devils formed in the figure of men, they even now think that the incomprehensible and ineffable glory of the true Deity should be worshipped under the limitations of some figure, as they believe that they can grasp and hold nothing if they have not some image set before them, which they can continually address while they are at their devotions, and which they can carry about in their mind and have always fixed before their eyes. And against this mistake of theirs this text may be used: And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man (Romans 1:23). Jeremiah also says: My people have changed their glory for an idol (Jeremiah 2:11). Which error although by this its origin, of which we have spoken, it is engrained in the notions of some, yet none the less is it contracted in the hearts also of those who have never been stained with the superstition of the heathen world, under the color of this passage where it is said, “Let us make man after our image and our likeness” (Genesis 1:26), ignorance and simplicity being its authors, so that actually there has arisen owing to this hateful interpretation a heresy called that of the Anthropomorphites, which maintains with obstinate perverseness that the infinite and simple substance of the Godhead is fashioned in our lineaments and human configuration. Which however any one who has been taught the Catholic doctrine will abhor as heathenish blasphemy, and so will arrive at that perfectly pure condition in prayer which will not only not connect with its prayers any figure of the Godhead or bodily lineaments (which it is a sin even to speak of), but will not even allow in itself even the memory of a name, or the appearance of an action, or an outline of any character. – John Cassian, Conference 10, chapter 5

[John Cassian says the WHOLE CHURCH understands that praying to a visible image of the REAL God (not just false gods, like Zeus) is a violation of the second commandment, and that if someone were to make a human-shaped image of God and pray to it, they have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and have changed the glory of God for an idol! That’s right, he considers even a picture of JESUS to be an idol if people pray to it!]

For according to the measure of its purity, as I said in the former Conference, each mind is both raised and moulded in its prayers if it forsakes the consideration of earthly and material things so far as the condition of its purity may carry it forward, and enable it with the inner eyes of the soul to see Jesus either still in His humility and in the flesh, or glorified and coming in the glory of His Majesty: for those cannot see Jesus coming in His Kingdom who are still kept back in a sort of state of Jewish weakness, and cannot say with the Apostle: “And if we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more” (2 Corinthians 5:16); but only those can look with purest eyes on His Godhead, who rise with Him from low and earthly works and thoughts and go apart in the lofty mountain of solitude which is free from the disturbance of all earthly thoughts and troubles, and secure from the interference of all sins, and being exalted by pure faith and the heights of virtue reveals the glory of His Face and the image of His splendour to those who are able to look on Him with pure eyes of the soul. But Jesus is seen as well by those who live in towns and villages and hamlets, i.e., who are occupied in practical affairs and works, but not with the same brightness with which He appeared to those who can go up with Him into the aforesaid mount of virtues, i.e., Peter, James, and John. For so in solitude He appeared to Moses and spoke with Elias. And as our Lord wished to establish this and to leave us examples of perfect purity, although He Himself, the very fount of inviolable sanctity, had no need of external help and the assistance of solitude in order to secure it (for the fullness of purity could not be soiled by any stain from crowds, nor could He be contaminated by intercourse with men, who cleanses and sanctifies all things that are polluted) yet still He retired into the mountain alone to pray, thus teaching us by the example of His retirement that if we too wish to approach God with a pure and spotless affection of heart, we should also retire from all the disturbance and confusion of crowds, so that while still living in the body we may manage in some degree to adapt ourselves to some likeness of that bliss which is promised hereafter to the saints, and that God may be to us all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). – John Cassian, Conference 10, chapter 6

And so our mind will reach that incorruptible prayer to which in our former treatise, as the Lord vouchsafed to grant, the scheme of our Conference mounted, and this is not merely not engaged in gazing on any image, but is actually distinguished by the use of no words or utterances; but with the purpose of the mind all on fire, is produced through ecstasy of heart by some unaccountable keenness of spirit, and the mind being thus affected without the aid of the senses or any visible material pours it forth to God with groanings and sighs that cannot be uttered. – John Cassian, Conference 10, chapter 11

Origen:

