A popular and beloved prayer in the Orthodox Church for the “Heavenly King, Comforter ...” is traditionally related to the Holy Spirit - the third hypostasis of the Trinity, according to Orthodox trinitology. Mostly common in Church Slavonic translation, which affects the specifics of vocalization - the correct reading and pronunciation of the text. The prayer "King of Heaven" with emphasis is given in any Orthodox prayer book.
Origin
The history of this prayer goes back a thousand years. Perhaps a little more. In any case, it is not known to the liturgical charter of Constantinople in the 9th century, which allows us to relate the time of its appearance to the end of the 9th-10th centuries with a high degree of confidence.
Modern use
Currently, it is most often used as an invocation - the prayer calling of God before the beginning of group or personal prayers. In Orthodox everyday life, this is called the “beginning of the ordinary”, which includes, in addition to the signified, the so-called Trisagion, the prayer of the Holy Trinity and “Our Father”.
In worship, it is used as stichera at the vespers dedicated to the feast of Pentecost or the Day of the Holy Trinity. Probably, it was from the temple service that the prayer “King of Heaven” was transferred to the tradition of cell and home prayer practice.
The authorship and sources of the origin of this prayer, unfortunately, are unknown. It may equally well be the creation of a hermit monk, emperor-hymnographer, or an adaptation of the “heretical” prayer, first born, for example, in iconoclastic circles. Such precedents in Orthodox hymnography are not uncommon.
Orthodox interpretation
“Heavenly King” is a prayer, the text of which is filled with dogmatic meaning for the Orthodox consciousness. As already noted, this conversion is addressed to the Holy Spirit. It is important to consider that the Orthodox faith, being monotheistic, recognizes the three hypostases of the One God. Each hypostasis is allowed to be addressed separately, as an individual. At the same time, their essential unity is postulated.
Heavenly King - the title that is bestowed by the Almighty. The extrapolation to God of earthly political regalia dates back to Judaism, where God Yahweh is called the sovereign who sits on the cherubim as on a throne (see Psalm 79: 2). Another source supporting this title is the Roman Empire, in which Caesar concentrates the fullness of power and authority. Accordingly, the sphere of the divine is likened to a kingdom with the Emperor God at the head. This can also be seen in the examples of iconography, where Christ is depicted sitting on the throne in royal clothing. And by virtue of essential unity, royal dignity is appropriated to all persons of the Trinity.
Further, God is called the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, omnipresent and fulfilling. The latter definition means filling with oneself the entire space in the universe, and not fulfilling all human desires.
Treasure chest and Lifegiver - final epithets and titles. They are followed by a request for the descent: "Come and dwell in us." Otherwise, it can be translated as "dwell among us." This is the key phrase in all prayer. Its semantics lies in the prophecy of the prophet Joel about the outpouring of the Spirit and its prophetic gifts (see Joel 2: 28-30). According to the Orthodox doctrine, this prophecy was fulfilled on the fiftieth day after the ascension of Christ. Recounting these events, the book of Acts reports that Christ, "... being lifted up with the right hand of God and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he poured out ..." (Acts 2:33). Thus, the prayer “King of Heaven”, as the liturgical text of the feast of Pentecost, is a petition not just for the condescension of the Holy Spirit, but for the outpouring of His presence, the charismatic anointing and the message of the mysterious gift. The New Testament tradition refers to this anointing of the Spirit by the prophecies of John the Baptist about the messiah who will baptize his disciples with the “Holy Spirit” (Matthew 3:11). Also referring to him are the words attributed to Jesus himself: "... I will implore the Father, and give you ... the Spirit of truth" (John 14: 16-17).
Theology and Applied Significance of the King of Heaven Prayer
In the light of this pneumatological anointing, the “King of heaven” prayer is used at the beginning of any group service and order, as well as in personal prayers to make the offered prayers inspired, filled with the presence and action of the Spirit.
The closing words of prayer are a request for purification and salvation of the soul. These are elements quite standard for Orthodox hymnography.
