Commentary on Isaiah

Athanasius of Alexandria (296–373)

The one who is [begotten] from another by nature is a true child, just as Isaac was to Abraham, and Joseph was to Jacob, and as the radiance is to the sun. But those who are called children only from virtue and grace are called so not by nature but because of what they have received by grace. They still are not of the same nature as the one who gave them [the gift]. They are the ones who received the Spirit by participation, about whom it is said, "I produced and exalted children, but they rebelled against me." Of course, they were never really children by nature, and because of this and the fact that they reverted [to their former ways], the Spirit was taken away and they were disinherited. But when they again repent, God will receive them again and give them light. He will again call them children who at the beginning had been given grace.

And if they had examined with their understanding the things which were written, they would not have carefully fulfilled the prophecies which were against themselves, so as not to make their city now desolate, grace taken from them, and they themselves without the law, being no longer called children but strangers.

See also

• More works by Athanasius of Alexandria

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