“Let us also examine his next statement, by which he, as it were, personifies someone who, after hearing these things, says such words: ‘How then shall I know God? And how shall I learn the way to Him? And how do you show Him to me? For at present you cast darkness before my eyes, and I see nothing clearly.’ Then, to the one thus perplexed, he seems to reply and thinks to explain the reason why darkness has been poured over the eyes of the speaker of these things, saying: ‘If someone should lead men out of darkness into bright light, those who are unable to endure the flashes of brightness are punished in their sight and harmed, and think themselves blinded.’ And to these things we shall say that all those who gaze upon the bad craftsmanship of painters and sculptors and makers of statues sit indeed in darkness and are settled in it, not wishing to look up and ascend in mind from all visible and perceptible things to the Creator of the universe, who is light. But everyone who follows the beams of the Logos comes to be in the light, the Logos having shown from what ignorance and impiety and lack of understanding concerning divine things these objects were worshipped instead of God, and having led by the hand the mind of the one wishing to be saved toward the unbegotten God who is over all. For ‘the people sitting in darkness,’ namely the Gentiles, ‘saw a great light, and to those sitting in the region and shadow of death, light arose’ — namely God, Jesus. Therefore no Christian answers Celsus, or anyone accusing the divine Logos, by saying: ‘How shall I know God?’ For each of them, insofar as possible, has known God. And no one says: ‘How shall I learn the way there?’ Since he has heard the One who said: ‘I am the way and the truth and the life,’ and has tasted the benefit that comes from walking in that way. And no Christian would say to Celsus: ‘How do you show God to me?’ – Origen Against Celsus, Book 6, Ch. 66

“Accordingly, if Celsus were to ask us how we think we know God, and how we shall be saved by Him, we would answer that the Word of God, which entered into those who seek Him, or who accept Him when He appears, is able to make known and to reveal the Father, who was not seen (by any one) before the appearance of the Word. And who else is able to save and conduct the soul of man to the God of all things, save God the Word, who, being in the beginning with God, became flesh for the sake of those who had cleaved to the flesh, and had become as flesh, that He might be received by those who could not behold Him, inasmuch as He was the Word, and was with God, and was God? And discoursing in human form, and announcing Himself as flesh, He calls to Himself those who are flesh, that He may in the first place cause them to be transformed according to the Word that was made flesh, and afterwards may lead them upwards to behold Him as He was before He became flesh; so that they, receiving the benefit, and ascending from their great introduction to Him, which was according to the flesh, say, Even if we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore He became flesh, and having become flesh, He tabernacled among us, not dwelling without us; and after tabernacling and dwelling within us, He did not continue in the form in which He first presented Himself, but caused us to ascend to the lofty mountain of His word, and showed us His own glorious form, and the splendour of His garments; and not His own form alone, but that also of the spiritual law, which is Moses, seen in glory along with Jesus. He showed to us, moreover, all prophecy, which did not perish even after His incarnation, but was received up into heaven, and whose symbol was Elijah. And he who beheld these things could say, We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Celsus, then, has exhibited considerable ignorance in the imaginary answer to his question which he puts into our mouth, How we think we can know God? And how we know we shall be saved by Him? for our answer is what we have just stated.” – Origen Against Celsus, Book 6, Ch.68

Athanasius:

The Apostle then, writing to the Philippians, says, ‘Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not a prize to be equal with God; but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And, being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also highly exalted Him, and gave Him a Name which is above every name; that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father Philippians 2:5-11.’ Can anything be plainer and more express than this? He was not from a lower state promoted: but rather, existing as God, He took the form of a servant, and in taking it, was not promoted but humbled Himself. Where then is there here any reward of virtue, or what advancement and promotion in humiliation? For if, being God, He became man, and descending from on high He is still said to be exalted, where is He exalted, being God? This withal being plain, that, since God is highest of all, His Word must necessarily be highest also. Where then could He be exalted higher, who is in the Father and like the Father in all things? Therefore He is beyond the need of any addition; nor is such as the Arians think Him. – Athanasius, Against the Arians, paragraph 40

The Cathodox claim that by seeing images of Jesus’ body, they’re able to draw closer to Him. But the Scriptures and the church fathers say Jesus’ body was a veil that only served to obscure His true form, and that when He became a man, “He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant,” creating a challenge that could only be overcome by faith in His invisible divinity. The only way anyone could believe He was divine was by looking past His ugly form and looking at His miraculous works and divine teachings. Thus, Jesus’ incarnate form was not an aid in helping us to have faith in Him as the Son of God, but rather it was an obstacle.