Alternative pneumatology
“King of heaven” is a prayer, the text and semantics of which are referred to the Holy Spirit - the face of the Christian Trinity God. However, it must be remembered that the very concept of the Holy Spirit came to Christianity from Judaism, where the Holy Spirit was seen rather as some attribute of God, the personification of His action and manifestation of divine power. The spirit was, according to the beliefs of the prophets and patriarchs of Tanakh, an impersonal force or energy of the Almighty, and if personified, it was most often very conditional - as an artistic device. Although there were exceptions, most likely the early Christians of orthodox orientation imagined the Holy Spirit in a similar way.
This can be said on the basis of the writings of the first fathers of the church and theologians of the Donicaan era. This early tradition of orthodoxy, as opposed to the innovations of Catholicism, was preserved by the Arian Church. Even in the Catholic environment after the First Ecumenical Council, the doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit had many opponents, as evidenced by the forced diplomatic silence on this issue of St. Basil the Great, a Cappadocian theologian, who in alliance with St. Gregory the Theologian and St. Despite the early patristic subordinationism, Gregory of Nyssa created the modern Orthodox Catholic teaching about the Trinity and the equal rights of its people.
Holy Spirit as the Wisdom of God
Of course, these two schools did not exhaust early Christianity. Even before the birth of Christianity in the Jewish environment, the Holy Spirit (Heb. Ruah ha Kadosh - by the way, feminine) was identified with divine wisdom (Heb. Hochma). References to this are contained in the text of the Old Testament, where the Spirit is repeatedly called the Spirit of Wisdom, for example: “the Spirit of the Lord will rest on it, the spirit of wisdom ...” (Isa. 11: 2). Therefore, the Spirit, as a personified Wisdom, could be represented by some Jews and adherents of the Christian communities of the Gnostic persuasion as the feminine hypostasis of God. Confirmation of this can be found, for example, in the Gnostic gospel of Philip, where the Spirit is called the virgin.
In Greek, the word "pneuma" ("spirit") is a secondary gender and is interpreted to please the preferred tradition.
Gnostic overtones
Wisdom-Hochma-Sophia, she is the Holy Spirit - one of the most important characters in Gnostic mythology. Summarizing the conflicting information about her, it can be noted that due to the error of Sofia, a visible world of matter appeared - the world of evil. Thanks to Sophia, the rescue of fallen humanity from the captivity of matter takes place. Hints of the original gnostic-sophiological interpretations of early Christianity can be found even in the canonical text of the New Testament: “And Sophia was justified by all her creatures” (Luke 7:35).
Taking all this into account, a prayer to the Heavenly King appears as a prayer to the Queen of Heaven. Virgin Mary, that is, the Virgin Mary, while there is no place in soteriology and on the heavenly throne. This is indicated by the Gospel of Philip: “Some said that Mary conceived of the Holy Spirit. They are mistaken ... When was it that a woman suffered from a woman? ”(Heb. Phil. 17).
Gnostic Attempt
Prayer to the Holy Spirit “King of Heaven”, subjected to Gnostic rethinking, allows us to interpret it as a calling of Wisdom - a feminine divine hypostasis or emanation. Sophia is the Spirit of truth, as she keeps and tells her initiates the secret of the true good God, despite the deceitfulness of the material world and its evil demiurge god. Therefore, it is also a treasury of goods. The last epithet in the context of all Gnostic speculations on the theme of heavenly treasure is much more complicated than it might seem at first glance. But this is beyond the scope of this article. Wisdom is the bearer of life because it is thanks to her that the existence of life is made possible in matter, and according to the Tanah, God created the world through Sophia (see Prov. 8:22). In this perspective, cleansing from all filth means purification from the filth of matter — spiritual ignorance, delusion, and passions. The salvation of the soul is understood as the liberation from power of the material cosmos and its rulers, followed by a return to divine fullness - pleroma. In this situation, the “King of Heaven” is not turned to God. Rather, it is a prayer to the patron saint of heaven - the hypostasis of divine femininity and wisdom.
Conclusion
Of course, such an interpretation is somewhat arbitrary, especially given the lack of real reason to assume the Gnostic sources of this invocation. Nevertheless, the prayer “King of Heaven” is wider than its confessional roots, and by virtue of its universality it allows you to adapt yourself to various theological systems, as previously pagan hymns adapted to Christian and Jewish needs.