105. Nun.

"Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths" (ver. 105). The word "lantern" appears in the word "light;" "my feet" are also repeated in "my paths." What then meaneth "Thy Word"? ¹ Is it He who was in the beginning God with God, that is, the Word by whom all things were made? It is not thus. For that Word is a light, but is not a lantern. For a lantern is a creature, not a creator; and it is lighted by participation of an unchangeable light....For no creature, howsoever rational and intellectual, is lighted by itself, but is lighted by participation of eternal Truth: although sometimes day is spoken of, not meaning the Lord, but that "day which the Lord hath made," ² and on account of which it is said, "Come unto Him, and be lightened." ³ On account of which participation, inasmuch as the Mediator Himself became Man, He is styled lantern in the Apocalypse. ⁴ But this sense is a solitary one; for it cannot be divinely spoken of any of the saints, nor in any wise lawfully said of any, "The Word was made flesh," ⁵ save of the "one Mediator between God and men." ⁶ Since therefore the only-begotten Word, coequal with the Father, is styled a light; and man when enlightened by the Word is also called a light, who is styled also a lantern, as John, as the Apostles; and since no man of these is the Word, and that Word by whom they were enlightened is not a lantern; what is this word, which is thus called a light and a lantern at the same time, save we understand the word which was sent unto the Prophets, or which was preached through the Apostles; not Christ the Word, but the word of Christ, of which it is written, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God"? ⁷ For the Apostle Peter also, comparing the prophetical word to a lantern, saith, "whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lantern, that shineth in a dark place." ⁸ What, therefore, he here saith, "Thy word" is the word which is contained in all the holy Scriptures.