As Eusebius of Caesarea asked, which form of Jesus are you Cathodox depicting? Is it that first form He took on for your sake, which was ugly beyond compare, as all of the fathers say (even John of Damascus, the chief idolater)? Surely not! All of your icons make Him look handsome! You’re too afraid to depict Him in the way He actually looked! And truthfully, you would have rejected Him as the Messiah if you had seen Him in that form. The inglorious appearance of Christ is one of the best-kept secrets of the Cathodox for this reason.

Or are you depicting Him in His glory, when His face shined like the sun and His clothes turned white as snow? Surely not! This form couldn’t possibly be depicted, and any attempt to depict it would be an insult to His glory.

Therefore, you must be depicting Him in His veiled state, after He was resurrected but was still hiding the natural glory of His resurrected body. But do you acknowledge this form to be a disguise and not His true form? Do you deceive your followers into believing they’re looking at Christ as He truly is, and omit the fact that this form covers up His true glory, and is no aid in seeing His true essence? Which of you desires to see Christ as He is? And which of you wishes to see a lifeless image of flesh only?

Why do you insist on remembering Christ in His servile, inglorious form? If one of your family members becomes horribly ill and their body gets racked by a disease, until they die a miserable death, you always show a very lovely picture of them at the funeral, because you prefer to remember them at their best, not at their worst. You would consider it an insult to them if you were to remember them in that pitiful state! And yet you always think of Christ differently than He was before the incarnation, and differently than He is at this moment. Why is that? Is it because you are a lover of the flesh and not of the spirit?

Hilary of Poitiers:

It was not the carnal body, which He had received by birth from the Virgin, that could manifest to them the image and likeness of God. The human aspect which He wore could be no aid towards the mental vision of the incorporeal God. But God was recognised in Christ, by such as recognised Christ as the Son on the evidence of the powers of His Divine nature; and a recognition of God the Son produces a recognition of God the Father. For the Son is in such a sense the Image, as to be One in kind with the Father, and yet to indicate that the Father is His Origin. Other images, made of metals or colours or other materials by various arts, reproduce the appearance of the objects which they represent. Yet can lifeless copies be put on a level with their living originals? Painted or carved or molten effigies with the nature which they imitate? The Son is not the Image of the Father after such a fashion as this; He is the living Image of the Living. The Son that is born of the Father has a nature in no wise different from His; and, because His nature is not different, He possesses the power of that nature which is the same as His own. The fact that He is the Image proves that God the Father is the Author of the birth of the Only-begotten, Who is Himself revealed as the Likeness and Image of the invisible God. And hence the likeness, which is joined in union with the Divine nature, is indelibly His, because the powers of that nature are inalienably His own. – Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, book 7, chapter 37

John Chrysostom:

Do you see how he calls the body tabernacle and veil and heaven. By a greater and more perfect tabernacle. Through the veil, that is, His flesh. Hebrews 10:20 And again, into that within the veil. Hebrews 6:19 And again, entering into the Holy of Holies, to appear before the face of God. Hebrews 9:24 Why then does he this? According as one thing or a different one is signified. I mean for instance, the Heaven is a veil, for as a veil it walls off the Holy of Holies; the flesh [is a veil] hiding the Godhead; and the tabernacle likewise holding the Godhead. Again, Heaven [is] a tabernacle: for the Priest is there within. – John Chrysostom, Homily 15 on Hebrews

Through the veil (he says) of His flesh. For this flesh first cut that way, by this He inaugurated it [the way] by which He walked. And with good reason did he call [the flesh] a veil. For when it was lifted up on high, then the things in heaven appeared. – John Chrysostom, Homily 19 on Hebrews

