and the wounds in His hands and side, to be a participant in bodily and corruptible food for forty days. A
From Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, from his Oration on the Nativity.
For the Word liberated us from all the things that came upon us through disobedience, and He purified our nature. Those things which He Himself made according to His own image did not require a change, so that the body which was corrupted might not be corrupted [entirely], but remain corruptible, just as the soul is the image of God.
From Olympiodorus, the great philosopher and deacon of Alexandria, from his second oration against Severus, in which he produces the passage of Saint Athanasius which speaks of two wills in Christ, and discourses as follows:
And so I do not know how Severus, not having become accustomed to follow the straight path according to your own standards, can agree with the other canons. He did not unwillingly correct the present proposal of the Master, saying according to the preceding and following evangelical words—those which Athanasius weighing with the identity of the canon, applied to the humanity of the Savior those things which, because of their loftiness, are not perceived—it is manifest that when He did not wish to die, that was a will in Him who was in the form of a man. B
Interpretation of this passage.
In the oration against the Arians, in which Saint Athanasius spoke of two wills, he produced many evangelical citations of a humble nature agreeing with the humanity of Christ, such as, "My Father is greater than I" and, "Glorify Me, Father," and, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified," and, "Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature." And producing all such things, he took and interpreted them as referring to the flesh of the Lord. From among these is also the passage, "Father, let this cup pass from me; yet not My will be done, but Yours." Since, therefore, some say that Christ speaks not of His own will, but of the will of emotional humanity, Olympiodorus wished to demonstrate and from the principles of Athanasius and from the consequences it is seen that he understood "not My will" as referring to the humanity of Christ. Therefore, he continues by saying that "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." C Just as, therefore, we understand the Spirit of Christ, so also [do we understand] the flesh regarding the prophetic saying about man to God, which says: "You have made him a little lower than the angels," which the Apostle applying to Christ says: "We see Jesus made a little lower than the angels because of the suffering of death." D
Sequuntur in codice prolixa aliquot capita, quorum nunc exscribendorum, nedum divulgandorum, otium non est, videlicet 1. Kεφάλαιον πέμπτον ἀποδεικτικὸν διὰ πραγμάτων ὅτι ἄλλο τὸ φυσικὸν, ἄλλο τὸ σαρκικὸν, καὶ ἕτερον πάλιν τὸ θεῖον θέλημα. 2. Κεφάλαιον ἕκτον ἐν ᾧ αἱ ἀντιθέσεις τῶν ἐναντίων εὐσεβῶς σαφηνίζονται ὑφ' ἡμῶν. 3. Τοῦ ἁγίου Διονυσίου τοῦ Ἀρεοπαγίτου χρήσεις δεικνῦσαι ὅτι καὶ χωρὶς τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος ὁ Χριστὸς διαφόρους ἐνεργείας ἔχει κατὰ τὴν τοῦ Λόγου θεότητα. Subsequitur Anastasii co...