Читать книгу 1, 2 Peter and Jude Through the Centuries - Rebecca Skaggs - Страница 42

From an early time, a number of church writers have commented on the curious notion that angels themselves are intrigued by Christ’s work of redemption. Clement of Alexandria is one of the earliest leaders to comment on the role of angels in 1 Peter; these angels are not the fallen angels, but “angels who desire to obtain the advantage of that perfection” (Adumbrations: FC: ccel.org). Irenaeus says, “There is one Son who accomplished the Father’s will and one human race in which the mysteries of God are accomplished, which angels long to behold” (Against Heresies 5.36.3: LCC 1: 379).

Hilary of Arles has the perspective that the angels are interested because of their great love (Intro. Comm. on 1 Peter., PLS 3:86). Niceta of Remesiana (335–414) asks, “If the angels desire to look upon him, should not [human beings] be all the more afraid to despise him?” (Power of the Holy Spirit, 19. FC: 7:39: ccel.org).

The issue slightly shifts by the time of the Reformation; for example, Calvin approaches this subject from a different angle:

The meaning of this passage [about the angels] can be … either that the treasure we have in the Gospel fills the angels with a desire to see it … or that they anxiously desire to see the kingdom of Christ. (Comm., 1963: 242)

In the Middle Ages there was a strong interest in angels, particularly in the Catholic tradition. St. Thomas Aquinas in fact did so much work on angels that he became known as the “doctor of angels” (Catholic Encyclopedia online). He explains angels’ desire to know about salvation in terms of potentiality and actuality:

An angel’s intellect can be in potentiality with regard to things learnt by natural knowledge; for he is not always actually considering everything that he knows by natural knowledge. But as to the knowledge of the Word … he is always actually beholding the Word, and the things he sees in the Word. (ST FP Q [64] A [1])

St. Francis de Sales, showing some influence by St. Thomas, explains the interest of angels (1 Pet. 1:12): “The angels who see the Redeemer and in him all the mysteries of our salvation, do yet desire to see him.” They see him continually, “with a view so agreeable and delightsome” that although they are satisfied, their desire does not diminish; in fact, it increases (PC).

Pelikan and Hotchkins suggest that the biblical tradition of angels as messengers and servants of God eventually became linked to Jewish speculations about angels and the gnostic cosmologies which understood aeons and daimons as mediators between God and humans (2003: 133).