John Damascene

In his own words on Ezekiel

• Ezekiel 20:25

  God finds fault with the commandments of the Old Testament, for he says, "I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life," because of their hardness of heart.

  ON DIVINE IMAGES 2:15

• Ezekiel 28:12-13

  One of the angel powers, the marshal of one host, bore in himself no trace of natural evil from his Maker's hand but had been created for good, yet by his own free and deliberate choice he turned aside from good to evil and was stirred up by madness to the desire to take up arms against his Lord God.

  BARLAAM AND JOSEPH 7

• Ezekiel 33:8

  Although it is best for us to be ever aware of our unworthiness and to confess our sins before God, nevertheless it is good and necessary to speak when the times demand it, for I see the church that God founded on the apostles and prophets, its cornerstone being Christ his Son, tossed on an angry sea, beaten by rushing waves, shaken and troubled by the assaults of evil spirits. Impious people seek to rend asunder the seamless robe of Christ and to cut his body in pieces: his body, which is the Word of God and the ancient tradition of the church. Therefore I think it unreasonable to keep silence and hold my tongue.

  ON DIVINE IMAGES 1:1

• Ezekiel 33:11

  For the wickedness of the wicked shall not hurt him in the day that he turns from his wickedness. If he acts righteously and walks in the statutes of life, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of his sins that he committed shall be remembered against him. Because he has made the decree of righteousness, he shall live by it.

  BARLAAM AND JOSEPH 32

• Ezekiel 44:1-2

  But just as He who was conceived kept her who conceived still virgin, in like manner also He who was born preserved her virginity intact, only passing through her and keeping her closed. [Ezekiel 44:2] The conception, indeed, was through the sense of hearing, but the birth through the usual path by which children come, although some tell tales of His birth through the side of the Mother of God. For it was not impossible for Him to have come by this gate, without injuring her seal in anyway. The ever-virgin One thus remains even after the birth still virgin, having never at any time up till death consorted with a man.

  An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (Book IV), Chapter 14

• Ezekiel 44:3

  Without seed the Son of God was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and in the Virgin's womb he formed for himself a fleshly body, animate with a reasonable and intelligent soul. From it [he came] forth in one substance but in two natures, perfect God and perfect man. It preserved undefiled, even after birth, the virginity of her that bore him. Being made of like passions with ourselves in all things, yet without sin, he took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. For, since by sin death entered into the world, he who was to redeem the world had to be without sin, and not by sin subject to death.

  BARLAAM AND JOSEPH 7