APPENDIX TO THE EXEGETICAL WORKS OF SAINT GREGORY
OF THE HOLY GREGORY ON THE PASSAGE: "WHEN ALL THINGS ARE SUBJECTED TO HIM, THEN THE SON HIMSELF WILL ALSO BE SUBJECTED TO HIM WHO PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIM"
OF OUR HOLY FATHER GREGORY OF NYSSA: ON THE PASSAGE: "WHEN HE SHALL HAVE SUBJECTED ALL THINGS TO HIMSELF, THEN THE SON HIMSELF SHALL ALSO BE SUBJECTED TO HIM WHO SUBJECTED ALL THINGS TO HIMSELF"
All the sayings of the Lord are chaste and pure, A as the Prophet says, for when the mind is purged of every heretical opinion, like silver purified in the fire, it possesses the proper, fitting, and natural radiance of the truth of these sayings. Above all, I believe we must attest to the radiance and purity in the dogmas of the holy Paul, for he, having been initiated in the knowledge of the mysteries in paradise, and having Christ speaking within him, spoke things that it is fitting for one instructed by such a master to speak, under the guidance and teaching of the Word. Since, however, evil hucksters attempt to render the divine silver base, obscuring the radiance of the Word by mixing in heretical and adulterated notions, and either not understanding the mystical meanings of the Apostle or malignantly twisting them to defend their own malice, they pull them forward to assist their cause—claiming, for the overthrow of the glory of the Only-begotten God, that the apostolic utterance supports them, which says: *Then the Son will himself be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him*, as if this expression indicated some servile humility—for this reason it seemed necessary to examine this statement with care, so as to demonstrate that the apostolic silver is truly pure, separated from and unmixed with any filthy or heretical notion. We know, therefore, from the usage of Holy Scripture, that this term has many meanings and does not always correspond to the same ideas, but now signifies one thing, and at another time indicates something else; for example, B "Servants," it says, "be subject to your own masters." And concerning nature devoid of reason, that it is subjected to man by God, the Prophet says: *You have subjected all things under his feet*. Likewise, C
when he makes mention of those who are saved through knowledge, he says, as though speaking in the person of God: *To me the foreigners have been subjected*; so that it seems highly appropriate to that which we have examined in the sixty-first Psalm, through the words: *Shall not my soul be subjected to God?* A Added to all these is that which is brought forward against us by the adversaries from the Epistle to the Corinthians, namely: *Then the Son himself shall be subjected to him who subjected all things to him*. Since, therefore, the meaning of this term is carried into many concepts, it would be well, if we have distinguished each of these by itself, to recognize to which meaning of subjection the Apostle’s utterance properly belongs. B We say, therefore, that in the case of those who have been subdued via warfare to the power of the victors, the meaning of subjection indicates an unwilling and forced submission to the one by whom they were defeated. For if some power should come to the captives, showing a hope that they might become superior to those who defeated them, they rise up again against their masters, judging it an insult and a disgrace to be subjected to their enemies. Again, irrational creatures are subordinate to rational beings in another way, C because their nature lacks the greatest of goods, that is, reason. Whereby it is necessary for that which is inferior to be subject to that which has obtained more ample and better gifts of nature. Those, however, who are held by the yoke of servitude according to some legitimate chain of events, even if they have an equal nature, since they cannot resist the law, are relegated to the order of the subjected, as they are led to subjection by an inescapable necessity. But the goal of our subjection to God is our salvation, as we have learned from the prophecy which says: *Be subjected to God, O my soul, for from him is my salvation*. When, therefore, the voice of the Apostle is brought forward by our opponents, saying that the Son D will be subjected to the Father, it would be logical, once the meaning of such a word has been distinguished, to ask them toward which meaning of subjection they are looking when they think it right to apply this word to the Only-Begotten God. But it is clear that they would not say they understand the Son's subjection in any of the ways mentioned. For he did not come into the power of his enemy by war as an enemy, in such a way that there might be hope and zeal for him to rise up against his master again; nor does he have a subjection that is necessary by nature—as in the case of the irrational creatures—due to a deficiency of the good, as sheep and cattle and oxen are to man; nor, like purchased slaves or home-born servants enslaved by law, does he await the time when he might, by the mercy or grace of the master, be freed from the yoke of servitude. Nor, with the goal of salvation proposed to him, would anyone say that the Only-Begotten God is subject to the Father, so that by that means he might procure salvation for himself from God, as men do. For in a mutable nature, which acquires the good by communication and participation, it is necessary
that there be subjection to God, because our communion with good things comes from thence; but in an immutable and unchangeable power, in which every good name and conception is contemplated—that which is eternal, which can become neither better nor worse, which is incorruptible, blessed, and always the same—there is no place for subjection. For neither does it admit of addition in what is good, nor of a propensity toward what is worse; that which provides salvation to others does not itself stand in need of anything to provide it with salvation.
