102. It is believed that the Lord as to His Human not only was, but also is, the Son of Mary; but in this the Christian world is mistaken. That He was the Son of Mary is true, but that He still is, is not true; for by the acts of redemption He put off the Human derived from the mother and put on the Human from the Father. Consequently the Human of the Lord is Divine, and in Him God is Man, and Man God. That He put off the Human from the mother, and put on the Human from the Father, which is the Divine Human, is evident from the fact that He never called Mary His mother. This may be seen from the following passages:

"The mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come" John 2:3-4;

and elsewhere;

"When Jesus saw" from the cross "His mother, and the disciple standing by whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith He to the disciple, Behold thy mother!" John 19:26-27; and once He did not acknowledge her.

It was told Jesus "by certain, which said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee. And He answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the Word of God, and do it" Luke 8:20-21; Matthew 12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35.

Thus the Lord did not call her "mother," but "woman," and entrusted her to John as a mother; in other places she is called His mother, but not by Himself.

[2] This is also proved by the fact that He did not acknowledge Himself to be the Son of David: for we read in the Evangelists:

that Jesus asked the Pharisees, "saying, What think ye of Christ? whose Son is He? They say unto Him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call Him Lord, how is He his Son? And no man was able to answer Him a word" Matthew 22:41-46; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44; Psalms 110:1.

[3] ¹ To the above I will add this account of an incident not hitherto recorded: ²

It was once granted me to speak with Mary, the mother. She was then passing by, and appeared in heaven over my head, clothed in white raiment like silk. Pausing for a little she said that she had been the mother of the Lord, for He was born of her; but that He, having become God, put off all the Human He had from her; and therefore that she now worships Him as her God, and is unwilling that any one should acknowledge Him as her Son, because the whole Divinity is in Him.

From what has been said this truth is now clear that Jehovah is Man in first things and in last, as the following passages declare:

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,... which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" Revelation 1:8, 11.

When John saw the Son of Man in the midst of the seven candle-sticks, he fell at His feet as dead; and He laid His right hand upon him, saying, "I am the first and the last" Revelation 1:13, 17; 21:6;

"Behold, I come quickly, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last" Revelation 22:12-13.

Again in Isaiah it is written:

"Thus saith JEHOVAH the King of Israel, and His Redeemer JEHOVAH ZEBAOTH; I am the first, and I am the last" Isaiah 44:6; 48:12.

脚注:

493. There is no need to pause too long over the consideration that 'days' and 'years mean periods of time and states. Only this need be stated here, that in the world periods of time and measurements to which numbers may be applied are indispensable, for they belong within the ultimate realms of nature. But whenever such application occurs, the numbers of days and years, and also the numbers applied to measurements, mean something which is completely different from periods of time or from measurements, and which is determined by the meaning of the number used, as in the statements about there being six days for work, and the seventh being holy, which are dealt with above; in the statement about a jubilee having to be announced every forty-ninth year and celebrated in the fiftieth; about the tribes of Israel being twelve, the same number as the Lord's Apostles; and about there being seventy elders, the same number as the Lord's disciples. And there are many other examples where the numbers mean some special characteristic completely different from the persons or objects to which they apply. And when completely separated one from the other the states meant by the numbers are then left.