Divine Perichoresis in the Book of Isaiah

“And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my Son whom I love; listen to him.’” Mark 9:2-7

“Jesus answered him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, WE speak of what WE know, and bear witness to what WE have seen, but you do not receive OUR testimony.’ … ‘The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.’” John 3:10-11, 35

“But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” John 4:32-34

“And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.’ This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, JUST AS they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.’” John 5:16-30

“Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.’ The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?’ The Jews answered him, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God… If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’” John 10:25-30, 37-38

“And Jesus cried out and said, ‘Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.’” John 12:44-45

“‘If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’ Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask ME anything in my name, I will do it… I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.’” John 14:7-14, 18-21, 31

“I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.” John 14:30-31

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. John 15:9-10

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:12-15

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me… I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.” John 17:20-24, 26

“namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19

“This is what Yahweh has said, the Holy One of Israel and the One who forms him: ‘Ask me even about the things that are coming concerning my sons; and will YOU people command me concerning the activity of my hands? I myself have made the earth and have created even man upon it. I—my own hands have stretched out the heavens, and all the host of them I have commanded. I myself have roused up someone in righteousness, and all his ways I shall straighten out. He is the one that will build my city, and those of mine in exile he will let go, not for a price or for reward [bribery],’ says Yahweh of hosts. This is what Yahweh has said: ‘The unpaid laborers of Egypt and the merchants of E·thi·o´pi·a and the Sa·be´ans, tall men, will themselves come over even to you, and yours they will become. Behind you they will walk; in fetters they will come over, and to you they will bow down. To you they will PRAY, [saying,] “INDEED GOD IS IN YOU, and there is no one else; there is no [other] God. Truly you are a God keeping yourself concealed, the God of Israel, a Savior.” They will certainly be ashamed and even be humiliated, all of them. Together in humiliation the manufacturers of [idol] forms will have to walk. As for Israel, he will certainly be saved in Yahweh with an everlasting salvation. YOU people will not be ashamed, nor will YOU be humiliated for all eternity. For this is what Yahweh has said, the Creator of the heavens, He the [true] God, He who formed the earth and made it, He the One who firmly established it, who did not create it simply for nothing, who formed it even to be inhabited: ‘I am Yahweh, and there is no one else. I did not speak a place of concealment, in a dark place of the earth; nor did I say to the seed of Jacob, “Seek me simply for nothing, YOU people.” I am Yahweh, speaking what is righteous, telling what is upright. Collect yourselves and come. Bring yourselves up close together, YOU escapees from the nations. Those carrying the wood of their carved image have not come to any knowledge, neither have those praying to a god that cannot save. Make YOUR report and YOUR presentation. Yes, let them consult together in unity. Who has caused this to be heard from a long time ago? [Who] has reported it from that very time? Is it not I, Yahweh, besides whom there is no other God; a righteous God and a Savior, there being none besides me? Turn to me and be saved, all YOU ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no one else. By my own self I have sworn—out of my own mouth in righteousness the word has gone forth, so that it will not return—that to me every knee will bend down, every tongue will swear, saying, “Surely in Yahweh there are full righteousness and strength. All those getting incensed up against him will come straight to him and be ashamed. In Yahweh all the seed of Israel will be justified and shall glory.”’” Isaiah 45:11-25

“Thus says Yahweh: ‘The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you [singular] and be yours [singular]; they shall follow you [singular]; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you [singular]. They will pray to you [singular] , saying: “SURELY GOD IS IN YOU [singular], and there is no other, no god besides him.”’” Isaiah 45:14

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Egypt has worked hard, as has the commerce of the Ethiopians. And the lofty men of the Sabeans shall come over to you, and shall be your slaves; they shall follow behind you bound in fetters. They will worship/do obeisance to you and pray to you (kai proskynesousi soi kai en soi proseuzontai), because God is in you (hoti en soi ho theos esti), and there is no God beside you.

"Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11

“Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’” Isaiah 45:21-23

“For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.” Romans 14:8-12

“So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.” 2 Corinthians 5:6-11

“As I live (by the resurrection), says the Lord (Jesus), every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God (the Father).”

They will worship and pray in you, because God is in you.

(21) Gregory of Nyssa

No one initiated in the divine mysteries needs to be told that prophets, evangelists, disciples, and apostles confess that the Lord is God. For who does not know that in the forty-fifth psalm the prophet proclaims in word that Christ is God: anointed by God (45:1). Further, who is not aware that in a number of places Isaiah openly announces the divinity of the Son, as, for example, when he asserts: The Sabaeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be your slaves; they shall follow behind you bound in fetters, and shall pray to you, because God is in you and there is no God beside you; for you are God (45:14). What other God is there who has God in himself and is himself God except the Only-Begotten, let those say who have no regard for prophecy? As for the interpretation of Emmanuel (Matt 1:23) or the confession of Thomas (John 20:28) or the sublime utterances of John which are evident even to those outside the faith – of these I will say nothing.

