Christological Trisagion

[Gregory_I]

I actually found some Biblical evidence for the interpretation of the Trisagion as Christological!

Isaiah 6:1-4

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke."

Now, Read John 12:40-41

"40“He has blinded their eyes

and deadened their hearts,

so they can neither see with their eyes,

nor understand with their hearts,

nor turn—and I would heal them.”

41Isaiah said this **because he saw Jesus’ **glory and spoke about him."

Remeber, Isaiah described only one person (THough of course Christ cannot be seperated from the Trinity, but it is fitting that he who would be incarnate would be the one to reveal himself in this manner).

So:
Isaiah Saw Jesus and Spoke about him.
THis Description of Jesus given by Isaiah has angels singing Holy,Holy,Holy to him,
Therefore the Trisagion is in THIS CASE a reference to the person of Christ FIRST, and secondarily a type of the trinity with the common substance being “Lord” in accord with the Fathers.

So, either way you swing is biblical.

 

[Alexander_Roman]

In the Coptic/Oriental Orthodox tradition, the Trisagion Prayer is a prayer addressed to Christ and not to the Holy Trinity, as we know.

This is why they add words like “Who was crucified for us” before saying “Have mercy on us.”

The Byzantine Church thought the Copts were introduced a fourth member of the Trinity or something like that since it could not conceive of the Trisagion being used as anything other than a prayer to the Trinity.

It took a long time for this issue to clear up between those Churches . . .

Alex

 

[Gregory_I]

Actually, the Copts fo admit that Peter the Fuller did add the words to the Trisagion in alexandria, but they maintain th Syrians have always considered the Trisagion Christological. I would like to see some evidence of that though, like some liturgies before the 5th Century that Say something like “Christ, King” or something.

A beautiful Tradition they have as to WHY it’s Christological is that When Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were burying Christ, they had doubts as to his divinity. Suddenly, a Myriad of Angels appeared around the body of the entombed Christ chanting: "“Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal” Nicodemus exclaimed “Holy God! Holy Mighty! Holy Immortal, Who was crucified for us, have mercy on us!”

Other variants of this story say that when Nicodemus and Joseph were taking Christ down from the cross. he opened his eyes and they exclaimed the same thing. I don’t like that version though because it reeks of Apollinarianism. if Christs soul had departed, but the Word opened the eyes of the human Jesus, it seems as though the Word directly animated the flesh apart from the soul, which is of course, apollinarian, although I know the POINT is to emphasize his humanity was never separated from his Divinity, as is the point of the other story.

 

[Alveus_Lacuna]

Really interesting to consider. Thanks for posting!