Wherefore he also added this, saying: No one has ever seen God. What then shall we say to the most loud-voiced Isaiah who says: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up? what to John who bears witness to him that he said these things when he saw His glory? what to Ezekiel? For he too sees Him sitting upon the Cherubim; and what to Daniel? For he too says: The Ancient of days sat; and what to Moses himself who says: Show me Thy glory, that I may see Thee plainly? And Jacob from this received the name, being called Israel; for Israel is he who sees God. And others have seen Him. How then did John say, No one has ever seen God? Showing that all those things were of condescension, not a vision of the bare essence itself. For if they had seen the nature itself, they would not have beheld it in different ways. For it is simple and without form, and uncompounded, and uncircumscribed; it does not sit, nor stand, nor walk. For all these things belong to bodies. But how it is, He alone knows. And God the Father, revealing this through a certain prophet, said: I have multiplied visions, He says, and I was made like by the hands of prophets; that is, I condescended, I did not appear as that which I was. For since His Son was about to appear to us in true flesh, He trained them from above to see the essence of God, as it was possible for them to see. Since that which God is, not only have prophets not seen, but neither have angels, nor archangels; but if you ask them, you will hear them answering nothing about the essence, but only singing, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And if you desire to learn anything from the Cherubim or the Seraphim, you will hear the mystical hymn of sanctification, and that Heaven and earth are full of His glory. If you examine the powers above, you will find nothing else, than that they have one work, to praise God; For Praise Him, it says, all His powers. Therefore, only the Son sees Him, and the Holy Spirit. For how will the whole created nature be able to see the uncreated? For if we are not able to receive a clear vision simply of any incorporeal power, although it is created, and this has often been shown in the case of angels; much more of the essence that is both incorporeal and unbegotten. For this reason Paul also says, Whom no man has seen, nor can see. Does this special attribute, then, belong to the Father alone, and no longer to the Son? Far from it; but also to the Son. And that it belongs to Him too, hear Paul declaring this, and saying: Who is the image of the invisible God. And being the image of the invisible, He is Himself invisible; otherwise He would not be an image. But if elsewhere it says, God was manifested in the flesh, do not be surprised; because the manifestation was through the flesh, not indeed according to the essence. Since that He is invisible not only to men, but also to the powers above, Paul shows. For having said, that He was manifested in the flesh, he added, that he works with his tongue, emitting a voice sweeter and more useful than any cithara player, and any music. – John Chrysostom, Homily 1 on John

Gregory of Nyssa:

For verily the Right Hand of God was God Himself; manifested in the flesh, seen through that same flesh by those whose sight was clear; as He did the work of the Father, being, both in fact and in thought, the Right Hand of God, yet being changed, in respect of the veil of the flesh by which He was surrounded, as regarded that which was seen, from that which He was by Nature, as a subject of contemplation. Therefore He says to Philip, who was gazing only at that which was changed, “Look through that which is changed to that which is unchangeable, and if you see this, you have seen that Father Himself, Whom you seek to see; for he that has seen Me — not Him Who appears in a state of change, but My very self, Who am in the Father — will have seen that Father Himself in Whom I am, because the very same character of Godhead is beheld in both” (John 14:9-10). If, then, we believe that the immortal and impassible and uncreated Nature came to be in the passible Nature of the creature, and conceive the change to consist in this, on what grounds are we charged with saying that He was emptied to become Himself, by those who keep prating their own statements about our doctrines? For the participation of the created with the created is no change of the Right Hand. To say that the Right Hand of the uncreated Nature is created belongs to Eunomius alone, and to those who adopt such opinions as he holds. For the man with an eye that looks on the truth will discern the Right Hand of the Highest to be such as he sees the Highest to be — Uncreated of Uncreated, Good of Good, Eternal of Eternal without prejudice to Its eternity by Its being in the Father by way of generation. – Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius, book 6, chapter 3

Acts of John:

26 There came together therefore a gathering of a great multitude on John’s account; and as he discoursed to them that were there, Lycomedes, who had a friend who was a skillful painter, went hastily to him and said to him: You see me in a great hurry to come to you; come quickly to my house and paint the man whom I show you without his knowing it. And the painter, giving some one the necessary implements and colors, said to Lycomedes: Show him to me, and for the rest have no anxiety. And Lycomedes pointed out John to the painter, and brought him near him, and shut him up in a room from which the apostle of Christ could be seen. And Lycomedes was with the blessed man, feasting on the faith and the knowledge of our God, and rejoiced yet more in the thought that he should possess him in a portrait.

27 The painter first sketched the outline on the first day and, on the next, filled it in with colors, delivering the finished portrait to Lycomedes, who received it with great joy. He took it and placed it in his bedroom, adorning it with garlands. Later, when John noticed it, he asked him, “My beloved child, what is this that you do when you come back from the bath and go alone to your room? Do I not pray with you and the other brethren? Or are you hiding something from us?” And as he said this, joking with him, he went into the room and saw the portrait of an old man crowned with garlands, with lamps and altars before it. He called Lycomedes and said, “What is this portrait about? Is this one of your gods? I see that you are still living like a pagan.” Lycomedes replied, “No, my only God is the one who raised me from death, together with my wife. But if, next to God, it is right to honor those who have helped us as gods, then it is you, Father, whom I have had painted in this portrait. You are the one I crown, love, and honor as my guide.”