What, then, will they reasonably say is the meaning of subjection when applied to Him in its proper sense? For it has been found that all the things examined are far removed from being properly understood and predicated of the only-begotten God. But if one must also add that type of subjection which the Gospel according to Luke mentions, namely, that the Lord, having advanced to his twelfth year, was subject to his parents, not even that would be fitting for the true God, who is before the ages, to be said to be subject to his true Father. For there, indeed, He who was tempted in all things like us, without sin, willed also C to pass through the ages of our nature. And just as, having become an infant, he accepted infantile food, eating butter and honey, so also, when he had advanced to adolescence, he did not refuse what was congruent and fitting for such an age, being about to become an example of modesty for the world. For because in other men the mind is imperfect in such matters, and youth is in need of being led by those more perfect toward that which is better, for this reason the twelve-year-old is subject to his mother, so as to show that that which is perfected through progress, before it reaches perfection, rightly accepts subjection as a guide toward the good. But He who is always perfect in every good, and who can accept neither progress nor diminution in himself, by reason of his nature being in need of nothing and incapable of being diminished—why should He be subject? Those who say everything inconsiderately would be unable to say. For that, during the time D in which He lived in the flesh with human nature, He was enacting into law by his actions for youth, in his childhood, the necessity of obedience, is evident from the fact that, having advanced to the perfect age, He no longer looked to his mother's authority. For when she urged Him at Cana of Galilee to show his power in the wedding feast, at the failing of the banquet, and to grant the need of wine to the celebration, He did not refuse to grant the favor to those in need, but He rejected the maternal counsel, as no longer being offered to Him in season, saying, "What have I to do with thee, woman? Do you wish to govern even this age of mine? Has my hour not yet come, which grants to the age to rule and to be its own master?" If, therefore, in the...
A life that is in the flesh, a just and fitting measure of the mother’s age casts off subjection, who could say what place subjection has in the life of Him who rules the age by His own power? For it is the peculiar property of the divine and blessed life to remain always in the same state, and not to admit the change that comes from alteration. Since, therefore, the Word, who was in the beginning, the Only-begotten God, the Son of God, is alien to all progress and alteration, how is it that what is not now comes to be afterwards? For the Apostle does not say this, that the Son is always subject, but that He will be subject at the end of the completion of the universe. Yet if subjection is a good thing, and a thing worthy to be spoken of God, why is that good now absent from God? For it is equally good for both, both for the Son who is subjected and for the Father who receives the subjection of the Son. Such a good is therefore wanting B at present to both the Father and the Son; and what neither the Father nor the Son had before the ages will be present to both the Father and the Son in the completion of times—the one undergoing subjection, and the other receiving through this an accession and increase of His own glory, which He does not have at present. Where, then, is the unchangeableness in this? For that which comes to be afterwards, but is not now, is a property of a mutable nature. If, therefore, subjection is a good, it must be believed that what is good exists in God now as well. But if this is unworthy to be spoken of God, it is so neither now nor at any other time. And yet the Apostle says that the Son is to be subjected to God and the Father then, not that He is subject now.
