Severian of Gabala — Commentary on Scripture

Colossians 2:18

Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

What is selfabasement? Saying that we are selfabased [can only mean] that God is great and far above any service we can render to him. Since, then, we cannot get near him, it is through his angels that propitiation comes and we may draw near him. For this reason he spoke earlier of one “who is the head of every power and principality.” And now he says, “Why do you come to elements and angels, having renounced their head, who is Christ?” Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church.

Colossians 2:19

And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

The purpose and view of the epistle is here, as Paul mentions, to respond to the emphasis on angels urged by some. Christ is the head of all, just as the soul is the head of the body. Christ is head of all the cosmic elements. It makes no sense to be in submission to anything else. .

Colossians 2:20

Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

These prohibitions about eating and drinking that you hear from the Greeks are based on their mistaken conviction that you should not partake of anything living. But all this has been given for consumption and nourishment. So, don’t pay attention to what has been given in accordance with their teaching. .

Colossians 3:3

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Our life is hidden until the blessing of eternal life shall be revealed to all, when the glory of Christ shall appear in his second coming. .

Colossians 3:14

And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

When love does not lead, there is no completion of what is lacking; but, where love is present we abstain from doing evil to one another. Indeed we put our minds in the service of doing good, when we love one another. .

Genesis 2:15

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Tilling the earth, keeping the commandments of God and fidelity to those commandments was the “labor” of God.… Just as believing in Christ is a “work,” so also was Adam’s faithful keeping of God’s command. If he touched the tree, he would die, but if he did not, he would live. “Work” was keeping the spiritual words.… The text says “work” and “protect it.” From what? There were no thieves, travelers or people with bad intentions. “Protect it” from what? From himself. Do not lose it by transgressing the command. Instead, he would preserve the commandment and in so doing preserve himself in paradise.

Genesis 2:16-17

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

The Tree of Life stood in the middle of paradise like a trophy. The Tree of Knowledge stood as a contest. If you keep the commandment of this tree, you will receive a prize. So consider this marvelous thought: Every tree in paradise was in bloom, and fruit was in abundance everywhere. Only in the center are the duo of competition and struggle.

Genesis 2:19-20

And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

While Adam had been given the whole earth, he had been given paradise for his home. He could leave and go out of paradise, but there was not a habitable place for humans beyond its borders—only for senseless animals, four-footed animals, wild monsters and crawling bugs. His “basilica” and “palace” was located in paradise. Because of this, God brought the living creatures to Adam; they had been separated from him. For slaves do not always stand in their master’s presence; they are present only when needed. The living creatures were named and immediately sent away. Adam, however, remained in paradise.

Genesis 2:21-23

And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

Did Adam not suffer pain? Did he not experience agony? A single hair is plucked from the body and we feel pain. Even if one is deeply asleep, he will awake from the pain. Here, however, many hairs are plucked out, even a rib torn out, and the sleeper does not awake? God did not remove the rib violently, which would awaken Adam. He did not wrench it out. Instead Scripture, desiring to reveal the quickness of God’s technique, says “he took a rib out of him and he did not awake.”

Genesis 3:1-3

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Do not think of the snake the way he currently is, since we now run from him and are disgusted by him. It was not this way in the beginning; the snake was a friend of humanity, even the closest of servants. What, then, made him our enemy? The declaration of God: “You are more cursed than all the cattle, and more than every wild animal. I will place hostility between you and the woman.” This hostility destroyed the friendship. I say “friendship,” but I do not mean an intellectual relationship, it was instead one which mindless creatures are capable of having. The snake used to serve humans in the same way the dog displaces friendship—not with word but by body language. Since it was a creature who held such great closeness to humanity, the snake was a convenient tool for the devil.…So the devil spoke through the snake in order to deceive Adam. Please hear me in love and do not receive my words carelessly. My question is not easy to take. Many scoff, “how did the snake speak, with a human’s voice or with a snake’s hiss?” or “how did Eve understand him?” Before the fall, Adam was filled…

Do not think of the snake the way he currently is, since we now run from him and are disgusted by him. It was not this way in the beginning; the snake was a friend of humanity, even the closest of servants. What, then, made him our enemy? The declaration of God: “You are more cursed than all the cattle, and more than every wild animal. I will place hostility between you and the woman.” This hostility destroyed the friendship. I say “friendship,” but I do not mean an intellectual relationship, it was instead one which mindless creatures are capable of having. The snake used to serve humans in the same way the dog displaces friendship—not with word but by body language. Since it was a creature who held such great closeness to humanity, the snake was a convenient tool for the devil.…So the devil spoke through the snake in order to deceive Adam. Please hear me in love and do not receive my words carelessly. My question is not easy to take. Many scoff, “how did the snake speak, with a human’s voice or with a snake’s hiss?” or “how did Eve understand him?” Before the fall, Adam was filled with wisdom, discernment and prophecy.… When the devil noticed the snake’s intelligence and Adam’s high opinion of it (Adam considered the snake very wise), the devil spoke through the snake so that Adam would think that the snake, being intelligent, was able to imitate even human speech.