28 John, who had never seen his own face, replied, “You mock me, child. Do you think I look like this, better than your Lord? How can you convince me that this portrait resembles me?” Lycomedes brought him a mirror, and when John looked at his reflection and compared it to the portrait, he said, “As the Lord Jesus Christ lives, the portrait resembles me, but it is not truly me, child—it is merely a likeness of my flesh. If this painter had tried to truly capture me, he would need more than colors, wood, plaster, and glue—he would need to represent more than my physical appearance, including my youth and old age, and everything else seen by the eye.”

29 “But you, Lycomedes, can become a better painter for me. You have colors given to you by the One who paints us all—Jesus—who knows the forms, appearances, and dispositions of our souls. The colors I ask you to use are these: faith in God, knowledge, reverence, friendship, fellowship, meekness, kindness, brotherly love, purity, simplicity, peace, courage, joy, sobriety, and all the virtues that form the likeness of your soul. These colors will raise up what was cast down, straighten what was crooked, heal your wounds, and restore you. When all these virtues come together in your soul, it will present you to our Lord Jesus Christ, strong, whole, and without fear. But this thing you have done now is incomplete and childish: you have painted only a dead likeness of the dead.” – Acts of John (180 AD), chapters 26-29

Augustine:

Let us return to that question about Saint Mary. Behold, He is touched by the disciples: Feel and see, because a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see that I have. He is touched by doubting Thomas; he exclaims: My Lord and my God! And to him the Lord says: Because you have seen, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen, and believe. To whom you announce me, they surpass your faith. You announce what you have seen, you announce what you have touched, you announce what you have hardly believed by seeing and touching; and yet someone will believe you who has neither seen nor touched. You see me, and you do not believe me: you touch me, and you hardly believe me; another hears you, and believes in me. But you ask: “Why is it that Thomas is allowed to touch, and Mary is told: Do not touch me?” Here He Himself said the reason: For I have not yet ascended to the Father. What does this mean? You are here on earth, and you forbid yourself to be touched: when you ascend, who touches you? Situated on earth you repel a nearby hand. Here we can very elegantly surmise, and say: The Lord rightly kept His touch for the unbelievers; He forbids her to touch, because she had already believed. For what need was there to touch and seek, whom she had recognized by hearing? But yet He did not keep silent, afterward He stated the reason. Do not touch me. Why? For I have not yet ascended to my Father: touch me when ascending to the Father. What does it mean, touch me when ascending to the Father? Touch the one equal to the Father. What does it mean, touch the one equal to the Father? Touch God, that is, believe in God. It is easy what you see: the form of a servant is assumed for your sake, it is the garment of God; it is not great to see the flesh. The Jews saw, who killed Him; the Gentiles did not see, and believed. Therefore, He says, just as you see me, in bodily limbs, the appearance you know, just as you see, do not touch me: that is, do not remain there, do not intend only up to there, do not let your faith end here. Indeed, I want you to believe that I am a man, but do not stay there; extend the hand of faith, do not remain there.

Do not touch in the way that the heretic Photinus did: he said that Christ was a man, nothing more; therefore he did not grasp, did not understand, did not touch. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That she might not think Christ to be just a man: “Do not touch me this way: my garment is before you; keep what is done in heaven, extend the hand of your heart; and then you touch me when I ascend to the Father.” Those who confessed this way have touched: He ascended to heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father. Behold, this is how the Church touches, whose figure Mary bore. Let us touch Christ, let us touch. To believe is to touch. Do not extend your hand only to the man; say what Peter said: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Therefore do not see Christ as only a man; because if you touch as the heretic said, you will be like Photinus. But again, do not avoid the man-Christ, but do not remain there. I do not say to turn away; what do I say? Do not remain there: he does not reach the mansion who wants to remain on the way. Rise, walk: man-Christ is your way, God-Christ is your homeland. Our homeland, truth and life; our way, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We were lazy to walk, the way came to us; because the way came to us, let us walk. Man-Christ is our way: let us not abandon the way, to reach the only begotten Son of God, equal to the Father, transcending all creation, coeternal with the Father, without day, the day, the creator of faith. For this reason let us walk, that we may touch this. – Augustine, Sermon 375/C (Treatise on the Fifth Day of Holy Easter)

