Oecumenius, Fragments on the Letter to the Colossians

Fragments on the Epistle to the Colossians 453Kol 1,13 Of the son of love, periphrastically for of the beloved son. kol 1,15 Some, being led astray by the images among us, which are from boards and wax, have thought this way also concerning the Son of God. For 454 just as these, they say, preserve the form and likeness of a man, but not the nature or essence, so also is the Son of the Father. But this impiety is Arian. But to those who say this, one must oppose the passage in Genesis the 8th, where it says: Adam begot according to his own image. For it is much more fitting to accept those things about an image which the scripture says concerning the son and father of men, since the present consideration also pertains to the Father and Son of God, than what applies to an image made of wood and wax, which is not properly an image but is called one by an extension of meaning. kol 1,19 Not relatively but essentially, as a soul in a body, not becoming a soul to the body, but in an ensouled body, being united in the way a soul is united to a body. kol 1,27 Who is the riches of the mystery, he says, Christ. Through him, therefore, also believe that you are brought near, as he is in you through faith, through whom, he says, we hope to attain eternal glory. kol 2,5 And he says this both to praise and at the same time to hint that the faith which has firmness and steadfastness is properly faith. kol 2,9 Let us understand that something of this sort has happened, as in the case of light. But every image and every example falls short of the truth; for how could sensible things signify divine things? Nevertheless, it must be said: just as the first-born light, being at the beginning bodiless and immaterial, was mingled with the solar body and became in a way embodied, yet even while existing in it, is not confined nor prevented from illuminating all things, so also the at first fleshless God the Word, having been made flesh, is not prevented from being united to the flesh according to hypostasis and from not being enclosed in it, but fills all things. And for this reason, I think, the Lord calls himself light, and Malachi has called him the sun of righteousness, and furthermore the 455 psalmist says: Fire fell upon them, and they did not see the sun. Or understand bodily, as one who has been made flesh; for having dwelt, he says, he does not move away again, but was made flesh, henceforth having one nature with his own flesh, even though he was constituted from two opposites. kol 2,11 But see: sometimes he speaks of the circumcision of the Spirit, sometimes of Christ; for he knows one work and one operation of the Holy Trinity. kol 2,13 Circumcision removes the superfluous, as the foreskin has what is superfluous. You too, therefore, he says, were superfluous, doing what was not fitting; for everything outside of what is proper is superfluous. Therefore, being dead in your sins through inaction toward the good, and uncircumcised, he both circumcised you spiritually and made you alive. Christ from sensible death, but you from both the sensible and the spiritual death of sins. And do not be surprised if he says the Father made Christ alive; for it is said elsewhere that he raised himself; for the things that are done are common to the Father and the Son and the Spirit. kol 3,17 And 'through him' and 'with him' is well said; the one because he is equal and consubstantial with the Father, the other because he deigned to become our mediator and high priest, when the Word became flesh according to the scripture. kol 3, Apart from those things that lead to impiety. επιλογ ζυ kol Not having found the paragraphs of the blessed John on the epistle to the Colossians well in the copy, I wrote them down as I was able. If, therefore, anything is found in them that is either frivolous or reprehensible, let the reader know that such a fault is mine.

