Folia Theologica 11. (2000)
László Vanyó: The Patristic Interpretation of 'Redemptio'
THE PATRISTIC INTERPRETATION OF ‘REDEMPTIO’ 23 who is both flesh and spirit, born and yet nor born, who is God in man, true life in death, both of Mary and of God, first passible and then impassible, Jesus Christ our Lord. "3 * 5 With the attribute “one” he refers to the divinity, then composes in paradoxes: body-soul, born-unborn, life in death, suffering and impassible, the latter is an allusion to the state after the resurrection. Christ is not someone who cures the illness, but that who treats the death, inasmuch it is life, indeed it is the true life. His medical activity is a part of his redeemer work in the Gospels, Jesus made never a penal miracle, he never saved himself from a difficult situation, the motive of the advantage never leads him, He never made a miracle or a healing for the justification of his messianic mission. The healing express first of all his divine goodness, He intended his healings 3. o9ev £>,u£TO naca payera Koa 7ta öeapo ppavi^exo Kcoaa: ayvoia KaGtpetxo, naXaia ßaarXeta 8te<))0eipeto 0eot> avGpcontvtu (bavepotipevou er KaivoTTyta aiSiou Çcût|: apxpv 8e etaxpßavev to napa Gem ampTtapevov. EÄ.0EV xa navxa aweiavetTO ôta to peXeraaGat Gavaxou KaxaXuatv. 1. My spirit is devoted to the cross, which is an offence to unbelievers, but to us salvation and eternal life. “Where is the wise? Where is the disputer?" Where is the boasting of those who are called prudent? 2. For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary by the dispensation of God, “as well of the seed of David” as of the Holy Spirit: he was born, and was baptized, that by himself submitting he might purify the water. XIX: 1. And the virginity of Mary, and her giving birth were hidden from the Prince of this world, as was also the death of the Lord. Three mysteries of a cry which were wrought in the stillness of God. 2. How then was he manifested to the world? A star shone in heaven beyond all the stars, and its light was unspeakable, and its newness caused astonishment, and all the other stars, with the sun and moon, gathered in chorus round this star, and it far exceeded them all in its light: and there was perplexity, whence came this new thing, so unlike them. 3. By this all magic was dissolved and every bond of wickedness vanished away, ignorance was removed, and the old kingdom was destroyed, for God was manifest as man for the "newness ” of eternal life, and that which had been prepared by God received its beginning. Hence all things were disturbed, because the abolition of death was being planned. Smym 11,1 (The Apostolic Fathers I, 251-253): 1. Tavxa yap navxa enaGev öl ppa, tva acoGcopev: rai akpGcûç enaGev, cûç Kat aipGcûç aveoGpaev eauTov, ou% cocmep anraxot xrveç Leyonoiv, to ôokeiv auxov nenovGevat, auxoi to öoKeiv ovxeç: Kar KaGcoç (fipovotxnv, Kar crup ßpcrenxar amotç, ouatv aacopaxotç Kar ôatpoviKoiç. 1. For he suffered all these things for us that we might attain salvation, and he truly suffered even as he also truly raised himself, not us some unbelievers say, that his Passion was merely in semblance, - but it is they who are merely in semblance, and even according to their opinion it shall happen to them, and they shall be without bodies and phantasmal. 5 Eph 7,2 Loeb CL. Transi. K.Lake, Apostolic Fathers, 1,181