So God puts everything under man, man under himself. You want everything God has made to be under you, see to it you yourself are under God. It’s the last word in impudence for you to require the lower creation to be beneath you, when you won’t even acknowledge him who created you to be your superior. God, then, so arranged what he created that he placed his image beneath himself and everything else under that. Accept him, and you will trample on man. Don’t despise him, and then let anyone who likes to despise you; what harm can he do you, after all, by despising you, since God does not despise you? He laughs at the fellow who despises you, because he himself honors you with a crown. “But he despises me.” Christ was despised. He to whom you have said “In you has my soul put its trust” (Psalm 57:1) came here to be despised for your sake, and as one despised he redeemed you. You wouldn’t have been redeemed if he hadn’t been despised. And how did he come to be despised? By putting on the clothes of a slave, your form. As one thing he was hidden, as another he showed up. He was hidden as God, he showed up as man. He was despised as man, and glorified by God. Nothing therefore that people value so highly here below, nothing did he who made himself the way for us wish to have, though in fact he had everything. His were heaven and earth, by him heaven and earth were made, in heaven and above the heavens he was served by angels, he put demons to flight, he drove out fevers, he opened the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind, he controlled the sea, the winds and the storms, he raised the dead. He had the power to do so much, and so much was the one he made able to do against him. The creator of man was subject to man because he showed himself as a man, the liberator of man. He was subject to man, but in the form of man, hidden as God, showing himself as man, despised as man, discovered as God, only discovered, however, because previously despised. For you see, he wasn’t prepared to give you glory until he had first taught you humility. – Augustine, Sermon 20 A, chapter 3-4

The Truth revealed himself in the form of a servant, but delayed his self-revelation in the form of God. Speaking still in the form of a servant he made this promise to his servants, “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him” (Jn 14:21). To those who could already see him, he promised to show himself. What were they looking at? What was he promising? They were looking at the form of a servant, but he was promising them the form of God. “I will show myself to you,” he said. To this glory he is leading his kingdom, the kingdom that is being gathered to him now, as this world goes on its way. It is being led to a vision unutterable, of which unbelievers will not be found worthy. Remember too that the servant-form in which he was present during his life on earth was seen also by unbelievers: those who believed saw it, but those who killed him saw it too. You need not rate too high the privilege of seeing that servile form: his friends saw it and his foes saw it; some who saw it slew him, others who did not see it have believed. Here in his humble lifetime his servant-form was seen by the good and the wicked, and on judgment-day too both good and wicked will see it. This we know, for as the Lord was borne up to heaven before the gaze of his disciples, a prophecy was trumpeted by angelic voices: Why stand here gazing up to heaven, men of Galilee? This Jesus will come again, even as you have seen him go. (Acts 1:11) “Even as you have seen him,” notice: even as you have seen him, in the same form. Elsewhere it was prophesied of the wicked, They will gaze on him whom they pierced (Zech 12:10; Jn 19:37). They will see him coming as judge whom they mocked when he was judged.

On judgment day his servile form will be plainly seen by just and unjust, by the good and the wicked, by believers and unbelievers alike. What is it, then, that the wicked will not see? Something there must be. While of them it was said. They will gaze on him whom they pierced, of these same people it was also said, Away with the impious, he shall not see the glory of the Lord (Is 26: 10, LXX). What can it mean, brothers and sisters? Let us puzzle it out, let us try to learn. A wicked person will be awakened to see something, yet this wicked person will be driven away, prevented from seeing something else. We have explained already what he or she will see: that form of which the angels prophesied that he will come again even as you have seen him. Then what will the wicked be forbidden to see? That of which the Lord promised, “I will show myself.” What does that word, “myself,” point to? Not the form of a servant. What is myself, then? The form of God, in which he deemed it no robbery to be God’s equal. What does this myself pledge to us? Dearly beloved, we are children of God already, but what we shall be has not yet appeared. We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is ( 1 Jn 3:2). The glory of God is light beyond all telling, a fountain of light never dimmed, truth that never fails, Wisdom that while abiding in herself renews all things. This is the very substance of God. The wicked must therefore be banished, forbidden to see this holy magnificence of God; it is written, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8). – Augustine, Exposition of Psalm 109, chapter 12