Fragmenta in epistulam ad Colossenses 453Kol 1,13 Τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς ἀγάπης, περιφραστικῶς τοῦ ἀγαπητοῦ υἱοῦ kol 1,15 Τινὲς ἐκ τῶν εἰκόνων τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν πλανηθέντες, αἵ εἰσιν ἀπὸ σανίδων καὶ κηροῦ, οὕτως ἐνόμισαν καὶ περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ. ὥσπερ 454 γάρ, φασίν, αὗται εἶδος μὲν καὶ ὁμοίωμα σώζουσιν ἀνθρώπου, οὐ μὴν φύσιν ἢ οὐσίαν, οὕτω καὶ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ πατρός. Ἀρειανικὸν δὲ τὸ δυσσέ βημα. ἀλλὰ τοῖς τοῦτο λέγουσιν ἀντιθετέον τὸ κείμενον ἐν τῇ Γενέσει τῇ ηʹ, ὅτι φησίν· ὁ Ἀδὰμ ἐγέννησε κατὰ τὴν εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ· πολὺ γὰρ ἁρμοδιώτερον ἐκεῖνα δέξασθαι περὶ εἰκόνος ὅσα ἡ γραφή φησι περὶ υἱοῦ καὶ πατρὸς ἀνθρώπων, ἐπειδὴ καὶ τὸ προκείμενον θεώρημα εἰς πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν θεοῦ ἀνήκει, ἢ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀπὸ ξύλου καὶ κηροῦ εἰκόνος, ἥτις οὐκ ἔστι μὲν κυρίως, λέγεται δὲ καταχρηστικῶς εἰκών. kol 1,19 Οὐ σχετικῶς ἀλλ' οὐσιωδῶς ὡς ψυχὴ ἐν σώματι, οὐ ψυχὴ γενό μενος τῷ σώματι, ἀλλ' ἐν σώματι ἐψυχωμένῳ ἑνωθεὶς ὃν τρόπον ἑνοῦται ψυχὴ σώματι. kol 1,27 Ὃς πλοῦτος μυστηρίου ἐστίν, φησίν, ὁ Χριστός. δι' αὐτοῦ τοιγαροῦν καὶ πιστεύετε προσάγεσθαι ὡς ἐν ὑμῖν ὄντος διὰ τῆς πίστεως, δι' οὗ, φησίν, ἐλπίζομεν τῆς αἰωνίου δόξης τυχεῖν. kol 2,5 Τοῦτο δέ φησιν ἅμα μὲν ἐγκωμιάζων, ἅμα δὲ αἰνιττόμενος ἐκείνην εἶναι κυρίως πίστιν τὴν τὸ βέβαιον καὶ τὸ σταθερὸν ἔχουσαν. kol 2,9 Τοιοῦτόν τι γεγενῆσθαι νοήσωμεν ὅπερ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ φωτός. ἐλατ τοῦται δὲ πᾶσα εἰκὼν καὶ ἅπαν παράδειγμα τῆς ἀληθείας· πῶς γὰρ ἂν τὰ αἰσθητὰ διασημαίνει τὰ θεῖα; πλὴν λεκτέον· ὥσπερ τὸ πρωτόγονον φῶς ἐν ἀρχῇ ἀσώματον καὶ ἄϋλον ὑπάρχον ἐνεκράθη τῷ ἡλιακῷ σώματι καὶ γέγονε τρόπον τινὰ ἐνσώματον, πλὴν καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ ὑπάρχον οὐ περιείργεται οὔτε κωλύεται καταφωτίζειν τὰ πάντα, οὕτω καὶ ὁ ἐν ἀρχῇ ἄσαρκος θεὸς λόγος σαρκωθεὶς οὐ κωλύεται καὶ σαρκὶ ἡνῶσθαι καθ' ὑπόστασιν καὶ μὴ συγκεκλεῖσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ, ἀλλὰ τὰ πάντα πληροῖ. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο, οἶμαι, αὐτός τε ἑαυτὸν ὁ κύριος φῶς ὀνομάζει καὶ ὁ Μαλαχίας αὐτὸν ἥλιον κέκληκεν δικαιοσύνης, ἔτι δὲ καὶ ὁ 455 ψαλμώδης λέγει· ἔπεσε πῦρ ἐπ' αὐτούς, καὶ οὐκ εἶδον τὸν ἥλιον. Ἢ σωματικῶς νόει οἷον σεσαρκωμένος· οὐ γὰρ οἰκήσας, φησί, πάλιν μετοικεῖ, ἀλλ' ἐσαρκώθη μίαν λοιπὸν μετὰ τῆς ἰδίας σαρκὸς φύσιν ἔχων, κἂν ἐκ δύο συνέστη τῶν ἐναντίων. kol 2,11 Ὅρα δέ· ποτὲ πνεύματος, ποτὲ Χριστοῦ τὴν περιτομὴν λέγει· ἓν γὰρ ἔργον καὶ μίαν ἐνέργειαν τῆς ἁγίας οἶδε τριάδος. kol 2,13 Ἡ περιτομὴ τὸ περιττὸν διαιρεῖ, ὡς τῆς ἀκροβυστίας τὸ περιττὸν ἐχούσης. περιττοὶ οὖν, φησίν, ἦτε καὶ ὑμεῖς τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα ποιοῦν τες· πᾶν γὰρ τὸ ἔξω τοῦ πρέποντος περιττόν ἐστιν. ὄντας οὖν νεκροὺς ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὸ καλὸν ἀνενεργησίαν καὶ ἀκροβύστους περιέτεμέν τε νοητῶς καὶ ἐζωοποίησεν. Τὸν μὲν Χριστὸν ἐκ τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ θανάτου, ὑμᾶς δὲ καὶ τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ καὶ τοῦ νοητοῦ τοῦ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν. μὴ θαύμαζε δέ, εἰ τὸν πατέρα λέγει ἐζωοποιηκέναι τὸν Χριστόν· καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ εἴρηται ὅτι ἑαυτὸν ἤγειρεν· κοινὰ γὰρ πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ καὶ πνεύματος τὰ γινόμενα. kol 3,17 Καὶ τὸ δι' αὐτοῦ καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ καλῶς λέγεται· τὸ μὲν διὰ τὸ ἴσον καὶ ὁμοούσιον τῷ πατρί, τὸ δέ, ἐπειδὴ μεσίτης ἡμῶν καὶ ἀρχιερεὺς ἠξίωσεν γενέσθαι, ὅταν γέγονε σὰρξ ὁ λόγος κατὰ τὴν γραφήν. kol 3, ∆ίχα τῶν εἰς ἀσέβειαν φερόντων. επιλογ ζυ kol Ἐκ τοῦ ἀντιγράφου μὴ εὑρὼν καλῶς τὰς παραγραφὰς τοῦ μακαρίου Ἰωάννου τῆς πρὸς Kolοσσαεῖς ἐπιστολῆς, συνέγραψα αὐτὰς ὅπως ἠδυνάμην. εἰ οὖν εὑρεθῇ τι ἐν αὐταῖς ἢ κοῦφον ἢ ἐπιλήψιμον, ἴστω ὁ ἀναγινώσκων ἐμὸν εἶναι τὸ τοιοῦτον πταῖσμα.