Right-hand seat and ministry; redemption by his own blood
“Now the main point on what is being said: we have such a high priest who sat at the right of the throne of majesty in the heavens, a minister of the holies and of the true tent which the Lord pitched and not a human.” (Hebrews 8:1–2) Having come there he brings forward to God and Father those who believe in him, sanctified through the Spirit: “for no one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) And that although he is said to minister he is not less than the Father, it shows further clearly by his being seated on the divine thrones and sitting at the right of the one who begot him. But if someone should say, calumniating the truth, that yes a human has sat privately at the Father’s right, joined to the Word only by equality of dignity, he no longer says the highest throne belongs to the holy Trinity in an only-begotten way, but already some fourth, recent and created god is inserted among us.
“But Christ, having arrived as high priest of the coming goods, through the greater and more perfect tent, not handmade… and through his own blood entered once for all into the holies, having found eternal redemption.” (Hebrews 9:11–12) How then would the one at the Father’s right as God be said to have his own blood, unless we have believed that the Son from God the Father by nature has also been styled son of man, and giving his own blood as exchange for the life of all, found for the world this redemption unto the age?
Greek
«Κεφάλαιον δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς λεγομένοις, τοιοῦτον ἔχομεν ἀρχιερέα ὃς ἐκάθισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ θρόνου τῆς μεγαλωσύνης ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, τῶν ἁγίων λειτουργὸς καὶ τῆς σκηνῆς τῆς ἀληθινῆς ἣν ἔπηξεν ὁ Κύριος καὶ οὐκ ἄνθρωπος.» ἐκεῖ γεγονὼς προσκομίζει τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρὶ τοὺς εἰς αὐτὸν πιστεύοντας, ἡγιασμένους δηλονότι διὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος· «οὐδεὶς γὰρ ἔρχεται, φησί, πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα εἰ μὴ δι’ ἐμοῦ.» ὅτι δὲ καίτοι λεγόμενος λειτουργεῖν, οὐ μείων ἐστὶ τοῦ Πατρὸς, προσαποδείκνυσιν ἐναργῶς τὸ τοῖς θείοις αὐτὸν ἐνιδρῦσθαι θώκοις καὶ ἐν δεξιᾷ καθῆσθαι τοῦ γεγεννηκότος. εἰ δέ τις λέγοι συκοφαντῶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ὅτι ναὶ κεκάθικεν ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἰδικῶς ἄνθρωπος συνημμένος τῷ Λόγῳ κατὰ μόνην τὴν ἰσότητα τῆς ἀξίας, οὐκέτι μονογενῶς εἶναί φησι τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος τὸν ἀνωτάτω θρόνον, ἀλλ’ ἤδη τις ἡμῖν τέταρτος οὑτοσὶ πρόσφατός τε καὶ γενητὸς ἐπεισκρίνεται θεός.
«Χριστὸς δὲ παραγενόμενος ἀρχιερεὺς τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν, διὰ τῆς μείζονος καὶ τελειοτέρας σκηνῆς, οὐ χειροποιήτου… διὰ δὲ τοῦ ἰδίου αἵματος εἰσῆλθεν ἐφάπαξ εἰς τὰ ἅγια, αἰωνίαν λύτρωσιν εὑράμενος.» πῶς οὖν ὁ ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ Πατρὸς ὡς Θεὸς ἴδιον ἔχειν αἷμα λέγοιτ’ ἄν, εἰ μὴ πεπιστεύκαμεν ὅτι ὁ ἐκ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς κατὰ φύσιν Υἱὸς κεχρημάτικε καὶ υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου, καὶ τὸ ἴδιον αἷμα τῆς ἁπάντων ζωῆς ἀντάλλαγμα δοὺς, ταύτην εὕρατο τῷ κόσμῳ τὴν εἰς αἰῶνα λύτρωσιν;
About this text
Cyril’s court treatise on right faith for Pulcheria and Eudocia (CPG 5220). One Son who suffers in flesh yet remains impassible as God. English from Pusey’s Greek.
English follows Pusey’s 1877 Greek of De recta fide ad Pulcheriam et Eudociam. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Pusey, De recta fide ad reginas (Oxford, 1877) (Greek · CPG 5220 §§1–48)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.