The anointing of Christ and the bride's beauty

This points to the ineffable glory and beauty of the invisible one, and he foretells the manifestation of that beauty through words and deeds, saying that grace has been poured out on his lips, just as the Gospels also make clear that everyone marveled at the words of grace that came from his mouth (cf (Psalm 45:2). Luke 4:22).

So, he says, as in a pure vessel the divine ointment has been anointed upon him, joined by nature and not by participation because of kinship—not given by grace as it is also to your partakers. And he addresses Christ as God, and says that the one who anoints him is his God, not abolishing the human constitution and the Word's relation to the flesh, according to which there is also an anointing of the Spirit, since the flesh was sanctified beforehand and sanctified again through the Spirit who was present from the beginning and came again. For from the beginning, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you' (Luke 1:35); and again, 'Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power' (Acts 10:38). But if it were not said that the Spirit is joined to him as to natural beauty by kinship, then this anointing would be spoken of as something earned through practice. And where can anyone point to such practice? What labor of learning was there in Christ, so that holiness might be a recompense for labors? Would the Spirit of wisdom come upon him through diligent learning, and would the steadfast and powerful Spirit be sealed upon him through battle against pleasures? It is clear, then, that the anointing is spoken of as something that follows by nature and not as something given in return for labor, and the Spirit was not given to him as a wage to a human being—though even this would be possible, for God gives the Spirit by grace and not as a wage—but as to one who is at once God and man, what was his own was manifested from him and toward him, just as we humans, offering what is our own to God, say, 'Therefore I will confess you among the nations, O Lord' (Psalm 17:50 (18:49)).

By saying 'partakers,' he also showed the reason for the anointing: so that the anointing by participation might go forward, for this reason the anointing by participation also came. For as far as the Lord himself was concerned, there was no need of anointing, since he was holy by nature and became holy, and placed holiness as something innate in his body, and by this brought the human form to maturity. But since this was not in us, nor was it possible among human beings to be holy by nature, but there is need of gift and heavenly grace, for this reason the Spirit came upon Christ, so that he might show us as led from him to participation in the Spirit through kinship according to the body (Psalm 45:7).

The departure of the nations from evil things makes the bride beautiful and desirable to the king. For this is our beauty, and by this we are adorned, and by this we are made close to God, and so greatly do we become sought after by God that he speaks according to his desire, the kind of things a lover would say about the beauty of his beloved.

The bride is near the king, and virgins are near her and follow her, and through her they are made close to the king, like attendants accompanying a bride, young maidens (Psalm 45:14). To her, according to the Song of Solomon, the synagogues of the Jews would most fittingly be second and following, according to 'The first will be last and the last first' (Matthew 20:16), and 'The proselyte among you will rise above you as head, and you will be as the tail' (Deuteronomy 28:43-44). For those who long ago became proselytes of the law in order to be made close to God now themselves lead the assembly that draws near to God, and this is clear from what follows.

For this queen stands beside Christ and enters with him into his holy temple, and she gives the inheritance of the world and the kingdom promised to Abraham to those descended from him according to bodily lineage, with the king willing it and the queen consenting (Psalm 45:15). Therefore those young maidens whom he said were fathers he now calls sons, since they have received the rank of sons and being deemed worthy of inheritance from their mother as sons (Psalm 45:16).

He says the city will be indestructible, so that God will be in it, when the present night ceases at early dawn. For it is night as long as the darkness has not been entirely removed nor every authority and power abolished, but they still stir up warlike attempts against the righteous (Psalm 46:5).

Not even when you were handed over to the nations, he says, abandoned by God, were you handed over in vain, but so that you might know the power of God, who acquired all the nations for your reproof, and who acquired every land instead of one land under his own worship, because by the same transgression, according to the apostle, salvation has come to the nations to provoke Israel to jealousy (Ps 46).