C Does the Apostle then look to some other scope, and is the meaning of the name far removed from the perverted understanding of the heretics? What then is the reasoning? Perhaps if what is written in this part is taken together, the sense can be more clearly perceived. For since he had instituted a reproving and contentious discourse against the Corinthians, who had indeed received the faith in the Lord, but deemed the doctrine of the resurrection of men to be a fable, saying: "How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?"—to whom bodies after death had gone into destruction in various and manifold ways, or had been consumed by D putrefaction, or by flesh-eating reptiles, swimming creatures, birds, and four-footed beasts—for this reason he brought forward many arguments to them, persuading them not to equate the power of God with their own power, nor to think that what is impossible for man is likewise impossible for God, but to estimate the greatness of the divine power from examples known to us. And thus he puts before them the wonderful operation of seeds into bodies, which are always being renewed by the divine power, and how the wisdom of God did not fail to discover myriads of kinds of bodies in the universe—rational, irrational, aerial, terrestrial, and those shown to us in the heavens, namely the sun and the rest of the stars—each one of which, having come into being by divine power, would cause God at the resurrection not to be at a loss for our bodies
A nor for the mode and method of their restoration. For if whatever things are, were not brought into the form in which they are seen from any underlying matter, but the divine will was the matter and essence of the things created by the Artificer, it is much more possible that what already exists should be brought back again into its own proper shape than that what was not in principle should come into substance and essence. B Having therefore shown in our arguments against them that, since the first man was dissolved into earth through sin and for this reason called "earth-born," it was consequential that all those who were born from him should also be earth-born and mortal just like him—inasmuch as they were produced from such a source—he necessarily subjoined a second consequence, through which man is again refashioned from mortal to immortal, saying in a similar way that a good thing had been implanted in our nature to be poured out from one into all, just as evil also was poured out through one into the multitude, spreading with the succession of those who come after. He used these words to confirm the doctrine regarding this matter: "The first man," he says, "is of the earth, earthy; the second is from heaven. As is the earthy, such are the earthy; and as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, so let us also bear the image of the heavenly." C Having thus strengthened the argument concerning the resurrection with these and suchlike reasonings, and having snared the heretics with many other syllogisms and collected arguments, in which he demonstrated that he who does not believe in the resurrection of the dead does not even admit the resurrection of Christ, he works out an inevitable conclusion through the mutual connection of the joined terms, saying thus: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our faith in him is also vain." For the proposition being true, that Christ has risen from the dead, the thing joined to this must necessarily be true, namely that there is a resurrection of the dead. For by the particular demonstration, that which is universal is also demonstrated at the same time. And conversely, if anyone were to say that the universal is false—that there is a resurrection of the dead—then not even that which is in the particular will be found to be true at all, namely that Christ is risen from the dead. For that which is impossible in the universal can in no wise be possible for anyone. But indeed, to those who have received the Word, this is credible and irrefutable: that Christ has risen from the dead; therefore, necessarily, in the particular faith in the resurrection of Christ, the universal also will have its credibility. D Having thus compelled them syllogistically to the acceptance of the doctrine by saying that "If there is not"—for that which does not exist in the universal can in no wise exist in any individual case—"but we believe that this one has risen, the faith concerning this becomes a demonstration of the universal resurrection of men"; and having added to the argument by which the entire proof concerning this doctrine is concluded, that "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," he clearly uncovers the mystery regarding this, toward which he looks in what follows, by a certain necessary sequence directing the speech toward the end of those things that are hoped for.
A Now, this is the aim of what is being discussed. I shall first explain in my own words the meaning of what has been written, and then I shall add the argument of the Apostle, which fits the meaning I have previously set forth. What then is the aim of the argument that the divine Apostle teaches in that part? It is that at some time the nature of evil will pass into nothingness, being completely and perfectly blotted out from the existence of things, and that the divine and incorruptible goodness will encompass every rational nature within itself; not one of those things created by God will fall away from the kingdom of God, when every vice that has been mixed into beings—like some counterfeit material—has been dissolved through the crucible of refining fire, so that everything that had its origin from God shall become such as it was from the beginning, when it had not yet received vice into itself.
He says that this comes to pass in this way: The pure and incorruptible divinity of the Only-Begotten, he says, came to be in the mortal and perishable nature of men. And from the whole of human nature, with which the divine was mingled, the5 man who is in Christ stood forth as a kind of first-fruit of the common mass, through whom all humanity was grafted onto the divinity. Since, therefore, the whole nature of vice was blotted out in Him, who did no sin, as the prophet says, "Neither was guile found in his mouth" (Isa. liii, 9), and since along with the sin, the death that followed it was also blotted out—for there is no other origin of death than sin—the destruction of vice and the dissolution of death took their beginning from Him; then, as if by a certain order, a sequence was added to what was occurring.
For B always, depending on the diminution of the good, the further one is from the first, or the closer one is found to be, according to the dignity and power of each one, so does it follow in succession. Therefore, after the man who is in Christ—who became the first-fruit of our nature, having received the divinity within Himself, who also became the first-fruit of those who have fallen asleep and the first-born from the dead, having loosed the pangs of death—after this man, who was entirely separated from sin and who destroyed in Himself the power of death and broke down and abolished all its rule and authority and power, if anyone is found who, according to Paul, has become as much as possible an imitator of Christ in the alienation from evil, such a person will follow after the first-fruit in the time of the coming.
