Word and Spirit: the "Everlasting Arms" of God

(Friday, March 1, 2013, 9:07 AM)

In the OT we find what may seem an obscure reference to the "eternal arms" of God:

“The everlasting God is a refuge, and underneath [you] are [his] eternal arms ...” (Deut 33:27)

I have already amply argued, in a remote thread (beliefnet, "The Everlasting Arms of God") that the "eternal arms" of God are His Word and His Spirit.

If there was any doubt on this, a verse in Psalms makes perfectly clear what God's "arms" are:

“By the Lord’s word [dabar] the heavens were made; and by the breath [ruwach] of his mouth all their host.” (Psalm 33:6)

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons (+ c. 202 AD) took up this image of the Word/Logos/Dabar an of the Spirit/Pneuma/Ruwach as the two arms (or hands) of God over and over and over ...

"Now man is a mixed organization of soul and flesh, who was formed after the likeness of God, and moulded by His hands, that is, by the Son and Holy Spirit ..." (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies, IV, pref. 4)

"For God did not stand in need of these [beings, the angels], in order to the accomplishing of what He had Himself determined with Himself beforehand should be done, as if He did not possess His own hands. For with Him were always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom, freely and spontaneously, He made all things ..." (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies, IV, 20.1)

"For never at any time did Adam escape the hands [Viz., the Son and the Spirit.] of God, to whom the Father speaking, said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” And for this reason in the last times (fine), not by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but by the good pleasure of the Father, [John i. 13] His hands formed a living man, in order that Adam might be created [again] after the image and likeness of God." (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies, V, 1.3)

"For by means of the very same hands through which they were moulded at the beginning, did they receive this translation and assumption. For in Adam the hands of God had become accustomed to set in order, to rule, and to sustain His own workmanship, and to bring it and place it where they pleased." (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies, V, 5.1)

"And therefore throughout all time, man, having been moulded at the beginning by the hands of God, that is, of the Son and of the Spirit, is made after the image and likeness of God ..." (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies, V, 28.4)

"And, since God is rational [logikos], therefore by (the) Word [Logos] He created the things that were made; and God is Spirit [Pneuma], and by (the) Spirit He adorned all things: as also the prophet says: By the word of the Lord were the heavens established, and by his spirit all their power. [Ps. 33:6 LXX]" (Irenaeus, Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, 5)

"But man He formed with His own hands, taking from the earth that which was purest and finest, and mingling in measure His own power with the earth. For He traced His own form on the formation, that that which should be seen should be of divine form: for (as) the image of God was man formed and set on the earth. And that he might become living, He breathed on his face the breath of life; that both for the breath and for the formation man should be like unto God." (Irenaeus, Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, 11)

... then, unfortunately, Origen (184/5–253/4), with his "three hypostases" and with his "eternal generation of the Son" started the abominable distortion ...

... and the Cappadocian scoundrels (active in the 2^nd half of the 4^th century AD) completed the job with their abominable trinitarian idol ...