They that have done well will go to live with the angels of God; they that have done evil, to be tormented with the devil and his angels. And the form of a servant will pass away. For to this end He had manifested Himself, that He might execute judgment. After the judgment, He shall go hence, will lead with Him the body of which He is the head, and deliver up the kingdom of God. Then will openly be seen that form of God which could not be seen by the wicked, to whose vision the form of a servant must be shown. He says also in another place on this wise: “These shall go away into everlasting burning” (speaking of certain on the left), “but the just into life eternal;” of which life He says in another place: “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” Then will He be there manifested, “who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Then He will manifest Himself, as He has promised to manifest Himself to them that love Him. – Augustine, Tractates on John 19

The Lord Christ, in coming into this mortal life, did not manifest His glory, but veiled it in mortal flesh. He appeared like the pillar of cloud in the desert. But when He comes at the end of the world, when all visible joys shall be taken away, then the Lord, no longer hidden under a human form, will shine in His glory and splendor like a pillar of fire. – Augustine, Selected Easter Sermons, Sermon 1 (On the Paschal Candle—Easter Eve), chapter 2

Consider how Mary beheld the Lord in the flesh and listened to the Lord in the flesh, “as through a veil,” as the Epistle to the Hebrews expresses it. But there will be no veil when we behold Him face to face. – Augustine, Selected Easter Sermons, Sermon 17 (On the Alleluia —during Eastertime), chapter 6

Jerome:

For he saw the centurion’s faith, humility, and wisdom: [He had] faith in that he as a Gentile believed that a leper could be healed by the Savior; humility because he judged himself unworthy to have the Lord come under his roof; [He had] wisdom because beneath the covering of the body he saw the concealed divinity. He recognized not what would be profitable for himself, which was something that was seen even by unbelievers, but what was lying hidden within. From this wisdom he says this as well: “Behold, though I am a man, I say to this one: ‘Go,’ and he goes,” etc. He wants to show that the Lord too can fulfill what he wants, not so much by coming in person, as by the ministries of angels. Now when Jesus heard this, he was amazed. He was amazed because he saw that the centurion comprehended his majesty. – Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, 8.5-10

Leo the Great:

So too when He came to the baptism of John, His forerunner, lest He should not be known through the veil of flesh which covered His Divinity, the Father’s voice thundering from the sky, said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased Matthew 3:17 . And thus Him whom the devil’s craftiness attacks as man, the ministries of angels serve as God. To be hungry and thirsty, to be weary, and to sleep, is clearly human: but to satisfy 5,000 men with five loaves, and to bestow on the woman of Samaria living water, droughts of which can secure the drinker from thirsting any more, to walk upon the surface of the sea with feet that do not sink, and to quell the risings of the waves by rebuking the winds, is, without any doubt, Divine. – Leo the Great, Letter 28, chapter 4

Macarius of Egypt”

4.30.2 For indeed the Lord, having come upon the earth, did a work in it, for he cultivated the fallow and desolate land and cast out from it thorns and thistles and took from it a new plant and planted in it a new, heavenly plantation. For if he had wished to come down to earth in his bare divinity, neither could men see his glory, nor could death itself endure it, nor creation withstand it. But he put aside the greatness of his glory and used agricultural tools and took on the form of a farmer, and likewise he also put on as garments the instruments of the body and the soul, and thus having entered, he cultivated the desolate land of the heart. For if Israel was not able to endure the glory of Moses, how much more was no one able to withstand the divine glory. He therefore took on the form of a farmer and the garment of a plowman. Just as a worker might take up the tools of labor and of the plow and thus dig the earth, so the Lord, having taken the garment of a worker, put laborers into the earth and worked and dug deep and cast a heavenly seed. 4.30.3 For just as in a law court the ruler sits before the judgment seat and then a curtain is placed at the door, so that those outside may be more eager and without fear, so the divinity itself was hidden in humanity and used the human body as a veil or a curtain. And he gives command from without and it happens in another person. He is a fisherman who has cast the net into the depth of the sea and from the dark depth he brought up Adam, and behold, he swims upon the water. 4.30.4 For what labor was it for the divinity, as it was, bare in itself, to kill death? But even having taken a body, he was rather insulted and he suffered. But otherwise, marvel at his wisdom and his glory, how he went down to a dead body and the very dust and the bones and the joints he put together again by his art and his wisdom, he split rocks and raised dead bodies. and there he condemned the principalities and the powers, he triumphed over Satan and upon the tomb, here again he made a victory, and he redeemed the enslaved Adam from the most heavy burden of death. He himself is the weapons, he himself is the warrior, for through this one victory is given to Adam. See what sort of work the Lord, having come, worked upon the earth and having gone down into Hades. For since after the transgression a bitter tree was planted in Adam, the Lord came to uproot that and to plant new heavenly plants. But we have put forth these thoughts, so that someone along with the word might also take hold of the deed, so that this word itself may become an energy and a power.

