Sunday, June 2, 2013

"'in the name of Christ is implied he that anoints, he that is anointed, and the unction itself with which he is anointed'—i.e., the threefold God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit".

     Douglas Farrow, Ascension and ecclesia:  on the significance of the doctrine of the ascension for ecclesiology and Christian cosmology (Grand Rapids, MI:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 61n74, quoting Irenaeus, Adversus haereses 3.18.3, which appears as follows in ANF 1 (trans., I believe, by Roberts and Rambaut):
For in the name of Christ is implied, He that anoints, He that is anointed, and the unction itself with which He is anointed.  And it is the Father who anoints, but the Son who is anointed by the Spirit, who is the unction, as the Word declares by Isaiah, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me,'—pointing out both the anointing Father, the anointed Son, and the unction, which is the Spirit.
Cf. Sources chrétiennes 34, ed. F. Sagnard, O.P. (1952), p. 316, ll. 23-30, where it reads as follows:
in Christi enim nomine subauditur «qui unxit» et ipse «qui unctus est» et «ipsa unctio» in qua unctus est; et unxit quidem Pater, unctus est uero Filius, in Spiritu qui est unctio; quemadmodum per Esaiam ait Sermo:
Spiritus Dei super me: 
propter quod unxit me,
significans et ungentem Patrem et unctum Filium et unctionem qui est Spiritus.
This is 3.19.3 in the 1857 edition of the Adversus haereses ed. W. H. Harvey (vol. 2, p. 97):
In Christi enim nomine subauditur qui unxit, et ipse qui unctus est, et ipsa unctio in qua unctus est.  Et unxit quidem Pater, unctus est vero Filius, in Spiritu, qui est unctio; quemadmodum per Esaiam ait sermo:  Spiritus Dei super me, propter quod unxit me; significans et unguentem Patrem, et unctum Filium, et unctionem, qui est Spiritus.
ungentem is the reading in Claramontanus =Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin MS Phill[ipps] 1669 (9th cent.) and Vossianus =Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden VLF 33 (14th-15th cent.); unguentem, in Arundelianus =British Museum Arundel MS 87 (13th cent.) and Salmanticensis (15th cent.).  According to Lewis and Short, both (ungo, unguo) are attested.  If I understand the SC apparatus, "et «ipsa unctio» in qua unctus est; et unxit quidem Pater, unctus est uero Filius" is repeated ("iter.") in Vossianus.

Love, the greatest of the theological virtues, is the subject of them as well. It is love that believes, love that hopes.

Ἡ ἀγάπη. . . . πάντα πιστεύει, πάντα ἐλπίζει. . . . Νυνὶ δὲ μένει πίστις, ἐλπίς, ἀγάπη, τὰ τρία ταῦτα· μείζων δὲ τούτων ἡ ἀγάπη.

     1 Cor 13:7, 13.