I do not think it necessary to bring forth in any detail the words of Paul since they are well known. He not only calls the Lord, God, but great God and God over all when he wrote to the Romans: Whose are the fathers, and of whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever (Rom 9:5). And writing to his disciple Titus, he said: According to the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Tit 2:13). And to Timothy he speaks plainly: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit (1 Tim 3:16). (The Church’s Bible – Isaiah: Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators, translated and edited by Robert Louis Wilken with Angela Russel Christman and Michael J. Hollerich [William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge UK, 2007], pp. 345-346; underline emphasis ours)

(6) Theodoret of Cyrus

It is the prophet who speaks here. I do not speak in my own name, he says, but as one who has been sent by the God of all and the all-holy Spirit. He clearly shows that there is another being referred to besides the person of God [the Father]((the person of the Spirit, so as to refute the Jews and the mad ravings of Sabellius)).... For he says: The Lord sent me and his spirit (48:16). Often he speaks of the one God. For example: I am the first, and I am forever (48:12). And: Before me there was no other god, nor shall there be any after me (43:10). He also speaks of the properties of the persons, sometimes of the Son and the Father, sometimes the Father and the Holy Spirit. So on the subject of the Son and the Father, he said: Because God is in you, and there is no god besides you (45:14). And on the subject of the Father and the Spirit: The Lord sent me and his spirit (48:16). (The Church’s Bible, p. 361; underline emphasis ours and comments within double parentheses ours)

Well then, you reply, if He was God who spoke, and He was also God who created, at this rate, one God spoke and another created; (and thus) two Gods are declared. If you are so venturesome and harsh, reflect a while; and that you may think the better and more deliberately, listen to the psalm in which Two are described as God: Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of Your kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness. You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore God, even Your God, has anointed You or made You His Christ. Now, since He here speaks to God, and affirms that God is anointed by God, He must have affirmed that Two are God, by reason of the sceptre's royal power. Accordingly, Isaiah also says to the Person of Christ: The Sabæans, men of stature, shall pass over to You; and they shall follow after You, bound in fetters; and they shall worship You, because God is in You: for You are our God, yet we knew it not; You are the God of Israel. For here too, by saying, God is in You, and You are God, he sets forth Two who were God: (in the former expression in You, he means) in Christ, and (in the other he means) the Holy Spirit. That is a still grander statement which you will find expressly made in the Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. There was One who was, and there was another with whom He was. But I find in Scripture the name Lord also applied to them Both: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit on my right hand. And Isaiah says this: Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Now he would most certainly have said Your Arm, if he had not wished us to understand that the Father is Lord, and the Son also is Lord. A much more ancient testimony we have also in Genesis: Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. Now, either deny that this is Scripture; or else (let me ask) what sort of man you are, that you do not think words ought to be taken and understood in the sense in which they are written, especially when they are not expressed in allegories and parables, but in determinate and simple declarations? If, indeed, you follow those who did not at the time endure the Lord when showing Himself to be the Son of God, because they would not believe Him to be the Lord, then (I ask you) call to mind along with them the passage where it is written, I have said, You are gods, and you are children of the Most High; and again, God stands in the congregation of gods; in order that, if the Scripture has not been afraid to designate as gods human beings, who have become sons of God by faith, you may be sure that the same Scripture has with greater propriety conferred the name of the Lord on the true and one only Son of God. Very well! You say, I shall challenge you to preach from this day forth (and that, too, on the authority of these same Scriptures) two Gods and two Lords, consistently with your views. God forbid, (is my reply). For we, who by the grace of God possess an insight into both the times and the occasions of the Sacred Writings, especially we who are followers of the Paraclete, not of human teachers, do indeed definitively declare that Two Beings are God, the Father and the Son, and, with the addition of the Holy Spirit, even Three, according to the principle of the divine economy, which introduces number, in order that the Father may not, as you perversely infer, be Himself believed to have been born and to have suffered, which it is not lawful to believe, forasmuch as it has not been so handed down. That there are, however, two Gods or two Lords, is a statement which at no time proceeds out of our mouth: not as if it were untrue that the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and each is God; but because in earlier times Two were actually spoken of as God, and two as Lord, that when Christ should come He might be both acknowledged as God and designated as Lord, being the Son of Him who is both God and Lord. Now, if there were found in the Scriptures but one Personality of Him who is God and Lord, Christ would justly enough be inadmissible to the title of God and Lord: for (in the Scriptures) there was declared to be none other than One God and One Lord, and it must have followed that the Father should Himself seem to have come down (to earth), inasmuch as only One God and One Lord was ever read of (in the Scriptures), and His entire Economy would be involved in obscurity, which has been planned and arranged with so clear a foresight in His providential dispensation as matter for our faith. As soon, however, as Christ came, and was recognised by us as the very Being who had from the beginning caused plurality (in the Divine Economy), being the second from the Father, and with the Spirit the third, and Himself declaring and manifesting the Father more fully (than He had ever been before), the title of Him who is God and Lord was at once restored to the Unity (of the Divine Nature), even because the Gentiles would have to pass from the multitude of their idols to the One Only God, in order that a difference might be distinctly settled between the worshippers of One God and the votaries of polytheism. For it was only right that Christians should shine in the world as children of light, adoring and invoking Him who is the One God and Lord as the light of the world. Besides, if, from that perfect knowledge which assures us that the title of God and Lord is suitable both to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, we were to invoke a plurality of gods and lords, we should quench our torches, and we should become less courageous to endure the martyr’s sufferings, from which an easy escape would everywhere lie open to us, as soon as we swore by a plurality of gods and lords, as sundry heretics do, who hold more gods than One. I will therefore not speak of gods at all, nor of lords, but I shall follow the apostle; so that if the Father and the Son, are alike to be invoked, I shall call the Father God, and invoke Jesus Christ as Lord. But when Christ alone (is mentioned), I shall be able to call Him God, as the same apostle says: Of whom is Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever. For I should give the name of sun even to a sunbeam, considered in itself; but if I were mentioning the sun from which the ray emanates, I certainly should at once withdraw the name of sun from the mere beam. For although I make not two suns, still I shall reckon both the sun and its ray to be as much two things and two forms of one undivided substance, as God and His Word, as the Father and the Son. (Tertullian, Against Praxeus, Chapter 13. The Force of Sundry Passages of Scripture Illustrated in Relation to the Plurality of Persons and Unity of Substance. There is No Polytheism Here, Since the Unity is Insisted on as a Remedy Against Polytheism; bold emphasis ours)