And again—I say this by way of hypothesis—Timothy, if it so happens, who so far as he was able imitated in himself the Teacher, or anyone else of this kind, and so on in order, whoever are found following after those who always anticipate and precede them, as the remission and diminution of good happens little by little, until the series of those who follow reaches those in whom, with evil abounding, a smaller portion of that which is better is found; by the same proportion and correspondence, from those who have less of vice, C the sequence proceeds toward those who excel in evil, establishing the order of those who are being brought back to what is better, until [it reaches the final end]
furthest limit of evil, causing vice to disappear. This is indeed the end of hope, that nothing contrary to the good should be left, but that the divine life, having passed through all things, should cause death to disappear entirely from existence, sin having been previously removed, from which, as has been said, death had its kingdom over men. Therefore, every evil power and authority in us having been dissolved, and no passion of our nature any longer reigning, it is entirely necessary, with no other holding dominion, that all things be subjected to the Power which rules over all. But the subjection to God is the complete alienation from evil. When, therefore, in imitation of the Firstfruits, we have all become outside of evil, then the whole nature, having been mingled with the Firstfruits and having become one continuous body, will receive only the good as its head. And thus, the whole body of our nature having been tempered with the divine and imperishable nature, that which is called the subjection of the Son comes about through us, since the subjection which is rightly performed in his body is referred back to Him who worked the grace of subjection in us.
B This, then, as we believe, is the meaning of the dogma handed down by the great Paul. It is time, however, to bring forward the very words of Paul, which are as follows: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; then those who are Christ's at his coming. Then the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God and the Father, when he abolishes every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that is destroyed is death. For he has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he says that all things are put in subjection, C it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, so that God may be all in all." For in the last of these words, he clearly shows by his very language that vice will no longer exist, by saying that God will be in all, as He who is everything to everyone. For it is plain that it will truly be the case that God is in all when no evil is perceived to be in the things that exist. For it is not consistent D for God to be in evil. Therefore, either He will not be in all when any evil remains in the things that exist, or if we must believe that He is truly in all, it is simultaneously shown by that faith which we have concerning Him that there is no evil. For it cannot be that God should exist in evil. That God becomes all to the things that exist shows that the life we hope for is simple and uniform. For that our life will no longer be something to be sought and acquired through many and various things, like the present life, this expression signifies by saying that God will be everything to us—whatever is deemed necessary for this life, with each thing being taken and perceived, through a certain analogy and appropriateness, toward that which is more divine; so that God is for us food, just as God is understood to be—
drink, and likewise clothing and shelter, air, place, wealth, enjoyment, beauty, health, strength, wisdom, glory, blessedness, and whatever is judged to be among the good things which our nature needs, the meaning of the things mentioned being raised up toward what is worthy of God. B And through this we learn that he who has come to be in God has all things in having Him. Now there is no other meaning in "having God" than being united to God. But no one could be united in any other way unless he becomes of the same body with Him, as Paul calls it; for we all, being joined to the one body of Christ through participation, become His one body. When, therefore, the Good shall have come through all things, then His whole body shall be subjected to the life-giving power, and thus the subjection of this body is said to be the subjection of the Son—who has been tempered together with His own body, which is the Church. As the Apostle says to the Colossians, speaking thus in that word: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings, and complete what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for the sake of his body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the dispensation." And to the Church of the Corinthians he says: "You are the body of Christ and members individually." C But he sets forth the teaching concerning this more clearly to the Ephesians, when he says: "but speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love"; as if to say that Christ builds Himself up through those who are always being added to the faith. He will then cease building Himself up when the growth and perfection of His body shall reach its own measure, and there is no longer anything lacking to the body from that which is added by way of edification, when all have been built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, and have been added to the faith, when, as the Apostle says, "we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." D If therefore, being Himself the head, He builds up that which follows as His body, fitting together and joining all men by means of those who are always being added, into that for which each was born according to the measure of the working, so that one becomes a hand, or a foot, or an eye, or an ear, or something else of those things that complete the body, according to the proportion of each one's faith, and in doing these things He builds Himself up, as it has been said—it would be clear through these things that, coming to be in all, He receives into Himself all who are united to Him through the communion of the body, and makes all men members of His own body, so that there are many members, but one body. He, therefore, who has united us to Himself, and has been united to us, and through all things having become one toward
A ourselves, makes all that is ours His own. And the summation of our good things is the subjection to the Divine, when all creation becomes of one mind toward itself, and every knee shall bow to Him, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; then, all creation having become one body, and all things through obedience having grown together with one another in Him, He refers the subjection of His own body to the Father unto Himself.