4.30.5 For just as there is a city having walls, and everything is full in the city in the marketplaces, and in them faces of kings are painted and the very purple of the king; some make likenesses of statues out of bronze, others make icons, others paint the sea and fish, others likenesses of birds and they add wings to them, which neither live nor fly, others paint the sun with its rays, others make the heaven and stars. But these things are dead, not having a soul nor a power that moves them. Go to the image of the king and speak to it, and it neither hears nor answers you nor moves; for it does not have a soul that moves it. Go to the painted statues either in bronze or in wood; likewise there too you find dead images not having a voice nor a living soul. You see painted birds, and it neither walks nor flies. You see a painted sun and ask light from it, and it does not have it to give you. Why? Because it does not have an active substance (κινητικὴν ὑπόστασιν). So also the whole Adam from the transgression of the commandment had a certain image of the first man, but he did not have a heavenly soul nor a living divine image in himself. For this reason he is dead from God and has neither wings, that he might fly into the divine air, nor has he light that he might be enlightened and have an inheritance with the heavenly light. 4.30.6 An old leaven of darkness entered and leavened all of Adam, the leaven of the enemy, and in some part Adam himself was mixed with evil. He had the image of the first creation, but was not able to live in God and no one was able to give him life or power or a soul to move him, neither Moses nor the prophets, but they brought only a certain shadow and a promise that the Redeemer is coming.

And just as a king sees his own image and draws near to it and diligently attends to it, since it is his own image, so also the Lord sent his image through the law, but afterward the substance itself followed. For it was written in the law, that wherever old leaven is found, it will be destroyed. Thus therefore the Lord, having come in the last days, cleansed and destroyed all the old leaven that had destroyed the mind and soul of Adam and he put a new leaven into the earth of Adam and again leavened Adam with a heavenly leaven. 4.30.8 If then the words are good, yet they are a shadow of the true things. For there is need of a living image, so that the heavenly image of Christ, having come, might be mixed with the soul, and then it is able to live in God, so that it may receive wings from there of the spirit and hands and feet and eyes to walk in the divine air and to see the heavenly light and to do a divine work. And the craftsmen themselves who made the idols through wood and bronzes and gold and silvers made images of men and animals and beasts. Go there, seek; you do not find a soul, you do not hear a voice, that it might answer you for they have eyes and do not see, they have feet and will not walk. 4.30.9 Therefore the Lord stood in the midst of the element of the earth, and behold, through his power he gathered the whole world to himself. For his cargo is full of all kinds of good things. And he established his festival filled with all kinds of precious royal goods. Therefore you find all things there, he exhorts all and gathers all of Adam, saying: “I am a merchant and my festival is full. I am a physician and I have many kinds of medicines. Let the lame man receive a medicine that heals his weakness and the maimed man will receive a medicine that heals his affliction, let the blind man receive an eye-salve that opens his impairment, let the dead man receive a soul that moves him and he will be made alive from his deadness.” – Macarius of Egypt, Sermon 4.30.2-4.30.9

Ante-Nicene Christianity

Jesus’ Body Covered Up His Divinity

Mathetes:

Theophilus of Antioch:

Mark Minucius Felix:

Quodvultdeus of Carthage:

Didymus the Blind:

Origen:

Ignatius:

Ambrose of Milan:

Macarius of Egypt:

John Climacus:

Maximus the Confessor:

John Cassian:

Origen:

Athanasius:

Hilary of Poitiers:

John Chrysostom:

Gregory of Nyssa:

Acts of John:

Augustine:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply