Blessed Theodoret writes: “It is clear that the Apostle said all this about Christ as man. For this is what brought him to amazement.
That God should sit together with God, and that the Son should reign together with the Father, is in no way astonishing.
Together with identity of nature there is also communion of authority.
But that the nature assumed from us receives honor equal to Him who assumed it, and that no difference is found in worship, is beyond every wonder.
For in the worship offered to the visible nature, worship is rendered to the invisible Godhead.
Therefore the divine Apostle, marveling at this, first hymns the surpassing greatness of the power, and then the working of the dominion of might.
He seeks names that could express the extraordinary character of the deed.
For he says first, ‘He raised Him from the dead,’ plainly as man. Then he says, ‘He seated Him.’
To show the greatness of the honor, he adds, ‘at His right hand.’ He also indicates the royal palace, ‘in the heavenly places.’
Then he indicates the subjects: ‘far above every principality and authority.’
Having listed all the names of the invisible powers that are known, he adds that, if there are others we do not know now, but will know later in the future life, they all have been subjected to Him.
He also joined prophetic testimony: ‘Thou hast put all things under His feet’ (Ps 8:6).
The Prophet also said this of Christ as man. For he says, ‘What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?’ (Ps 8:4).”
Chrysostom says: “Do you see what He has accomplished? He raised Christ. And this is no small thing.
But see what else He did. He seated Him at His right hand. What word can sufficiently portray this?
The One who was from the earth He suddenly raised to such a height. Truly, the greatness of His power is incomprehensible.
And see where He raised Him. He seated Him in the heavenly places, above every created nature, above every principality and authority.
Therefore the Spirit of grace is truly needed. An enlightened mind is needed to know Him. In a word, revelation is needed for this.
Consider how great the distance is between man and the divine nature. Yet from this human lowliness He raised Him into that divine honor.
One must pass not one, not two, not three degrees for this. Therefore the Apostle did not simply say ‘above,’ but ‘far above.’
Above the highest Powers is God alone. To such a height He raised the One who is from us.
He raised the humbled One to the final degree of authority, beyond which there is no higher dignity.
The Apostle says all this about Him who rose from the dead, not about God the Word as such.
He speaks about Jesus, who came from us. This is truly great and wondrous: from the lowest parts of the earth He raised Him.
He made Him above all, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
‘And He put all things under His feet.’ He did not simply say that He made Him above all, in order to prefer Him to them.
He did not use this word in the sense of comparison. Rather, He gave Him such honor as a master has before his servants.
O truly wondrous deeds! Because God the Word clothed Himself in our nature, every created power was made ministering to man.
But perhaps there is someone higher than He, who has no subordinates, but possesses greater dignity? Here this also does not apply.
‘All things,’ the Apostle affirms, ‘all things He put under His feet.’
And He did not merely subject them. He subjected the subjects completely, so that no greater subjection can exist.
For this reason the Apostle said, ‘under His feet.’”
The meaning of verses 20 and 21 is fully explained by these two excerpts. It remains to explain some expressions.
The Resurrection and the seating at the right hand are spoken of here as actions manifesting the ineffable power of God in arranging salvation.
The Savior remained humbled on earth. He ended His earthly life in humiliation. This was necessary according to the divine economy of salvation.
But do not look at this. Look instead at the height to which He was raised by the path of this humiliation.
The more humbled He appeared on earth, the more evident is the dominion of God’s might in exalting Him above all.
The Resurrection stands as a kind of transition to this. The seating at the right hand is the Savior’s being clothed with full sovereign authority as the God-man.
The Resurrection and seating at the right hand are here referred to God the Father. Yet this is the indivisible action of the Godhead, the Most Holy Trinity.
The Son Himself participates in it as much as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
The seating at the right hand is the clothing with divine and sovereign authority.
God the Son, even in the Incarnation, did not cease to be Almighty, just as He also remained the Creator of all.
The Apostle wishes to say that the human nature also was introduced into this almighty sovereignty in the person of Christ the Lord, being glorified in the Resurrection.
The Lord did not become higher than all things and Master of all things as God, for He never ceased to be such.
He became so as the God-man. The Person of the Savior is one.
Even in the Incarnation itself, He was Almighty also as man. Yet for the human nature to be introduced into this dominion, it first had to be glorified through the Resurrection.
Man is a little world. He concentrates in himself all created powers.
In the glorified humanity, in the person of the God-man, these powers became reins of governance.
They also became channels for the passage of the Savior’s restoring powers into all regions of the world’s being.
All this is the necessary consequence of the Incarnation of God the Word.
When this was resolved in the counsel of God, everything had to come about of itself.
The Principalities, Authorities, Powers, and Dominions above which the human nature in the Lord was exalted are not earthly authorities, such as kings and high priests, as someone once imagined.
They are heavenly powers.
The Apostle does not list all the angelic ranks, since this is not the subject. He lists some, and through them gives the same understanding concerning all the rest.
It is as though he says: above these, but also above all others; above everything that exists, except God.
This is shown by the words, “and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”
Here “name” means dignity, as when we say, “a man with a name.”
The Apostle means everything that has a name, everything that stands out from the ranks of others.
The Savior, seated at the right hand of the Father, is above all this.
Here one also sees the thought that He became higher than everything known to us: Principalities, Authorities, Dominions, Powers, and also Thrones, as he adds in the Epistle to the Colossians (Col 1:16).
He also became higher than everything now unknown to us, which will be revealed to us later, either here or in the age to come.
So say Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius, and others. In general, He is above everything that anyone could name.
THEOSIS