Theodoret of Cyrus

In his own words on Acts

• Acts 1:11

  Now they saw his nature as limited. For I have heard the words of the Lord, "You shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven," and I acknowledge that what is seen by human eyes is limited, for the unlimited nature is invisible. Furthermore to sit upon a throne of glory and to set the lambs upon the right and the kids upon the left indicates limitation.

  DIALOGUE 2

• Acts 2:24

  Peter said, "God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ" and said too, "This Jesus whom you crucified God has raised up." Now it was the humanity, not the Godhead, that became a corpse, and he who raised it was the Word, the power of God, who said in the Gospel, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." So when it is said that God has made him who became a corpse and rose from the dead both Lord and Christ, what is meant is the flesh, and not the Godhead of the Son.

  DIALOGUE 3

• Acts 2:31

  These and similar passages clearly point out that God the Word assumed not only a body but also a soul.

  DIALOGUE 2

• Acts 2:33

  Who then was exalted? The lowly or the most high? And what is the lowly if it be not the human? And what is the most high save the divine? But God being most high needs no exaltation, and so the apostle says that the human is exalted, exalted that is in being "made both Lord and Christ." Therefore the apostle does not mean by this term "he made" the everlasting existence of the Lord but the change of the lowly to the exalted that took place on the right hand of God. By this word he declares the mystery of religion, for when he says "by the right hand of God exalted" he plainly reveals the ineffable economy of the mystery that the right hand of God, which created all things, which is the Lord by whom all things were made and without whom nothing consists of things that were made, through the union lifted up to its own exaltation the manhood united to it.

  DIALOGUE 2

• Acts 2:34-35

  The words "Sit on my right hand" he speaks as to man, for they are not spoken to him that sits ever on the throne of glory, God the Word after his ascension from earth, but they are said to him who has now been exalted to the heavenly glory as man, as the apostles say, "for David is not ascended into the heavens, but he himself says that the Lord said to my Lord 'Sit on my right hand.' " The order is human, giving a beginning to the sitting; but it is a divine dignity to sit together with God "to whom thousand thousands minister and before whom ten thousand times ten thousand stand."

  DIALOGUE 2

• Acts 7:55

  The divine nature is invisible, but the thrice blessed Stephen said that he saw the Lord, so even after the resurrection the Lord's body is a body, and it was seen by the victorious Stephen, since the divine nature cannot be seen.

  DIALOGUE (DEMONSTRATIONS BY SYLLOGISMS) 11

• Acts 8:2

  And yet it was the body only which was deemed proper for burial, while the soul was not buried together with the body; nevertheless the body alone was spoken of by the common name. Similarly the blessed Jacob said to his sons, "Bury me with my fathers." He did not say, "Bury my body."

  LETTER 144

• Acts 10:41

  For since eating is proper to them that live this present life, of necessity the Lord by means of eating and drinking proved the resurrection of the flesh to those who did not acknowledge it to be real. This same course he pursued in the case of Lazarus and of Jairus's daughter. For when he had raised up the latter he ordered that something should be given her to eat, and he made Lazarus sit with him at the table39 and so showed the reality of the rising again.

  DIALOGUE 2

• Acts 13:30

  So it is clear to them that pay attention that at the raising of the body the Son is said by Paul to have been raised from the dead, for he refers what concerns the body to the Son's person. Similarly when he says "the Father gave life to the Son," it must be understood that the life [the Father gave the Son] was given to the flesh. For if he himself is life, how can the life receive life?

  DIALOGUE 3

• Acts 22:25

  For the divine command made what seems shameful honorable. Thus the apostle called himself at one time a Pharisee and at another a Roman, not because he was afraid of death but because it was fair to do so in a fight. Likewise he appealed to Caesar upon learning of the Jews' plot against him. He sent his sister's son to the tribune to report the plots being hatched against him, not because he clung to this present life but in obedience to the divine law. For our Master certainly does not wish us to throw ourselves into obvious peril. This [Jesus] taught us not only with words but also through action, for more than once he avoided the murderous violence of the Jews.

  LETTER 3

• Acts 28:3

  And so the viper, which drove its teeth into the apostle's hand, since it did not find any entry of sin in him, immediately released him and threw itself into the fire by inflicting on itself a punishment, because it had made an attack against an impenetrable body. Therefore let us fear the beasts, if we do not possess the full armor of virtue.

  CATENA ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 28.3