The Son Is In Perfect Concord With The Father. CYRIL OFJERUSALEM: If you wish to receive yet a third testimony to Christ’s Godhead, hear what Isaiah says: “Egypt has labored, and the merchandise of Ethiopia,” and soon after, “In you they shall make supplication, because God is in you, and there is no God save you. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Savior.” And the lofty men of the Sabeans shall come over to you, and shall be your slaves; they shall follow behind you bound in fetters. They will worship/do obeisance to you and pray to you, because God is in you, and there is no God beside you.” You see that the Son is God, having in himself God the Father, saying almost the very same thing he said in the Gospels: “The Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” He does not say, “I am the Father,” but “the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” And again he did not say, “I and the Father am one,” but “I and the Father are one,” that we should neither separate them or make a confusion of Son-Father. They are one because of the dignity pertaining to the Godhead, since God begot God. They are one in respect of their kingdom, for the Father does not reign over these while the Son reigns over those, lifting himself up against his Father like Absalom, but the kingdom of the Father is likewise the kingdom of the Son. They are one, because there is no discord or division between them, for whatever the Father wills the Son equally wills. CATECHETICAL LECTURES 11.16 (We Believe in One Lord Jesus Christ (Ancient Christian Doctrine), edited by John Anthony McGuckin, Thomas C. Oden series editor [IVP Academic, Downers Grove, Il. June 30, 2009)], Volume 2, p. 55; underline emphasis ours)

14. We believe then In the Only-Begotten Son of God, Who Was Begotten of the Father Very God. For the True God begets not a false god, as we have said, nor did He deliberate and afterwards beget; but He begot eternally, and much more swiftly than our words or thoughts: for we speaking in time, consume time; but in the case of the Divine Power, the generation is timeless. And as I have often said, He did not bring forth the Son from non-existence into being, nor take the non-existent into sonship: but the Father, being Eternal, eternally and ineffably begot One Only Son, who has no brother. Nor are there two first principles; but the Father is the head of the Son; the beginning is One. For the Father begot the Son Very God, called Emmanuel; and Emmanuel being interpreted is, God with us.

15. And would you know that He who was begotten of the Father, and afterwards became man, is God? Hear the Prophet saying, This is our God, none other shall be accounted of in comparison with Him. He has found out every way of knowledge, and given it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved. Afterwards He was seen on earth, and conversed among men. Do you see herein God become man, after the giving of the law by Moses? Hear also a second testimony to Christ's Deity, that which has just now been read, Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever. For lest, because of His presence here in the flesh, He should be thought to have been advanced after this to the Godhead, the Scripture says plainly, Therefore God, even Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows. Do you see Christ as God anointed by God the Father? (Catechetical Lectures 11; underline emphasis ours)