Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
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Hippolytus of Rome
AD 235
For that in the head the substance is the formative brain from which the entire family is fashioned.
For to this effect John also has said, "Which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
We who are not of Abraham’s race are called Abraham’s children if we possess his faith. Similarly, I think that the angels and other invisible powers have something like princes of their own in heaven whom they rejoice to call fathers…. Our term fatherhood may now be used in the light of the awareness that God is Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the only begotten Son is so not by adoption but by nature. It is by adoption that creatures also are allowed to participate in fathering and hence are given the name of fathers. And remember that whatever we say of the Father and Son we say also of the Holy Spirit.
Before any discussion we must note that he did not say “from whom every fatherhood in heaven and earth is born” but “from whom every fatherhood in heaven and earth is named.” For it is one thing to merit the name of father, another to have a natural relation [as eternal Father to all creatures]…. I have searched about in Scripture asking whether the word fatherhood is ever applied to the Gentiles. I have found nothing except the twentyfirst psalm, “and all the fatherhoods of the Gentiles shall adore in his sight,” and the twentyeighth, “Give to the Lord, fatherhoods of the Gentiles, bring him the young of rams.” Think by this analogy: As God exists, God allows the term existence to be applied to creatures as well. So we say that creatures exist and subsist, not so as to imply that they exist in and of themselves [as God exists] but as a derived existence enabled by God…. According to this same argument, God allows the term fatherhood to be given to creatures. So by analogy to his fathe...
From whom every family.
That is, no longer, he means, reckoned, according to the number of Angels, but according to Him who has created the tribes both in heaven above and in earth beneath, not as the Jewish.
Then let the high priest say: It is very meet and fight before all things to sing an hymn to Thee, who art the true God, who art before all beings, "from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named; "
