What does the Creed confess with the statement that he “came down from heaven?”
The Creed teaches that the Word and Son of God came forth from the eternal bosom and throne of the Father, represented symbolically by the Holy of Holies, into our world of space and time, represented by the veil or curtain of the Temple. The Epistle to the Hebrews itself makes this reading explicit, teaching that we now enter the sanctuary “by the way which he opened for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Heb 10:19–20): the incarnation is the eternal High Priest clothing himself with the veil of our humanity.
In the icon of the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel brings the good news to the Virgin Mary, who is portrayed holding a spindle of scarlet thread. According to the ancient tradition preserved in the Protoevangelium of James (chs. 10–12), the Theotokos, a virgin dedicated to the Temple, had been entrusted with weaving a new veil for the sanctuary. Since the veil marks the boundary between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place, it also represents matter, flesh, space and time. Thus, at the very moment when, in humble and wise obedience, she accepts the word of the Archangel, the Theotokos is weaving not only the material curtain of the Temple but, in her own womb, the Body of the divine High Priest: “Therefore, when he came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me’” (Heb 10:5, citing Psa 40:6 LXX [39:7]).
St Paul describes this descent as the self-emptying (kenosis) of the Son:
He who existed in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be seized. Instead, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. (Phi 2:5–8).
Likewise, St John the Theologian writes: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt [literally, ‘pitched his tent,’ tabernacled] among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the Only-Begotten from the Father” (Joh 1:14; see Q139, Q182), the language of the tabernacle confirming that in Christ, the Holy of Holies has come to dwell in our midst.
