The Two Glories and the Descent of the Word

In the Gospel, rains and rushing rivers are remembered as coming to strike and blow violently against the houses of those who heard the words of Jesus, being unable to harm or overturn those who turned the words of the Teacher into works, since he laid the foundation upon the saving rock, destroying the building of the one hearing the divine words and not doing them, since he had cast its foundation upon the sand.

Thus having the winds interpreted, God gathers from all of them those fleeing from the north and dwelling in the daughter of Babylon, so that they may be saved in Zion, concerning which the Apostle writes: 'You have come to Zion, mountains and city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem' (Rev 21:2). For only thus will the existing prophecy be understood loftily.

Zachariah 2:12: 'For thus says the Lord of hosts: I have been sent after glory to the nations that plundered you, because I touch you as one touches the apple of his eye; for behold, I bring my hand upon them, and they shall be servants to those who have served them, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me.'

The Lord God the Almighty gives a reason for being sent after glory to the nations that plundered the true Israelites; and since God the Almighty is the one saying these things, the 'after' and 'before' should not be understood in a bodily sense. For the 'after' of God is that which is after his previous existence.

For being unbegotten and eternal, he exists before all, and with him and after him occur those things directed toward the created and his administration, of which the incarnation and his visitation occur, which the God-wise men are able to perceive and have the concept of, one of whom is the hierophant Moses.

Having therefore entreated God to see him known, his manifestation of God...

As he withdraws himself, he himself says: 'My back shall be seen, but my face shall not be seen by you' (Exodus 33:23), 'my passing before in my glory.' During the visitation of the God Word, the 'becoming flesh' and being seen in flesh occurs behind his glory, before such a glory was being 'only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth' (John 1:14).

This theory is also submitted by what was said by the Apostle and those agreeing with him: 'Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, but now we no longer know him' (2 Corinthians 5:16), a first glory existing of the Son, by which the Only-begotten God Word is, the second glory being according to the man-making and after the first, by which 'he was sent to the nations who plundered' (referring to the nations) God's people; the nations plundering those made at home by God, having taken him captive.

And this happens through much goodness; for if as God, eternal and unbegotten, he judged the ungodly, and the whole world went out, descending also and not observing all the lawlessness of those being judged, he benefits rather than punishes. And indeed, the pre-warning and pre-announcing of dangerous things to those being punished through kindness and patience gives a place of repentance to those willing to go out from the impiety they made.

By the same goodness and philanthropy the descent of the Savior has happened, having been seen according to the flesh, so that after these things 'the glory of the Son from the Father, full of grace and truth' (John 1:14) might be seen, so that by way and tomb 'he might be manifested in flesh, justified in spirit, seen by angels' (Romans 1:4); for thus 'having been seen in the world, preached among the nations, he shall be taken up in glory' (Acts 1:11).

Understand if the word of Jeremiah submits this thought, having it thus: 'This is our God, another shall not be reckoned toward him. After these things he was seen upon the earth and associated with men' (Jeremiah 10:10). For such an association with...