THEOSIS: 3 Conditions (states, realities)

called, called-to in, not of set apart, chosen

catharsis photis theosis
purification illumination sanctification (divinization)// set-
apart
cleansing enlightening perfecting
struggle (acesis) progress wisdom
(increasing understanding)
called-to justification glorification
virtue knowledge theology
HEBREWS 10
English Standard Version (ESV)
10 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it
can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make those who draw near perfect.
[the purpose of the Law, sacrifices, the Temple/Temple worship the entirety of the Tradition:
to make those who draw near perfect]
2
Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no
longer have any consciousness of sins?
3
But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
4
For it is
impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. [expiation, not propitiation]
5
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said,
Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for Me;
6
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
You have taken no pleasure.
7
Then I said, Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God, [expiation]
as it is written of Me in the scroll of the book.
8
When He said above, You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings
and sin offerings (these are offered according to the law),
9
then He added, Behold, I have come to do Your
will. He does away with the first (the sacrifices and offerings) in order to establish [Greek: put permanently in place]
the second (Gods will).
10
And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all. [body He took on Himself & sanctified: human / body He offered & sits at the right of the Father: human]
11
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away
sins.
12
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God,
13
waiting from that time until His enemies should be made
*
a footstool for His feet.
*

14
For by a single offering He
has
perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. [make those who draw near perfect, as above, verse 1]
15
And the
Holy
Spirit also bears witness for us; for after saying,
16
This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts, and write them on their minds,
17
then He adds:
I will remember [anamnesis] their sins and their lawless deeds no more.(memory eternal, Remember, Lord..)
18
Where there is forgiveness [aphesis] of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. (set free, let go forget about:
DONT REMEMBER)
19
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since now we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
20
by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh,
21
and since
we have a great priest over the house of God,
22
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our
hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23
Let us hold fast the
confession of our faith without wavering, for He Who promised is faithful.
24
And let us consider how to stir up
one another to love and good works,
25
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another, all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
26
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a
sacrifice for sins,
27
but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
28* *
Anyone who sets aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
* *

29
How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son
of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit
of Grace?
30
For now we know Him Who said, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. And again, The Lord will
judge His people.
31
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32
So recall (see above) [] the former days when, after you were called, you endured a hard struggle with
sufferings,
33
sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners
with those so treated.
34
[Why?] For [because] you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully
accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and
an abiding one.
35
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
36
For [because] you
have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
37
For
[because]
Yet a little while,
and the Coming One will come and will not delay;
38
but My righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
My soul finds no pleasure in him.
[My soul finds no willingness/no desire in him.]
39
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
---------------------------------------------------------
*
a footstool for His feet
*

the Ark of the Covenant, which He Who sat upon the cherubim touched, as it were, with His feet

[In connection with the Ark, we would do well to remember that the Shekinah, or mishkanot/mishkan, [ ] (which actually means
dwelling place,) was known to be visibly present from time to time above the mercy-seat, between the cherubim. Also shekinato was
the Hebrew word used in that day to refer to the Presence of G-D. It was through the Shekinah that God spoke to Moses out of the
Burning Bush.]
(I Chronicles 28:2) Hear me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of the
LORD and for the footstool of our God, and so I made preparations for building. David says he had it in his heart to build a house of
rest, i.e. a permanent place (Psalm 132:8, 14) for the Ark of the Covenant, instead of the moving one, and for the footstool of our God.
By the latter, he means the mercy-seat ( ) [Greek: hilasterion]. God is often spoken of as dwelling between the cherubim, and
sometimes (as in, for example, Psalm 99:1) as sitting between the cherubim, which were over the lid of the ark. Since the Lord sat
between the cherubim over the mercy seat, the lid of the ark, it was, speaking after the manner of men, to Him a footstool.
But our Lord knew yet another footstool, that is, the one upon which His feet pushed upward His dying, life-giving Body as He hung
upon the Cross. It was at this footstool on Great and Holy Friday, during His last moments of earthly life, there stood those who
fulfilled the ancient prophecy that the inhabitants of earth would worship Him at His footstool. But there is still more. See here there is
yet another, even greater miracle: this footstool becomes in reality, a new mercy-seat, for with the Angels all around Him, in His
human body, still nailed to His footstool, from deep within His pre-eternal Godhead, He pronounces these brief words (logia): forgive
them, that is, release them from the consequences of their actions and those of their father Adam. And at that moment, from this
footstool, mercy enveloped all of creation, and the sins of all the ages were taken away that is, man was set free from death and the
power of the evil one.
Here, the Creator God reveals plainly, for all who have eyes to see, the reason, from the foundation of the
world, for His longsuffering tolerance of so much hideous evil from those whom He had made, in His own
image and likeness. He says, in effect, Let the evil one think he has taken them all to himself. In his
foolish arrogance he will presume them lost in their many and disobedient ways. And so I will go still further.
I will confirm them in their disobedience. But the time will come when I will use his own weapon against him,
and turn his instrument of shame into a new, glorious mercy-seat, and all who then turn to Me, I will rescue,
as snatched from his jaws. Just as I preserved those who looked upwards on the brass serpent, set by Moses upon
the pole in the wilderness (Numbers 21:9), I will set free forever from the evil ones grip of sin and death all
those who look upon Me, set upon the cross by my own creation.
So hear now and understand the words of the divine witness, St. Paul, God imprisoned all in disobedience so that he might be
merciful to all. O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable
His ways! [Romans 11:32]

