This economy, this periodic preparation, is already present in the Old Testament. So Ignatius says: “Judaism has believed towards Christianity.” Here again we have the relationship towards fulfillment. The Christ, the new man, has appeared. He is perfect. The disruptedness of the old man is overcome and death is dissolved. This leads to Christology.

Now you will find that here already, some of the defects arise which will become overwhelming when we come to the Trinitarian and Christological discussions. So I ask you to follow very carefully each mentioning of the Christological problem in the earlier periods, otherwise it is impossible to understand anything of the dogma of the early Church, which has two parts: Christ in heaven (the Trinitarian dogma) and Christ on earth (the Christological dogma).

Generally speaking, one can say that Jesus as the Christ was considered to be a Spiritual being who is pre-existent, and who had transformed the historical Jesus into a tool for His saving activity. The Spirit is an hypostasis in God, an independent power – which of course is completely united with God – but it has the character of a certain independence or hypostasis. The Son came into the realm of f lesh; He accepted f lesh, which had developed independently; the f lesh cooperated with the Spirit in Him; the Holy Spirit dwelled in the f lesh which He chose; He became the Son of God by His service. (” Flesh” here always means historical reality), But there is another idea – and now things become serious. One could say that the first Spirit, the proton pneuma, became f lesh. For instance Ignatius says: “Christ is God and perfect man at the same time. He comes from the Spirit, and the seed of David.” This means that He is not only some Spiritual power which has accepted f lesh, but He, as the Spiritual power, has become f lesh. One also uses other words.