But let no one be surprised at what is said. For we, too, by a certain custom, ascribe to the soul that which comes about through our body; since he who addresses his own soul regarding the fertility of his field, saying, "Eat and drink, and be merry," B refers the repletion of the flesh to the soul. Thus, there too, the subjection of the ecclesiastical body is referred to Him who dwells in the body. And since all that has been made is preserved in Him, and salvation is declared through subjection, as the Psalmody suggests we understand, we learn in this part to believe from the Apostle that there is nothing outside those who are to be saved. And this the Prayer signifies through the subversion of death and the subjection of the Son, for which reason these coincide with each other: namely, that at some time there may no longer be death, and all may come to be in life. And life is the Lord, through whom—according to the apostolic word—the access to the Father is made for His whole body, when He shall deliver the kingdom to God the Father. And His body, as has been said many times, is the whole human nature, with which He was mingled. And on account of this very meaning, the Lord was named by Paul the mediator of God and men. C For He who is in the Father and who became among men, in this fulfills His mediation: in that He united all to Himself, and through Himself to the Father, as the Lord says in the Gospel, making His words to the Father: "As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us." By this He clearly shows that, having united us to Himself, He who is in the Father brings about our conjunction with the Father through Himself.
But the things that follow in the Gospel also harmonize with what has been said: "The glory which You gave Me, I have given them." For I think He calls the Holy Spirit, which He gave to the disciples through the insufflation, the glory here. For those who are separated from one another cannot be united in any other way unless they are grown together by the unity of the Spirit. For if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And the Spirit is the glory, as He says elsewhere to the Father, "Glorify Me with the glory which I had with You from the beginning, D before the world was." For the God-Word, who before the world had the glory of the Father, after He became flesh in the last days—and it was necessary for the flesh also, through its blending with the Word, to become that which the Word is—He becomes this by taking that which the Word had before the world was. And this was the Holy Spirit; for there is nothing else before the ages, except the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Through the
A Word, he says the same thing here: “The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that through it they may be united to me, and through me to you.”
Let us also look at what follows in the Gospel: “That they may be one, even as we are one. You in me, and I in them, because I and you are one, that they may be perfected into one.” I believe these words require no explanation to be harmonized with the thought proposed, as the phrasing itself clearly expounds the doctrine regarding them: “That they may be one, even as we are one.” For it is not possible for all to become one in any other way, just as we are one, unless they be separated from all things that divide them from one another, and be united to us who are one; that they may be one, even as we are one. How does this come to pass, that “I am in them”? For it is not possible that I alone should be in them, but certainly you also, since I and you are one; and thus those who have been perfected in us will become perfected into one; for we are the One. B This grace he signifies more clearly in the subsequent passage, saying: “You have loved them, as you have loved me.” For if the Father loves the Son, and we satisfy the condition of being in the Son—those of us who, through faith in Him, are made His body—it follows that He who loves His own Son also loves the body of the Son as the Son Himself. And we are that body. Therefore, through what has been said, the apostolic thought has become clear: that the subjection of the Son to the Father signifies the knowledge by which every human nature recognizes Him who truly is, and its own salvation.