* * * * * *
from Elder Cleopa of Shihastria Monastery, Romania:
The first law is the natural law, or the Law of Conscience.
The second law is the Law of Creation.
The third law is the Written Law, given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. It is according to this law that the chosen
people will be judged, i.e., the Jews.
The fourth and last law is the Law of Grace, or Law of Perfection, according to which all Christians baptized in the
Name of the Trinity will be judged.
The First Law [the natural law, or conscience] and the Second will remain generally valid for all the nations and peoples on
the earth until the end of the world. According to the First and the Second Laws all the nations of the world will be judged,
except Christians and Jews.
According to the written Law (the Third Law), (the Old Testament), the Jews will be judged.
According to the Law of Grace and Perfection (the Fourth Law) we Christians will be judged. Our law is the Law of Love. And
if we break it, we have sinned more and greater than those who didnt know The Gospel. To whom much is given, much is
required. [Romans 12:28]

Holy, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Mary Magdalene
Outside the Orthodox Church, the name of Saint Mary Magdalene, artistically, philosophically, and,
until recently in the West, ecclesiastically and theologically, has been identified, one way or another, with the
broader area of eroticism. Various artists or authors of narratives with a mythological veneer, for example,
Dan Brown, William Phipps, Chris Gollon, Martin Scorsese and many others seeking, or wishing to invent,
a mistress for Jesus of Nazareth all latched on to Mary Magdalene. However, this is not so strange as it
might at first seem, because for a very long time (even within Church literature) the Magdalene was presented
as THE most attractive and bewitching female personality in the New Testament. Many, even to this day, think
of her as a former prostitute, who (of course) repented as a result of her existential encounter with Christ. Yet
if you examine the eastern Christian sources regarding the Magdalene, you will not find even one that
identifies her as a prostitute.
Nowhere in the reliable historical sources, particularly the most ancient of them the New Testament will
one find mention of these things. On the contrary, in three of the four canonical Gospels, Mary Magdalene is
mentioned by name only in relation to the narratives of Christs passion and resurrection. In Mark, Matthew
and John, she is referred to as a witness of the crucifixion (There were also women looking on from a
distance: among them was Mary MagdaleneMk. 15, 40). In John, she is placed last (standing near the cross
of Jesus were his mother, and his mothers sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene) and at His
tomb (and Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid, Mk. 15:47, Matth.
27:61). Above all, however, Mary Magdalene is identified as one of the first eye witnesses of Christs
Resurrection, i.e. of the new tomb, and in John, in fact, the first (Mk. 16, 1; Matth. 28, 9; Luke 24, 1-12; Jn.
20, 14-18).
It is only in Saint Lukes Gospel that the name of Mary Magdalene is also mentioned in relation to the public
activity of Christ before the passion and resurrection in all four Gospels. At the beginning of chapter 8 there is
a description of how Jesus: went on through towns and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of
the Kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits
and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out who provided for them
out of her resources. (Luke, 8, 1-3)
The epithet Magdalene, which always accompanies her name, tells us that she was not married, because in
that case her name would also have that of her husband attached. It also tells us that this particular Mary came
from the commercial town of Migdal (Taricheae), on the west bank of the Sea of Galilee or Tiberias. She must
have been a well-to-do woman since she provided generous material assistance for what was, at that time, the
uncontestably revolutionary work of Jesus and His twelve disciples.
If this is the picture presented by the original and early sources of Christian tradition, then it is certainly
reasonable to ask: How then has the Magdalene become, over time, a penitent harlot and later, even more? It
all hinges, so-to-speak, on the gradual yet totally unsubstantiated identification of Mary from Magdala with
other women mentioned in the Gospels. First of all, and most critically, with the anonymous woman from