Genesis 19:1

And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;

Scripture seems to have made no mention at all of angels before the flood. Only now [does it mention angels], as though seeing fit to have instructed people abundantly, by the length of the time past, to regard as God and Lord of the universe only that one Being who had made the created universe and supplied human beings, beginning with Adam, with the appropriate knowledge. [This knowledge was supplied] by his providence and through a variety of visions, guiding its transmission from the first people to those who followed in order.

Hebrews 1:1

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

“In many ways,” that is, according to the differences of the times in which the promises concerning us were imparted, such as at the creation of Adam, at the time of Cain, in the days of Noah, at the time of Abraham, at the time before the law, at the time after the law. For many are the manners of God’s administration on our behalf. And “in a variety of ways,” because one commandment was given to Adam, another to Noah, yet another to Abraham, and another through Moses, and yet different ones through the prophets.

Hebrews 1:2

Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

“He spoke to us in his Son,” instead of “by the Son.” For he did not speak in him as an instrument but rather through him as one indwelling the flesh.… For when he had said, “He has spoken to us in his Son whom he appointed as an heir”—not “created as an heir”—he applied the word to his existence before the ages. And he does this intelligently, now leading us up into theology, now bringing us down into the incarnation.

Hebrews 1:3 · 3 passages

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Seeking to present more clearly that the Word was begotten of the essence of the Father, he makes mention of the “radiance.” For the radiance is from the essence of that of which it is an efflux of light, and it is continuously conceived both from it and never apart from that of which it is the radiance. But since “radiance” implies a lesser nature than that of which it is the radiance and existence not in the same nature, he uses a different word and states that Christ is “the exact image of his nature.” The first phrase (“radiance of his glory”) demonstrates that Christ cannot be separated from the essence as God; the second phrase (“exact image of his nature”) proves that he is not without God’s nature. For just as John, calling Christ “the Word,” adds, “he was with God and was God,” so also Paul, having said “radiance,” added, “and the exact image of his nature.”

Even if the Word became flesh, he nonetheless was in the glory and nature of divinity and was not kept far from the highest thrones of God the Father. And although “he was made a little lower than the angels” because of the measure of his humanity—for human nature is subordinate to the glory of the angels—he was still “above every name that is named.”

This is what Jeremiah calls “his strong works of words.”

Hebrews 1:5-7

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

For just as in the matter of “radiance” and “exact image of his nature” he imitated John, calling him “the Word” and saying that he was God, so also here he imitated John. Just as John said, “This one was in the beginning, all things were created through him,” so also does Paul, although he says, “these things were not” instead of saying, “This one was.” “To the angels is said, ‘who makes them’; but to the Son, ‘your throne.’ ” This proves the point: That which was made was not in existence previously, but he who has an eternal throne always was with his Father.

Hebrews 1:11-13

They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;

He does not say that a change of nature took place, but by way of comparison, that he permits these things to be destroyed and they do perish in contrast to the eternity of the Son. For also the Lord, when predicting his second coming, says “the stars will fall” and there will no longer be sun or moon or heavens.“But to what angel has he ever said?” Leaving aside all the rest of creation he speaks about that which is higher than the rest of creation, namely, the angels. For if the Son differed from the angels in that they were created but he was not, how much more does he differ from all invisible things? And one must demonstrate in addition that he revealed through the statement “but you are the same” Christ’s eternal existence and the immutability of his nature. Through the phrase “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve” he shows that the Son is not a servant, but a fellow worker with God.

Hebrews 2:9

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

He calls it the age to come. Then he adds at last, “we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see Jesus made lower than the angels.” Then he applies to Jesus the question, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” For the things common to humanity belong to him. But as the Son himself says, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings I will establish praise for the sake of your enemies” and “I will see the heavens, the works of your fingers.” No one would say that the man God remembered had made “the praise established from the mouth of babes and infants for the sake of your enemies” and “I will see the heavens, the works of your fingers.” This one remembered humanity and lowered himself a little lower than the angels. But who is the “man”? Jesus. Because of the suffering of his death, “he was made a little lower than the angels.”

Hebrews 3:13

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

He introduces the present age as one day.