Hippolytus of Rome, The Discourse on the Holy Theophany

The Discourse on the Holy Theophany.

1. Good, yea, very good, are all the works of our God and Saviour—all of them that eye seeth and mind perceiveth, all that reason interprets and hand

2. Nor is this the only thing that proves the dignity of the water. But there is also that which is more honourable than all—the fact that Christ, the

3. But we, who know the economy, adore His mercy, because He hath come to save and not to judge the world. Wherefore John, the forerunner of the Lord

4. As John says these things to the multitude, and as the people watch in eager expectation of seeing some strange spectacle with their bodily eyes, a

5. And what saith the Lord to him? “Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” “Suffer it to be so now,” John tho

6. Do you see, beloved, how many and how great blessings we would have lost, if the Lord had yielded to the exhortation of John, and declined baptism?

7. The beloved generates love, and the light immaterial the light inaccessible. “This is my beloved Son,” He who, being manifested on earth and yet un

8. But give me now your best attention, I pray you, for I wish to go back to the fountain of life, and to view the fountain that gushes with healing.

9. This is the Spirit that at the beginning “moved upon the face of the waters ” by whom the world moves by whom creation consists, and all things ha

10. Come then, be begotten again, O man, into the adoption of God. And how? says one. If thou practisest adultery no more, and committest not murder,

2. Nor is this the only thing that proves the dignity7 ἀξιοπιστίαν. of the water. But there is also that which is more honourable than all—the fact that Christ, the Maker of all, came down as the rain,8 Hos. vi. 3. and was known as a spring,9 John iv. 14. and diffused Himself as a river,10 John vii. 38. and was baptized in the Jordan.11 Matt. iii. 13. For you have just heard how Jesus came to John, and was baptized by him in the Jordan. Oh things strange beyond compare! How should the boundless River12 Ps. xlvi. 4. that makes glad the city of God have been dipped in a little water! The illimitable Spring that bears life to all men, and has no end, was covered by poor and temporary waters! He who is present everywhere, and absent nowhere—who is incomprehensible to angels and invisible to men—comes to the baptism according to His own good pleasure. When you hear these things, beloved, take them not as if spoken literally, but accept them as presented in a figure.13 Economically. Whence also the Lord was not unnoticed by the watery element in what He did in secret, in the kindness of His condescension to man. “For the waters saw Him, and were afraid.”14 Ps. lxxvii. 16. They well-nigh broke from their place, and burst away from their boundary. Hence the prophet, having this in his view many generations ago, puts the question, “What aileth thee, O sea, that thou fleddest; and thou, Jordan, that thou wast driven back?”15 Ps. cxiv. 5. And they in reply said, We have seen the Creator of all things in the “form of a servant,”16 Phil. ii. 7. and being ignorant of the mystery of the economy, we were lashed with fear.

[2] οὐ μόνον δὲ τοῦτο τὴν ἀξιοπιστίαν τοῦ ὕδατος παρίστησιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ πάντων αἰδεσιμώτερον, ὅτι ὁ πάντων δημιουργὸς Χριστὸς ὡς ὑετὸς κατῆλθε καὶ ὡς πηγὴ ἐγνώσθη καὶ ὡς ποταμὸς διεδόθη καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ἐβαπτίσθη. ἤκουες γὰρ ἀρτίως, πῶς ἐλθὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς πρὸς τὸν Ἰωάννην ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ἐβαπτίσθη ὑπ' αὐτοῦ. ὦ παραδόξων πραγμάτων: πῶς ὁ ἀπερίγραπτος „ποταμὸς ὁ εὐφραίνων τὴν πόλιν τοῦ θεοῦ„ ἐν ὀλίγῳ ὕδατι ἐλούετο, ἡ ἀκατάληπτος πηγὴ ἡ ζωὴν βλαστάνουσα πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις καὶ τέλος μὴ ἔχουσα ὑπὸ πενιχρῶν καὶ προσκαίρων ὑδάτων ἐκαλύπτετο. ὁ πάντη παρὼν καὶ μηδαμοῦ ἀπολιμπανόμενος, ὁ ἀκατάληπτος ἀγγέλοις καὶ ἀόρατος ἀνθρώποις ἐπὶ τὸ βάπτισμα ἔρχεται, ὡς ηὐδόκησεν. ταῦτα ἀκούων, ἀγαπητέ, μὴ φυσικῶς ἐκλάμβανε τὰ λεγόμενα, ἀλλ' οἰκονομικῶς δέχου τὰ παρατιθέμενα, διὸ καὶ ὁ κύριος τῇ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τῆς συγκαταβάσεως οὐκ ἔλαθε τὴν τῶν ὑδάτων φύσιν, ὅπερ ἐποίησεν ἐν κρυφῇ. ”εἶδον γὰρ αὐτὸν τὰ ὕδατα καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν”, ἐξέστησαν μικροῦ δεῖν καὶ τῆς ὁροθεσίας ἀπέφυγον: ὅθεν ὁ προφήτης ἐκ πολλῶν τῶν χρόνων τοῦτο θεωρήσας ἐπερωτᾷ λέγων „τί σοί ἐστιν, θάλασσα, ὅτι ἔφυγες; καὶ σύ, Ἰορδάνη, ὅτι ἐστράφης εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω;„ αὐτὰ δὲ ἀποκριθέντα εἶπον Τὸν πάντων κτιστὴν ἐν ”μορφῇ δούλου” εἴδομεν καὶ τὸ μυστήριον τῆς οἰκονομίας ἀγνοήσαντες ἀπὸ τῆς δειλίας ἐλαυνόμεθα,