Bethany, who anointed our Lords head with myrrh: an amazing, public act of literal and symbolic recognition
of Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the One chosen of God, anointed to suffer death and burial, happening
so shortly, dramatically and pointedly before He was given up to be crucified (Mk. 14, 3-9 and Matth. 26, 6-
13). This action was interpreted by all of that time as a practical indication of Jesus Messianic status, in
much the same way as Peters verbal confession in Caesarea Phillipi: You are Christ, (the Son of the living
God. (Mk. 8, 28).
The second erroneous identification of the Magdalene is with the anonymous adulteress (Jn. 7, 53- 8, 11)
whom Christ rescues from stoning with His well-known phrase: Let him among you who is without sin cast
the first stone at her (Jn. 8, 7). This was the interpretation accepted by the famous actor and director Mel
Gibson, in his (in many instances) fantasy-based film The Passion of Christ.
This process of gradual redefinition and misidentification of the apostolic role of Mary Magdalene, together
with misapplied readings, incorrect textual identifications, and outright badly erroneous translations, was
completed when it received Church sanction in the west, during the 6
th
century, through Pope Gregory the
Great (540-604), who, in a homily presents her as a model of repentance. Pope Gregory understood the
anointing by the anonymous woman in a positive way, but also identified the anonymous adulteress with the
person of Mary Magdalene and claimed that the spices she used to rub on Jesus feet were the same as the
ones she had previously used on her own body. [?!] At the same time, the seven demons were associated with
the seven deadly sins. Poe Gregory wrote characteristically that when Magdalene fell at Jesus feet, she
transformed the multitude of her sins into virtues so that she could serve God in total repentance. In this way,
the myth of Mary Magdalene as the harlot with the heart of gold was both established and perpetuated.
It is both strange and interesting that the myth of Mary Magdalene as the penitent harlot appears only in
Western Christianity. In the Eastern, Orthodox Church she was, from the beginning just as she continues to
be, honored for just who she really was: an equal to the apostles, a most prominent apostle, an apostle of
the apostles, a saint, and witness of the Resurrection. There is another homily from the 6
th
century, by another
very different Gregory this one the Patriarch of Antioch, who tells how the risen Christ is supposed to have
turned and said these words to the women, including Mary Magdalene, the one who had run to the tomb:
Tell my apostles the mysteries youve seen. You are the first you are apostles to the apostles. Let Peter,
who denied Me, learn that Im able to raise u women to be apostles, as well. (On this, see, Gregory of
Antioch: Homilia in S.heophania, CPG 7385 Gleanings of Text and Theme, JTS 60 vol. 2 (2009),
pp. 531-7). This patriarch and saint of the Orthodox Church is clearly extending the historical role of the
Magdalene as apostle, which can be found in Johns Gospel as it is naturally equated with her experience
during the first appearance of the risen Christ (Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary
Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb St. Johns Gospel,
chapter 20: verse 1, AND THEN verses 11-19. Verses 2-10 are very clearly an addition to the original older core,
interrupting, as they do, the structure of the narrative, and often treated and interpreted by the Fathers as a
somewhat separate narrative).
In the end, the important question is whether this portrait of Mary Magdalene as a leading figure in the early,
first Church really reflects historical reality. The answer is that indeed, most likely she was a crucial figure in
the life and development of The Way, especially if we take into account the significant position she occupied
and continues to occupy in the Eastern liturgical and hagiographical tradition. But one thing remains beyond
doubt or question: there is absolutely NO historical evidence, or even a suspicion, that she was ever a harlot, or
the mistress or companion of Jesus. On the contrary, it is confirmed beyond doubt that she was one of His
prominent and enlightened disciples, indeed an apostle to the apostles as well as their equal. Her
passage through and place in history, which at least sometimes was deliberately marginalized, tainted or even
removed, has now been set in right perspective to show clearly the true importance of the Magdalene Story.
Professor Petros Vasileiadis,
the Theological School of the Aristotle Univeristy of Thessaloniki