The argument will become even clearer to us from other apostolic sentiments. Of these, I shall mention only one, purposely avoiding many testimonies so as not to extend the discourse into a multitude of words. For Paul says somewhere in his writings: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” If, therefore, Paul, who has been crucified with Christ, no longer lives, but Christ lives in him, then whatever is done and said by Paul is rightly referred to Christ, who lives in him. For he says that the words of Paul C are spoken by Christ, who said: “Or do you seek proof of Christ who speaks in me?” He also says that his Gospel achievements are not his own, but attributes them to the grace of Christ that dwells in him. If, then, the Christ who lives in him is said, consequently, both to act and to speak the things that are His, and if Paul, having abandoned all that formerly held sway over him when he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, looks only to the true good, and makes himself obedient and submissive to it—does not the subjection of Paul, which has come to exist toward God, have its reference to the Christ who lives in him, who both speaks the good things in Paul and acts? And the sum of all good things is subjection to God. What the argument has found in the one, this will reasonably be applied to the entire human creation, when, as the Lord says, the Gospel shall be preached in the whole world. For when all have put off the old man, with his... D
A deeds and his desires, and have received the Lord into themselves, necessarily, He who lives in them works the good things done by them. Now, the sum of all good things is the salvation which comes to be in us through alienation from evil. But there is no other way to be separated from evil than to be tempered to God through subjection; and so this subjection to God itself is referred to Him who lives in us. For if anything is beautiful and honorable, it is His; and if anything is good, it is from Him, says one of the prophets. Since, therefore, subjection is beautiful and good, it is shown to be His; and whatever is good, it is altogether from Him from whom the nature of all good things exists, as the word of the prophet says. Let no one, looking to the common usage of the name "subjection," despise and reject the term. For the wisdom of the great Paul knows how to use words freely according to what seems right to him, and to adapt the meanings of words to the sequence of his own B thought, even if conventional usage carries the application of the words toward some other mental conceptions. For whence was the use of this term taken, *He emptied himself*, and, *My boasting no one shall empty or nullify*, and that, *Faith has been emptied*, and, *Lest the cross of Christ be emptied or nullified*? From what usage did he take these for the things he wrote? Who, moreover, judges him when he says, *Being affectionately desirous of you*, by which word he indicates the affection of love? And whence did he show charity to be free from arrogance and pride, because *it does not behave unseemly*? Yet a contentious and vengeful strife is signified by him by the word *eritheia* (contentiousness), although it is manifest to all that it is named from the working of wool, and that we are accustomed to signify by this name the zeal which is directed toward wool; yet Paul, bidding farewell to such cold etymologies, displays whatever meaning he wishes through the words he chooses. For indeed, many other things could be found by those who diligently search and examine the words of the Apostle, which do not serve the usage of custom, but are brought forth by him freely according to a certain C peculiar conception of his mind, not at all regarding custom. Thus, then, here also, the meaning of subjection has been understood by Paul as something other than the common conceptions. The proof of the statement is that neither the subjection of the enemies mentioned by him in this passage implies necessity and involuntary violence, as those who serve custom would say, but salvation is openly interpreted in it by the name of subjection. The argument for this matter is that in this passage the name of enmity is distinguished by Paul into two meanings. For among the enemies, he says that some are to be subjected, while others are to be destroyed. For he who is by nature an enemy, namely death and the beginning of sin that surrounds it, shall indeed be destroyed, and...
it is made clear by this that the power of evil will be utterly removed. But those who were called enemies of God because of disobedience, these shall, through subjection, become friends of the Lord, when they are persuaded by Him who says: B "We are ambassadors for Christ, God as it were exhorting by us, we beseech you for Christ, be reconciled to God," and according to the promise made in the Gospel, they shall no longer be counted among the servants under the Lord, but among His friends.
As for the statement, "For he must reign, until he hath put all his enemies under his feet," we shall, I think, rightly interpret this by understanding his "reigning" as his acting with supreme strength. For the one mighty in battle ceases from that might when everything opposing the good is wiped away, when, having gathered together the whole of his kingdom, he offers it to God and the Father, having united all things to himself. For his handing over the kingdom to the Father has this meaning: leading all to God, C through whom we have access to the Father.
When, therefore, all who were once enemies of God have become the footstool of God's feet by receiving the divine imprint within themselves, and when death has been destroyed (for if there are none who die, then death itself will not exist at all), then, in this subjection of us all—which is not understood as a servile humiliation, but as a kingdom, incorruption, and happiness—He who lives in us is said by Paul to be subjected to God, He who perfects our good through Himself and works in us that which is pleasing and acceptable to Him.
These things, according to the measure of our understanding, from the great wisdom of Paul, so far as we were able, we have thought out in this part, wishing to show D that the leaders of heretical doctrines have not at all considered the aim of the Apostle, toward which he was looking when he wrote the present discourse. If, therefore, the information provided in this discussion has proven sufficient for you, thanks must be given to God. But if anything still seems to be lacking, we shall receive with a ready and eager mind the supplement of what is missing, if you will make it known to us in writing, and if by our prayers the manifestation of hidden things has been brought about by the Holy Spirit.